Griffins sign Kienan Draper, add Michigan forward for playoff push

The Red Wings connection jumps off the page, but Grand Rapids was making a bet on Kienan Draper’s game, not just his last name. The Griffins signed the Michigan forward to an amateur tryout for the rest of the 2025-26 season and to a two-year AHL contract that begins in 2026-27, a move that gives them an immediate look at a 6-foot-2, 208-pound right-shot forward and a longer-term piece for the organization’s depth chart.

That matters because this is not the kind of late-season add that simply fills out a lineup card. Grand Rapids was already the first team to clinch a berth in the 2026 Calder Cup Playoffs, locking in its spot with 20 games and 51 days still left in the regular season. With the Griffins also riding a 17-game road points streak and sitting at 49-15-4-1 entering the final week, the ATO gives them a chance to see whether Draper can handle the pace and pressure of pro hockey before the postseason opens. For a club that has spent the year playing with a target on its back, that evaluation window is valuable.

Draper arrives out of the University of Michigan after finishing his senior season with 18 points, 59 penalty minutes and a plus-21 rating in 40 games. Across four seasons with the Wolverines, he logged 40 points, 144 penalty minutes and a plus-21 mark in 133 games, with Big Ten titles in 2022-23 and 2025-26 and Frozen Four appearances in three of his four college seasons. Michigan also listed him as a multi-year Academic All-Big Ten honoree, including 2023-24 and 2024-25, a profile that suggests a player who brought structure as well as edge.

His path to Grand Rapids has been in the making for years. Detroit picked Draper 187th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, and the Red Wings noted at the time that Kris Draper was the one who made the call when his son’s name was selected. Before Michigan, Kienan Draper put up 50 points in 53 BCHL regular-season games with Chilliwack, added four playoff points in 11 games, and later posted seven points in 37 USHL games with Omaha. He also grew up in Bloomfield Hills and played youth hockey in Detroit with Carter Mazur and Jacob Truscott, which gives this signing a local thread that runs straight from draft day to the Griffins’ playoff push and their plans for 2026-27.