Grand Rapids Griffins Racing Toward Historic, Potentially Record-Breaking AHL Season

The Grand Rapids Griffins enter the final stretch sporting a 40-7-2-1 record through 50 games, 83 points and a .830 points percentage, positioning themselves to chase one of the AHL’s most all-time dominant single-season marks. “Fifty games into the AHL season, the 40-7-2-1 Griffins have the best record this deep into a season in AHL history. With 22 games to go, the Griffins have set themselves up to make AHL history,” FloHockey wrote after its Feb. 24 assessment.

That history matters because the 1992-93 Binghamton Rangers still hold the league’s single-season points mark at 124 points with a .775 percentage in an 80-game format. “Points-wise, the 1992-93 Binghamton Rangers hold the AHL’s all-time marks with 124 points and a .775 points percentage. But that accomplishment came in the 80-game format that the AHL used at the time. This season’s Griffins could top out at 127 points, leaving them minimal margin for error, but their .830 performance has them well-positioned to challenge a record that has stood for 33 years,” FloHockey noted.

Grand Rapids isn’t running uncontested. The Providence Bruins sit six points back and hold a game in hand as the closest chaser, and the AHL table shows Chicago at 48 games with a 26-11-6-5 record and 63 points occupying third place in the excerpted standings. The league-wide landscape still allows for movement, Providence had a 13-game winning streak snapped and faces its own late-season test, but the Griffins’ cushion in the Central Division is substantial, with a 20-point lead over Chicago in the Griffinshockey standings table.

The Griffins’ underlying numbers explain how they’ve built that lead. Grand Rapids tied a franchise-best 19-game point streak from Nov. 22 to Jan. 7 (going 18-0-1-0 during that run) and set a new AHL road points record with a 17-game road point streak from Oct. 10 to Jan. 23 (15-0-1-1), eclipsing the 2010-11 Milwaukee Admirals’ 16-game road run. Their road record is 19-2-1-1 and their home mark is 21-5-1-0, reflecting dominance in both environments.

Offense and clutch situational play have mattered. Grand Rapids has outscored opponents 174-96 overall, is 29-0 when scoring the game’s first goal, and boasts its largest scoring margin in the third period at 69-32. After a dip in January, held under three goals in seven of nine games from Jan. 9-30, the Griffins have rebounded, scoring at least four goals in six of nine contests since Jan. 31 and averaging 3.67 goals per game in that stretch; the team leads the AHL with 3.48 goals per game overall. Goal leaders include John Leonard with 26 goals (second in the AHL), Dominik Shine with 21, and Sheldon Dries and Eduards Tralmaks tied with 18 apiece.

The calendar offers immediate milestones. “More points are available on the table this week as the Griffins settle in for a four-game homestand. They have a chance to clinch a berth in the Calder Cup Playoffs as soon as Wednesday night when the Manitoba Moose come to Van Andel Arena,” Sports Yahoo observed. With 22 games remaining and math that projects a maximum of 127 points if Grand Rapids runs the table, the Griffins have created a narrow path to rewrite the record books; sustaining a .830 clip and maintaining the recent scoring uptick will determine whether this stretch becomes a landmark season or a near-miss in AHL lore.