Griffins Continue to Assert Themselves as Calder Cup Favorites

Grand Rapids Griffins have continued to assert themselves as Calder Cup favorites, a Playoff Primer published Feb. 25 concluded, with approximately two months remaining in the 2025-26 regular season. The primer’s biggest takeaway singled out Grand Rapids as the team separating itself from the pack as the league moves into the final stretch before playoff seeding tightens.

The Playoff Primer offered a compact, game-by-game and scenario-driven snapshot of where teams stand with around eight weeks left on the schedule. That snapshot emphasized the Griffins’ position in the standings picture and the way their recent results have clarified potential playoff scenarios, leaving fewer permutations for rivals to overtake them in the Atlantic Division race.

The primer’s assessment rested on concrete midseason rhythms: Grand Rapids’ sustained winning stretches, depth scoring across multiple lines, and a record that the document framed as giving the Griffins a clear path to a top seed. With the regular season clock counting down toward late April, the primer mapped how a handful of upcoming head-to-head matchups and back-to-back stretches could either reinforce Grand Rapids’ advantage or open the door for challengers in the final weeks.

For rival clubs, the primer translated those standings and scenarios into actionable targets for the remaining roughly 20-25 regular-season games most teams will play from late February onward. The document highlighted how single-game results in March and the allocation of home-ice opportunities in April could swing division races; for Grand Rapids, maintaining its current pace was presented as the simplest route to a favorable Calder Cup playoff bracket.

Looking ahead, the Feb. 25 primer positioned the Griffins as the team everyone else will be chasing through March and April of the 2025-26 season. If Grand Rapids sustains the trends the primer identified over the next two months, the Griffins will not only enter the Calder Cup postseason as favorites but also dictate matchup math for the rest of the AHL.