AHL playoff bracket upended as Providence, Ontario, Charlotte, Laval exit early

The Calder Cup bracket has already been rewritten by upsets that wiped out Providence, Ontario, Charlotte and Laval, and the damage goes deeper than a few bad series. What looked like a playoff field built around the league’s most stable regular-season powers has become a warning that seeding means little once the games tighten, the checks get heavier and every mistake gets magnified.

The turnaround started with Springfield’s 1-0 overtime win over Providence on May 7, a result the AHL labeled the largest upset in Calder Cup Playoff history. Providence finished 38 points ahead of Springfield in the regular season, yet the Thunderbirds dragged the Bruins into a series that exposed the difference between regular-season depth and spring survival. Georgi Romanov was the reason Springfield could keep punching above its weight: he posted a 1.47 goals-against average and a .953 save percentage against Providence, and had turned aside 186 of 195 shots through six playoff starts when the league last updated its roundup.

Springfield’s run has been even more striking because of where it began. Steve Ott took over on Jan. 23, 2026, when the Thunderbirds were last in the Atlantic Division, and they finished the regular season 19-13-2-0 under his guidance. That kind of climb explains why Springfield became the first AHL team to win two playoff series after finishing the regular season at .500 or lower since the 2001 Hershey Bears. Ott put it plainly: there was “no easy road,” and the playoffs have backed him up.

The other early exits have only sharpened the picture. Toronto’s 5-4 win at Laval on May 10 was the Marlies’ first road victory in a winner-take-all game, with Vinni Lettieri scoring the series winner and rookie defenseman Blake Smith scoring in his postseason debut. Cleveland’s series with Syracuse turned into a grind of road swings and late swings, capped by Zach Aston-Reese’s goal at 7:53 of triple overtime on May 3, the longest game in both franchises’ histories. Ontario was gone as well, leaving the field stripped of multiple teams that entered with top-end expectations.

By May 14, Providence, Laval and Ontario had all been eliminated, making 2026 the first postseason since 2014 in which three first-place clubs failed to win a playoff series. Grand Rapids remained the only division winner left after finishing 51-16-4-1, a .743 points percentage that ranked among the AHL’s all-time best, but even the Griffins were being pushed hard by Chicago. That is the new hierarchy in this postseason: every favorite is one bad night, one stalled power play or one hot goalie away from becoming another cautionary tale.