Lombardi a mentally stronger player after injury-shortened 2025-26 campaign with Griffins

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Opening up about how difficult it was to miss time with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins both in 2025-26 and 2024-25 due to injury, Amadeus Lombardi feels the adversity has pushed him to shift his focus towards developing different parts of himself as a player.

“You can go at it a bunch of different ways on and off the ice,” Lombardi recently told DetroitRedWings.com. “I think one thing off the ice is I got super into nutrition again and kind of just up that lifestyle -- trying to eat more, get stronger. You can kind of use the time off as like another summer basically, just trying to get stronger, work on things that you wouldn’t have a chance to work on if you’re playing. But then, obviously, you’re out of the game and you miss your teammates. That part is hard.”

The 22-year-old forward prospect finished with 42 points (16 goals, 26 assists) in 47 regular-season games and three assists in seven 2026 Calder Cup Playoff contests. Despite the production, Lombardi admitted being sidelined at various points made it difficult to maintain momentum throughout his fourth campaign in Grand Rapids.

“I think a way you can look at it positively is you’re building mental strength, building mental toughness,” Lombardi said. “It’s something that every hockey player has to go through and unfortunately, maybe my path is just that I’m going to have to deal with it at the start of my career, which is okay.”

Expanding on how he navigated the challenges of this season, Lombardi said it required a commitment to the recovery process.

“I think anytime during a season you go through injuries, obviously it’s been tough the past two years going through that, it’s part of the game and I went through my whole life basically without one,” Lombardi said. “They’re going to catch up to you, but I think towards the end of the year, when I finally got closer to 100 percent, I started to find my game.”

The former fourth-round pick (No. 113 overall) by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft has individually matured both mentally and physically over the years, and attributes the historic success of this Grand Rapids squad to the relationships that were formed behind the scenes.

“Obviously, the on-ice success speaks for itself, but off the ice, just how funny our team is, the blend of personalities, whether it be the karaoke, the joking, it was just a fun group,” he said. “It was just fun coming to the rink, seeing all the guys. Everyone had cool personalities. Everyone was funny in their own way. We just jelled right away. Even with the staff as well, like we all just kind of jelled perfectly.”

Lombardi said the Griffins, whose postseason hopes were ended by the Chicago Wolves in the Central Division Finals, never stopped battling until they were officially eliminated.

“It’s hard when you have breaks between [a playoff series], a lot of time off, but I think we worked extremely hard,” Lombardi said. “We played hard. That’s the nature of the game. It’s the nature of hockey. It’s the hardest game to win in. I thought we played hard every night. We battled, and it’s just unfortunate that we didn’t get the result that we wanted.”