The AHL season is set to begin on the weekend of October 10th and we now know that Manitoba will welcome Laval to Winnipeg to kick things off. Former bench boss Pascal Vincent, in his second season with the Rocket, will be looking to build on an incredibly successful 2024-25 campaign which saw his club finish first in the entire AHL with a 48-19-5 record.
Conversely the Moose finished in the 31st spot last season never able to put things together.
Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)
This year’s team will be quite different. We know that captain Dominic Toninato has moved on as has top points producing defenceman Dylan Coghlan who is off to Vegas while Jets draft pick Simon Lundmark, who did not receive a qualifying offer as an RFA, was able to sign a two-year deal with the Lightning organization. Still in limbo is C.J. Suess who concluded a two-year AHL deal.
However, the team should get plenty of depth courtesy of the free agency signings made by the Jets organization. While we don’t know which players will eventually get sent down it will help the group of prospects currently on the farm as well as the trio set to turn pro (Brayden Yager, Colby Barlow and Jacob Julien). They also re-signed three players on Tuesday to one-year AHL deals.
Additionally, the team is still without a D coach as long-time assistant Eric Dubois left to coach in Germany after nine seasons on the bench in Manitoba.
With the AHL releasing the full set of home openers across the league we also know that the Moose will be in Grand Rapids the following week to take on the Griffins on October 17th.
