Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Typically offseason plans don’t fairly pan out. Accidents hit. So do remembers to the NHL mother or father crew. Waiver claims, too. Perhaps prospects generally is a bit overwhelmed by the transition that the AHL stage brings. Regardless of the cause, entrance places of work usually must pivot.
Nowhere can that want be extra urgent than in web. Even the best-constructed crew wants dependability in web to each facilitate growth and to win video games.
Listed below are three AHL groups that for one cause or one other have modified their goaltending plans on the fly by means of the primary quarter of the 2025-26 season.
Charlotte Checkers
Final 12 months’s duo of Kaapo Kähkönen and Ken Appleby moved on from the Florida Panthers group, turning Charlotte’s crease over to Cooper Black and Kirill Gerasimyuk. Black, 24, made 17 appearances with the Checkers as a rookie final season; Gerasimyuk, 22, was a fifth-round draft choose in 2021 who spent the final six years in Russia’s minor leagues.
To fill a necessity for veteran management, Charlotte inked Louis Domingue to an AHL contract final month. Domingue, who started the season within the Kontinental Hockey League, has 226 video games of expertise on the AHL stage together with 144 video games within the NHL, making him a straightforward plug-and-play possibility. The 14-year professional made his Checkers debut final weekend towards Rochester.
Hartford Wolf Pack
Domingue’s offseason exit from the New York Rangers left a gap in Hartford, the place he had spent the final three years teamed with prospect Dylan Garand. The 23-year-old Garand, an AHL All-Star final season, was drafted by the Rangers in 2020 and signed a one-year contract extension over the summer time.
Callum Tung, Talyn Boyko and Hugo Ollas are all on the depth chart additionally, however the Rangers wished mentorship for Garand in web. So in got here Spencer Martin, who signed a two-year contract with the Rangers on Nov. 12. Martin, now in his eleventh professional season, had his first 20-win season with the Chicago Wolves in 2024-25 and stopped 35 photographs in his Wolf Pack debut, a 3-2 win at Cleveland on Nov. 29.
Chicago Wolves
Cayden Primeau gave the impression to be the unique play for the Chicago crease. It will definitely labored out, albeit with a detour.
Following a superb second half final season with Laval, Primeau signed as a free agent with the Carolina Hurricanes. He might supply glorious organizational assist because the Wolves’ high goaltending possibility whereas additionally being a dependable recall possibility for the Hurricanes as wanted.
After having spent his whole profession with the Montreal group, Primeau was claimed off waivers by Toronto popping out of coaching camp and performed three video games for the Maple Leafs earlier than being waived once more. Carolina claimed him again on Nov. 8 and assigned him to Chicago.
Beginning together with his Wolves debut on Nov. 12, Primeau has began eight of Chicago’s final 11 video games.
