Via the Hockeytown West Podcast, Inside AHL Hockey’s Tony Androckitis reports that the Grand Rapids Griffins won’t play a preseason game this upcoming season:
AHL released the 2025-26 preseason schedule – 22 total games.
— Tony Androckitis* (@TonyAndrock) September 16, 2025
10 teams don't play a preseason game – Abbotsford (VAN), Calgary (CGY), Charlotte (FLA), Cleveland (CBJ), Colorado (COL), Grand Rapids (DET), Iowa (MIN), Manitoba (WPG), Rochester (BUF) & Texas (DAL)@InsideAHLHockey
We’ve seen a few posts wondering why the Griffins don’t play any preseason games.
— Hockeytown West Podcast (@HockeytownWpod) September 16, 2025
It’s not official reasoning but Grand Rapids not playing any preseason games makes sense when you think about how prospect heavy their roster is and how many of them will be playing preseason games… https://t.co/XzlgP3muk9
The Hockey News’s Jake Tye wondered aloud whether the Red Wings and Griffins might want Grand Rapids to play in some stand-alone exhibition games in order to further evaluate the Wings’ prospects when the NHL drops down from 8 exhibition games to 4 exhibition games…
As teams next season will have less time to evaluate their prospects to make informed roster decisions, they could instead look to expanding the AHL pre-season. This would allow more opportunities for players looking to make a lasting impression and could offer more games for fans to see the organization’s top prospects.
They could cut costs for this by not playing in their standard arenas that would warrant bigger budgets to maintain the gameday presentation standard but rather at local rinks and could use the event for community outreach. The Griffins could allow prospects to meet fans and engage with kids while offering contests for prize packs like a Red Wings Centennial Jersey or tickets to a Red Wings pre-season or Griffins regular season game.
Fans would get a memorable experience and Red Wings management will get a longer look at prospects development and if they are ready for the NHL or need more time with the Griffins. As of the 2023-24 season, Grand Rapids is top seven in the AHL for average attendance and this means that giving the fans more chances to see their team play would likely do well and to save money they can play AHL teams nearby like the Milwaukee Admirals and the Chicago Wolves.
This could be a potential solution if Red Wings management find less games in the pre-season to be challenging and could help grow the team’s popularity within the community.
Guessing about the Red Wings and Griffins organization’s priorities, they’re not going to want to play in community rinks, should the organizations choose to offer an AHL preseason game or two to fans…
But yes, it’s possible that the Griffins might end up playing a pair of exhibition games next season in order to give more time to impress to the Wings’ top prospects.
In the present 8-game format, the Wings and Griffins basically are interspersed over the course of the “A team” and “B team” which alternate games played as the Wings skate through 8 games over the course of only 12 nights, but knocking the schedule down to 4 games definitely complicates player evaluation.
I just don’t see the Griffins choosing to play at the Troy Sports Center, for example, when Van Andel Arena can be rocking with fans instead.
Possibly worth remembering that when the Griffins played an exhibition game at then-Compuware Arena in 2013, it was absolutely empty.
Good point!