Griffins miss out on playoffs as AHL cancels season

On Monday, the American Hockey League made the difficult decision to cancel the rest of the regular season and the Calder Cup playoffs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That directly impacts the Red Wings' AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, who were 29-27-3-4 (65 points) and in third place in the Central Division with a good chance to make the playoffs when the league paused in March.

"We've had a number of conference calls throughout the pause and certainly Dave Andrews and the leadership group at the American Hockey League had been in constant communication with Bill Daly (NHL deputy commissioner) and Gary Bettman (NHL commissioner) and talking to the NHL folks and at the end of the day, the American League model is a little bit different obviously than the NHL at the minor league level," Griffins general manager and Wings assistant general manager Ryan Martin said on Tuesday's Word on Woodward. "It's heavily dependent on gate receipts and they just felt that it would not really be practical nor possible in many cases to conclude the regular season and then play playoffs so ultimately the decision was made to cancel the remainder of the regular season and Calder Cup playoffs."

The Milwaukee Admirals (41-14-5-3, 90 points) and Iowa Wild (37-18-4-4, 82 points) were first and second in the Central, respectively.

The Wings had been hoping for a long playoff run for the Griffins so they could watch some of the top prospects compete in high-pressure situations.

"With having so many first-year players down in Grand Rapids, certainly as a staff, Steve Yzerman, Pat Verbeek, myself, the player development staff, we were looking forward to watching these players in the playoffs and that's really unfortunate," Martin said. "Obviously the health and well-being of the players and the spectators takes precedence but if you look beyond that to the hockey decisions, not having the opportunity to potentially play in the playoff games, I think, is certainly something that's a detriment to their development."

However, Martin did say that the Griffins had been forced to play at that level for a while just to get back in the playoff chase.

"The American Hockey League is heavily divisional play and I'd say going back to early, mid-November, I felt we were in playoff games almost every night," Martin said. "The first 30 days of the season or so, Iowa and Milwaukee kind of ran away with first and second place and then after that, there were six teams that were competing for two playoff spots. When you go 10, 11, 12 games at a time within your division, those games are basically playoff games. I was talking to (Griffins coach) Ben Simon last week and we were remarking just about that very fact.

"Despite the fact we're not going to be able to play playoffs, I think going back to certainly mid-November-ish, those were playoff-type games. So it's great that (Moritz) Seider and (Joe) Veleno and Michael Rasmussen and others down there got the taste of playing in those types of meaningful games. Although it's not the same as playoffs, there's certainly something to be said for that level of competition night in and night out."

The prospects might be out of sight for the moment but they are definitely not out of mind for Detroit's staff, who might consider bringing up a few players if the NHL season were to resume.

"I know our player development staff, Shawn Horcoff (director of player development and assistant director of player personnel) and his group have been in constant communication with the prospects," Martin said. "We did our player exit meetings back in mid-April, which would have coincided with the typical end of the regular season in the American League because we felt we wanted to keep these players on an appropriate development timeline so their training would be in line with where it was supposed to be. So I think that's important and then certainly looking forward to next year, we had great exit meetings with a lot of the young players."

Despite the truncated season and lack of playoffs, Martin was very positive about the development of some of the Wings' top prospects.

"Mo Seider, his motivation is to come in and try to compete for a spot at camp," Martin said. "Joe Veleno had a really good rookie year. For a 19-year-old to be playing in the American League and playing as he did, I think that says a lot about Joe and his future and certainly we're looking for him to compete coming into Detroit camp next year. Michael Rasmussen, who you know spent his entire first year in the NHL because we didn't want to send him back to junior, we think it was a really good development year for Michael to be down in the American League. I know Michael's anxious to try to take that next step and become a full-time NHLer.

"Someone like (Gustav) Lindstrom, the fans got to see come up at the end of the year, Gus played, I'd say, almost 80 percent of the games down in the American League before he was recalled and fans got to see him. I think Gus is in a good spot to try to compete for a job out of camp as well. Certainly the young players, the season that they had down there, I think it puts a lot of them in a position to look to take that next step in their development."

While the 2019-20 season did not end as planned or hoped, Martin believes there are many good things in store for the Griffins next season.

"I think we've got some of the best fans in all of the American League," Martin said. "Tim Gortsema (Griffins president) and the ownership group of the Grand Rapids Griffins do a fantastic job, they're great partners. I think we've got one of the best affiliations in all the American League.

"I'm as disappointed as any Griffins fan in terms of not being able to watch the Griffs play in the playoffs but we're looking forward to rebounding and being back next year, the 25th anniversary season, so we're excited about that."