The Calder Cup Playoff field has been cut to eight teams.
It features a back-to-back Calder Cup champion, the AHL’s regular-season champion, a penalty-killing powerhouse, and much more.
Some of these clubs cruised through the previous round. Two of them swept. One knocked out the Calder Cup finalist of the past two years. Others got a significant scare. And one survived three elimination games, including a series-deciding overtime. Four of them were regular-season division champions. The other four each finished second in their respective divisions.
Tonight it starts when the Laval Rocket, the regular-season champion, visit the Rochester Americans. The Hershey Bears continue their pursuit of a third consecutive Calder Cup on Friday when they start on the road against the Charlotte Checkers. In the Western Conference, the Milwaukee Admirals and Texas Stars meet for the third year in a row. They will fight to move on to the Western Conference Finals to face the winner of this round’s Abbotsford Canucks-Colorado Eagles match-up.
After this round, all remaining rounds will expand to a best-of-seven format.
A case can be made for why any of these eight teams can lift the Calder Cup in June. We’ve already examined the Eastern Conference. Here is a look at the Western Conference field.
Abbotsford Canucks
The hottest team down the regular-season stretch, the Canucks have done little to show that they are not capable of taking this playoff run further.
Start with the penalty kill, which burned off all 20 opposing power-play chances that it faced in series wins against the Tucson Roadrunners and Coachella Valley Firebirds. Netminder Artūrs Šilovs has been excellent. Vancouver Canucks fans have seen some of his postseason work before, and he is doing it again, this time with Abbotsford.
Their veterans, a must-have for playoff success, have come through. Sammy Blais and Phil Di Giuseppe each have some significant NHL background to their names, and they have delivered offense. So has Jujhar Khaira, a strong March acquisition who has thrived with Abbotsford. If Danila Klimovich and Jonathan Lekkerimäki can begin to produce, that could make the Canucks a handful for any of the other remaining seven playoff teams.
Abbotsford’s depth also has been noteworthy. When injuries have hit, head coach Manny Malhotra has had a range of options to weave in and out of his lineup.
Colorado Eagles
Well, Gabriel Landeskog is not available, but the Eagles still look like a power capable of lifting the Calder Cup in June.
They took care of the San Jose Barracuda and Yaroslav Askarov last round. A team with a potent offense, the Eagles reiterated that they can also play the tight contests effectively as well. Trent Miner leads the Eagles in net as he continues to assert himself as one of the AHL’s high-end goaltenders. A blue line headed by Calle Rosén and Jacob MacDonald (an AHL-record 30 goals by a defenseman) ranks among the top in the AHL.
Tye Felhaber has been excellent. Matthew Phillips had a tough postseason last year with Hershey, but he has returned to his dangerous ways with Colorado all season and into the postseason. A veteran like Chris Wagner is well-suited for playoff hockey. T.J. Tynan had a quiet series against San Jose offensively, but he contributes in so many other ways, and the offense will come before too long.
Milwaukee Admirals
The Admirals are nothing if not tested, and they may well be the league’s top escape artists.
They once again extracted themselves from a playoff predicament last round against the Rockford IceHogs when they fought off elimination three times and took the series-deciding game in overtime. They have gone the limit in playoff series 10 times since 2019, winning seven of them under head coach Karl Taylor, one of the AHL’s top strategists and someone who consistently makes the right in-series adjustments.
Armed with returnees from the Nashville Predators in forwards Fedor Svechkov and Kieffer Bellows along with defensemen Marc Del Gaizo and Spencer Stastney, those four have reintegrated with ease in Milwaukee. Taylor has 32 players at his disposal. Like Malhotra in Abbotsford, he can and does make line-up tweaks effectively, especially with a number of top options.
Goaltender Matt Murray had one of the best regular seasons in the league. After a bit of a slow start against Rockford, he is back to his typical strong form.
Nashville’s problems this season could have severely sidetracked the Admirals. A succession of players got pulled up to Nashville, depleting the roster. But general manager Scott Nichol acted quickly and decisively to bring in strong replacements for Milwaukee, and Taylor masterfully worked them into his line-up on the fly. That winter work is starting to pay off now, and this series with Texas should be a treat for both sides.
Texas Stars
Only three NHL organizations are still active in both the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Calder Cup Playoffs.
Texas and the parent Dallas Stars are one of them, joining the Florida Panthers (Charlotte) and Washington Capitals (Hershey). Year after year, Texas takes talent, processes it, and sends it on to Dallas. Just look at Alex Petrovic’s contributions with Dallas of late. Head coach Neil Graham and his staff are behind that success.
Texas also wins. H-E-B Center is one of the AHL’s top environments, especially as the Calder Cup Playoffs ramp up one series after another. The Texas crowd came through last round as the Stars swept the Grand Rapids Griffins. Texas engineered a third-period comeback in Game 3, turning a 4-1 hole into a 5-4 double-overtime victory.
Goaltenders Magnus Hellberg and Remi Poirier had some struggles in the regular season, but they have given the Stars what they need. Kyle Capobianco is a top-tier number-one blueliner. Rookies Tommy Bergsland, Luke Krys, Kyle Looft, and Trey Taylor are getting the job done in that Texas defense corps.
Cameron Hughes is one of the AHL’s top two-way forwards and brings every possible element to a team’s line-up. He went to back-to-back Calder Cup Finals with Coachella Valley before coming to Texas this season. Gritty, hard-nosed, and with a willingness to do anything it takes, he comes through consistently. Kole Lind came along with him from the Firebirds to Texas and brings that same big-game ability. Justin Hryckowian’s standout rookie season continues. Matěj Blümel has been a scoring force. Arttu Hyry is a strong pro.
And of course there is captain Curtis McKenzie, a foundational piece of the Texas franchise and an elite leader.
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