SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League opens its historic 90th season of play tonight, kicking off Opening Weekend presented by FloHockey with eight games on the Friday schedule.
All 32 clubs will play 72 games during a 2025-26 regular season that will run through April 19. From there, 23 teams will qualify for postseason play, with five rounds of playoffs leading to the crowning of the 2026 Calder Cup champion. The postseason field will include six of eight teams from the Atlantic Division, five of seven in both the North and Central Divisions, and seven of 10 in the Pacific.
During the 2024-25 season, 87.0 percent of all NHL players were graduates of the American Hockey League, including Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets; Art Ross Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning; three-time Stanley Cup champion Carter Verhaeghe of the Florida Panthers; and 2024-25 top-10 scorers Leon Draisaitl, David Pastrnak and Kyle Connor. Last season, a total of 891 AHL alumni played in the National Hockey League including 330 who skated in both leagues last year alone.
There were also 245 former first- and second-round NHL draft picks who played in the AHL last season, including standouts such as 2024-25 AHL Top Prospects Team members Dalibor Dvorsky, Bradly Nadeau, Scott Morrow, Konsta Helenius and Logan Mailloux, as well as Artyom Levshunov, David Reinbacher, Nate Danielson, Simon Nemec, David Jiříček, Kevin Korchinski, Marco Kasper, Matthew Savoie, Conor Geekie, Denton Mateychuk, Frank Nazar, Noah Östlund, Joakim Kemell, Lian Bichsel, Liam Öhgren, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Owen Pickering, Filip Bystedt, Jiří Kulich, Maveric Lamoureux, Brad Lambert and Calder Cup champions Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Danila Klimovich, Aatu Räty and Jett Woo.
In 2025-26, 21 of the NHL’s 32 head coaches were AHL bench bosses earlier in their careers. Marco Sturm takes over the bench for the Boston Bruins following three seasons at the helm of the AHL’s Ontario Reign, and Jeff Blashill becomes the sixth active NHL head coach to have won the Calder Cup as he begins leading the Chicago Blackhawks.
Around the AHL, nine head coaching changes have been made since the end of last season.
Calgary’s Brett Sutter, Colorado’s Mark Letestu, Lehigh Valley’s John Snowden, Ontario’s Andrew Lord, Rockford’s Jared Nightingale and Texas’ Toby Petersen will all be looking to duplicate what Abbotsford’s Manny Malhotra accomplished in 2024-25 – win the Calder Cup in their first season as an AHL head coach. They are joined as newcomers by Bridgeport’s Rocky Thompson, Hershey’s Derek King and Iowa’s Greg Cronin.
The Rockford IceHogs will host the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic presented by BMO. The AHL All-Star Skills Competition will take place on Tuesday, February 10, followed by the AHL Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, February 11 and the three-on-three, round-robin 2026 AHL All-Star Challenge that evening.
Since 1995, more than 94 percent of All-Star Classic participants have gone on to compete in the National Hockey League, including Drake Batherson, Jordan Binnington, Michael Carcone, John Carlson, Brandt Clarke, Thatcher Demko, Lukas Dostal, Ryker Evans, Thomas Harley, Connor Hellebuyck, Joel Hofer, Tristan Jarry, Jordan Kyrou, Jonathan Marchessault, Jacob Markstrom, J.T. Miller, Brandon Montour, William Nylander, Kyle Palmieri, Mikko Rantanen, Dylan Strome, Tyler Toffoli, Linus Ullmark, Vitek Vanecek, Dustin Wolf and Mats Zuccarello.
AHLTV on FloHockey (flohockey.tv) features live streaming of every AHL game in high definition on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices, as well as through the FloSports app and connected devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.
FloHockey subscriptions are priced at $29.99 USD ($39.99 CAD) per month when billed monthly, or save 58 percent with a full-year subscription. And FloHockey includes access to not just every regular-season and Calder Cup Playoff contest for all 32 American Hockey League teams but also more than 21,000 hockey contests on FloHockey along with all other live event streams and replays across FloSports. FloHockey supports these events with a robust AHL content strategy that features award-winning editorial and video content throughout the year.
The AHL’s positioning in social media also continues to grow, and the league’s feeds on Instagram (theahl), Facebook (fb.com/theahl), X (@TheAHL), Threads (@TheAHL) and Bluesky (@theahl.com) remain great sources for breaking AHL news, special offers, behind-the-scenes insights and fan interaction. The AHL communications department also maintains news feeds on X (@AHLPR) and Bluesky (@ahlpr.bsky.social).
The AHL’s digital properties are anchored by the league’s official website, theahl.com, which is fully compatible with desktop, mobile and tablet devices alike. In addition, the official AHL mobile app is available for free for iPhone and Android devices.
The 2025-26 AHL Guide & Record Book will be available for viewing and download in the coming days at theahl.com/mediaguide. The AHL Rule Book can be found at theahl.com/rules.
In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League serves as the top development league for the players, coaches, managers, executives, broadcasters and staff of all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers.