AHL Notebook: Todd Nelson As An NHL Coach, AHL Coaches To Watch, Calder Cup Playoffs & More

The Toronto Maple Leafs fired Craig Berube this week. Then, the Edmonton Oilers fired Kris Knoblauch a day later. After a slow offseason from a head-coaching perspective, the carousel is in motion, and teams are starting to search for new leaders on the bench. 

It puts coaches from the American Hockey League on everyone’s radar and for good reason. Coaches who have success in the AHL have success anywhere because it’s the hardest league to coach. It’s why Todd Nelson, who is a three-time Calder Cup winner, is an intriguing name for the Maple Leafs, the Oilers, and any other team that might look for a new bench boss. 

Nelson has done it all at the AHL level. He won a Calder Cup with the Grand Rapids Griffins and back-to-back titles with the Hershey Bears. When it comes to the arts and sciences of coaching, Nelson was an expert in both areas, as he could connect with the players and make the adjustments needed to win in the regular season and the playoffs. 

This season, Nelson further boosted his resume by moving to the Pittsburgh Penguins as an assistant coach. Dan Muse gets most of the credit for turning the Penguins into a playoff team but Nelson was a part of the staff and played a pivotal role in the development of the younger players on the team. 

The bonus to being on the Penguins bench is that he’s on the same timeline as the coaching carousel. In the past, Nelson would lead a team on a deep Calder Cup run, and by the time he was ready to interview for jobs, all the spots were taken. The Penguins are eliminated, and teams are just beginning their searches. 

The Maple Leafs seem like a great fit if they end up rebuilding. There’s a good chance they have a younger roster next season with the top pick joining the team and an avenue for the new front office to pivot to a younger team. Nelson is the type of coach they’ll want to bring in to kickstart a rebuild, as he can not only get the most out of the top pick but also prospects like Easton Cowan, William Villeneuve, and a few others in the AHL or junior hockey.

The Oilers, meanwhile, are in win-now mode and have a roster that is aging and trying to win a Cup. Nelson going there would be a full circle moment since he was an interim with the Oilers over a decade ago. However, the fit for him is more about his success in big games. The irony, of course, is that they would be replacing a coach with an AHL background in Knoblauch with another AHL background coach. 

Some of the most successful coaches in the NHL came over from the AHL. Knoblauch is the most recent case, while Jared Bednar, Jon Cooper, Peter Laviolette, and Barry Trotz are some of the coaches who have won both a Calder and a Stanley Cup. Nelson seems like the next coach in line. 

The only question is if he aged himself out of the market. Specifically, Nelson is 57, and most teams that hire a first-year head coach want to bring in a younger option, someone in their 40s who is an up-and-coming name, especially if the team is rebuilding. The other downside is that Nelson will still be a first-time head coach at the NHL level, and teams that are ready to win aren’t willing to take that risk. 

Nelson is the name to watch when it comes to successful AHL coaches. Even if the Maple Leafs or Oilers don’t hire him, a team like the Nashville Predators, Seattle Kraken, or Winnipeg Jets might. He’s the one coach who was in the AHL who many believed deserved a shot in the NHL, and this year might finally be the one for him. 

While Nelson isn’t currently in the AHL, there are plenty of standouts in the league who either have great track records or are leading their teams on deep playoff runs. Below are five names to keep an eye on. 

Manny Malhotra already has plenty of interest from a few teams, including the Maple Leafs and the Vancouver Canucks. While the Abbotsford Canucks missed the playoffs, he coached the team to the Calder Cup title in 2025 and, like the GM Ryan Johnson (who was promoted to the NHL this week), has checked off a lot of boxes while he was in the AHL. 

What makes Malhotra a great coach is his ability to adapt to the team and the situation. He understands the game and can have the team win a fast-paced, high-scoring contest or a defensive battle. It was on full display during the Calder Cup run as the team adjusted depending on the opponent. There’s a good chance the Canucks prevent him from leaving the building because otherwise, the Maple Leafs, who had him as an assistant, might hire him instead. 

If there’s one coach who has boosted his coaching stock in the last few months, it’s Steve Ott. he was a longtime assistant with the St. Louis Blues and viewed as a coach on the rise but needed to remove any doubt that he could coach at any level. His move to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds did just that. 

He turned around a team that looked poised to finish in last place and not only got them into the playoffs but has them in the Atlantic Division Final. The playoff run has particularly shown how he can get a group to rally and battle back even when the odds are stacked against them. The Thunderbirds weren’t supposed to beat the Charlotte Checkers, especially after losing Game One 8-1 but they did. They weren’t supposed to beat the Providence Bruins, who had the best record in the AHL, yet they upset them in four games. They were down 3-0 heading into the third period against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and battled back to win 4-3 in overtime.

Ott got the team to buy into his system, and they are confident they can beat anyone. For an NHL team, this is what you want to see in a head coach: someone who gets the buy-in and knows how to coach in a big game, something he’s done throughout the playoffs. The irony is that the longer this playoff run goes on for the Thunderbirds, the harder it will be for Ott to find a coaching position, as some of the seats might be taken up. 

He led the Bruins AHL team to the best record in the league and won the AHL’s Coach of the Year Award. Ryan Mougenel is one of the most impressive coaches in the league, someone who is in the sweet spot to jump to the NHL after being in the AHL for a few years. He had a talented roster and the best goaltender in the league but he took the Bruins to another level with a historic season. 

While Mougenel and the Bruins came up short in the playoffs, this season boosted his resume. His style is different, and he doesn’t lead a system that works for everyone but he’s the type of coach a rebuilding team might want to bring in. 

Geordie Kinnear is a tough nut to crack; that’s what a few people around the AHL circles have noted when talking about the Charlotte Checkers head coach. It's reflective in the way the team plays as a tough checking team that loves to pressure and generate a surplus of shots. It’s not for everyone but with the right group, his style works. 

He led the Checkers to the Calder Cup Final last season on the backs of a high-pressure system and a tough mentality that the players bought into. He’s a wild card coach because a team might give him a chance at some point. At the very least, the Florida Panthers should promote him to the NHL bench and groom him as the successor to Paul Maurice. 

What’s wild about Trent Vogelhuber is that he’s been a head coach for four years already, yet is still one of the youngest in the AHL at 37 years old. He’s already led the Cleveland Monsters to a few successful seasons and has them in the North Division Final playing well above their weight. Vogelhuber is the definition of a startup coach and is ideal for a rebuilding team to hire. 

The problem is that the Columbus Blue Jackets are beating everyone to the punch. According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, they have an assistant role lined up for Vogelhuber whenever the Monsters' season ends. It’s a smart move considering he’s a rising star in the coaching ranks and someone other teams will want to hire if they don’t. 

It’s worth adding that John Gruden and Pascal Vincent are two of the best coaches in the AHL. Vincent led the Rocket to the best record in the North Division and has NHL experience as he coached the Blue Jackets for one season. Gruden, meanwhile, was a longtime NHL assistant and has put together multiple great seasons with the Marlies, including this season, where they are in the North Division Final.  

The problem both coaches face is that they are older, and it might be held against them. The Maple Leafs can promote Gruden from within but it’s doubtful they’ll want him as a first-time head coach. That said, they should have him around even as an assistant, considering the job he’s done in the AHL with the prospects. 

This list is mostly coaches from the Eastern Conference, which might come off as a biased perspective. It’s worth noting that there are a few names in the Western Conference to keep in mind as well, including Dan Watson of the Grand Rapids Griffins, Andrew Lord of the Ontario Reign, and Derek Laxdal of the Coachella Valley Firebirds. In fairness, it’s hard to evaluate them since yours truly does not know them as well compared to the Eastern Conference coaches who have been interviewed by The Hockey News this season. 

The Griffins had the second-best record in the AHL with 107 points, and they won the Central Division by 20 points. They have their backs to the wall after falling 0-2 in the series to the Chicago Wolves. The Wolves have a chance to close out the series with two games in a row at home, and their Game Two comeback might have been the dagger in the series as they rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 in overtime.

Speaking of comebacks, the Thunderbirds trailed Game Two 3-0 heading into the third period. A shorthanded goal to start the third followed by two in the final four minutes with the net empty, forced overtime. By the time overtime rolled around, it was a matter of how the Thunderbirds would win, and with Akil Thomas getting a lucky bounce, the team is now 4-0 in overtime in the Calder Cup Playoffs. 

The Thunderbirds have made their series with the Penguins a thrilling one. The Penguins have a more talented team, one that features prospects throughout the lineup and arguably the best goaltender in the playoffs with Sergei Murashov in the net. However, the Thunderbirds have already beaten the team with the best record in the AHL, and it would surprise nobody if they defeated the team with the third-best record in the league. The next two games are in Springfield but this series is shaping up to be the one that goes the distance. 

The same is true about the Marlies and Monsters series. They split the first two games in Cleveland and head to Toronto for the next two. This series has had no shortage of physicality and prospects stepping up on the big stage, from Luca Del Bel Belluz for the Monsters to Easton Cowan for the Marlies. It’s a good sign for both NHL teams, who know they’ll have young pieces to build around in the future. 

The Firebirds evened up the series with the Colorado Eagles with a 4-0 Game Two win. However, the Eagles look like they have the edge in this one, considering how Trent Miner has played in the net. In 10 playoff starts, he has four shutouts and it’s made him this year’s version of Arturs Silovs, an AHL goaltender who wasn’t great during the regular season but is getting hot at the right time.