When the NHL dropped its opening night rosters for all 32 teams, 82 percent of the players named had spent time in the American Hockey League. Nearly 600 players – 596 to be exact – will be earning NHL paychecks this week after having spent time in the AHL.

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It’s no surprise that the NHL’s primary farm league produces such a number of players, but it puts in bold font how important the AHL is to the top level. It also is a good reminder that the vast majority of players who suit up in the league didn’t get to skip that important step on their road to the big leagues.

Among professional leagues, few are is important to their parent league as the AHL is to the NHL. The volume of graduates who go on to make a significant NHL impact makes the AHL one of the very best finishing schools across professional sports organizations. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Winnipeg Jets, two of the top teams in the NHL on paper entering this season, lead the way with 22 AHL alumni on their rosters to start the season. Eleven teams have 20 or more players on their list that have AHL experience.

A number of AHL standouts are set to play prominent roles this season including Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Artūrs Šilovs, who was named the team’s opening night starting goalie. Šilovs was the MVP of the Calder Cup Playoffs as the Abbotsford Canucks won their first title last June. He was traded in the offseason and now gets his chance to earn the No. 1 job with an NHL club.

Five of Šilovs’ teammates from Abbotsford will also be on opening-night rosters as Arshdeep Bains, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Linus Karlsson and Aatu Räty will be playing for Vancouver, and Sammy Blais is slated to play with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While the 596 is impressive to start the season, that number should grow considerably over the course of the year. According to the AHL, last season alone, 330 players appeared in games at both the NHL and AHL levels. By the time the 2024-25 campaign wrapped up, over 890 AHL alumni suited up in a NHL game.

Additionally, the AHL may be best known for its player development, but it has developed many of the coaches currently behind NHL benches. One such coach will be making his NHL head coaching debut Wednesday. 

Boston Bruins head coach Marco Sturm spent the last three seasons in the AHL coaching the Ontario Reign, AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings. Sturm, who played for the Bruins, has been viewed as a rising star in the industry and has drawn rave reviews from players who praised how he ran training camp with Boston.

 According to the league, 21 of the NHL’s 32 head coaches were at one point a head coach in the AHL as well. 

While the NHL will open its season Tuesday night, the AHL gets rolling Friday. You can catch every AHL game streaming exclusively on FloHockey throughout the season.

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