Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
The calendar flips to March this week. More than four months of the 2024-25 season have passed, and the regular season’s stretch drive is upon us.
Let’s break down some storylines across the AHL to watch as the Calder Cup Playoff races intensify.
➡ Can the Hershey Bears three-peat?
Leading scorer Ethen Frank made his NHL debut in early January and has remained with the Washington Capitals since. Head coach Todd Nelson has taken his team to task after a number of home losses this season. Injuries, sickness, and the wear-and-tear of back-to-back trips to the Calder Cup Finals for some players have been challenges to manage. And yet through it all, the Bears are in first place in the Atlantic Division with a record of 31-14-5-0.
A 10-game road trip – the longest in the storied franchise’s history – starts March 7. But the Bears have been stellar away from home this season with a 16-3-4-0 record (.783).
This season hasn’t always made sense in Hershey, but they are once again right among the AHL’s very top teams. They still have a long way to go if they are to become the first team to win three consecutive Calder Cup championships since the Springfield Indians did so in 1962, but they have at least given themselves a shot.
➡ How far can goaltender Devon Levi take the Rochester Americans?
Like Hershey, the Amerks have a long and storied history. But it will be 29 years this spring since Rochester has carried the Calder Cup, and they haven’t reached the Calder Cup Finals since 2000.
Can this year bring another title to add to the six that the Amerks already have? It could if Devon Levi continues to play the way he has.
Levi, who earned Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Player of the Week honors with back-to-back shutouts last week, is 19-6-2 on the season with a 2.16 goals-against average (third-best in the AHL) and a .919 save percentage (sixth). His five shutouts tie him for the league lead.
Levi’s arrival from Buffalo has propelled the Amerks to the top of the league standings. Rochester is 26-7-0-1 since U.S. Thanksgiving and enters the weekend having won 11 of 13. The second-year pro is poised to be a key part of the Sabres’ future, and a long run in the Calder Cup Playoffs – perhaps even all the way – would be another step toward that.
➡ Will Andrew Poturalski take another league scoring title?
Andrew Poturalski is a postseason fixture, but his regular-season efforts have long merited plenty of attention as well.
The winner of the John B. Sollenberger Trophy as the AHL’s leading scorer in 2020-21 and again in 2021-22, Poturalski sits on top of the leaderboard again this season with 51 points in 47 games for San Jose, one point ahead of Rochester’s Isak Rosén.
Only two players in AHL history have won three scoring titles: Bill Sweeney (1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63) and Peter White (1994-95, 1996-97, 1997-98).
➡ How about those Utica Comets?
Starting the season with a 13-game winless streak seemingly buried the Comets’ playoff chances by mid-November.
Not so fast. Since that start, Utica has gone 19-14-3-0 to creep to within 11 points of fifth-place Syracuse for a North Division playoff spot. What’s more is that they have seven meetings remaining with the Crunch. Those proverbial four-point games could swing the North Division picture quickly.
➡ How will the top half of the Central Division shake out?
NHL recalls have hit the Milwaukee Admirals perhaps as significantly as any team in the AHL this season.
But an active front office has brought in the likes of Anders Bjork, Chase De Leo, Grigori Denisenko, Mark Friedman and, most recently, Jesse Ylonen to patch those holes. And so the Admirals hold the Central Division lead.
But they yield four games in hand to the second-place Texas Stars, who are just two points behind. Grand Rapids is even with Texas at 59 points and also ended a skid this past weekend in picking up three of four points.
➡ Can the San Diego Gulls reach the Calder Cup Playoffs?
A month ago it looked like the San Diego Gulls were on their way to missing the Calder Cup Playoffs for a third straight season.
But the AHL is a league of streaks, and the Gulls won their seventh game in a row on Wednesday night, improving to 8-1-1-0 since the All-Star break. San Diego is just five points behind Tucson for the final playoff position in the Pacific Division.
Acquired from Detroit earlier in the week, Ville Husso made his Gulls debut on Wednesday and stopped 34 shots in a 4-0 shutout of Calgary.
➡ How much roster upheaval could be in store?
The NHL trade deadline is set for Mar. 7, with the AHL trade/loan roster deadline following on Mar. 14. There will also be the customary late-season flow of prospects from the NCAA, CHL and Europe to the AHL.
How will the NHL trade deadline impact AHL rosters this year? Does a top prospect depart in a trade to benefit the NHL parent team? Does that same top prospect land with another AHL team? A move or two can alter the league’s power balance quickly.
And will AHL teams make their own moves? Changing up an AHL roster – even after the NHL is finished with its moves – is an option for AHL general managers until the 14th.
➡ Why is a first-place finish so advantageous?
Ask any AHL head coach: a best-of-three playoff series scares them.
Anything can happen in such a short series, and playoff hopes can disappear quickly. Coachella Valley’s run to the 2023 Calder Cup Finals nearly didn’t happen; the Firebirds were pushed to a winner-take-all Game 3 against Tucson – a team that had finished 34 points behind them – in the first round. Last year, the Roadrunners’ second-place finish ended in a best-of-three sweep by seventh-place Calgary.
Finishing in first place guarantees a bye to the best-of-five division semifinals. While teams chasing a playoff spot have their own battles, the top half of the division also can count on a furious race to the end of the AHL regular season to lock down that first-place spot.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.