Detroit Red Wings
The Daily: Becher Contributing in Griffins’ Surge; Lombardi Close
A less-heralded Detroit Red Wings prospect is starting to make his presence felt for his contributions to the Grand Rapids Griffins’ incredible performance in this American Hockey League season.
Czechia center Ondrej Becher (80th, 2024) scored twice to help the Griffins down the Texas Stars 3-2 to raise their record to 29-1-1-1. With 16 points in 27 games, he’s on a 40-point pace.
Sebastian Cossa made 21 saves to raise his personal record to 17-1-1 this season. Nate Danielson registered his first assist since being sent down to the Griffins Tuesday
With the win, the Griffins improved their record to 29-1-1-1 to become the fastest (32 games) AHL team to reach 60 points in a season. The Griffins bettered the record of the 2005-06 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins who reached 61 points in 35 games
Griffins eclipsed the 2005-06 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (29-3-2-1, 61 pts.) by reaching 60 points three games faster. Grand Rapids also owns a 19-game points streak.
Becher🚨 from Tralmaks great pass
3-2 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/9VKQkoz8pN— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 8, 2026
Red Wings In Case You Missed It
The Grand Rapids Griffins are receiving more help for their roster, not that they need it.
Max Smith ranks Detroit’s goalies, starting with Sebastian Cossa.Â
Detroit prospect Rudy Guimond receives honor from the Quebec Maritimes Major Junior Hockey League.
Red Wings Extra
Injured Amadeus Lombardi, out of the Grand Rapids Griffins lineup since Nov. 21, is skating with the team and is getting close to returning. Defenseman Shai Buium may be in the GR lineup this weekend. . . After starting well with the St. Louis Blues, Jonatan Berggren has settled in on his new team’s third line. After registering two goals and two assists in his first three games, he has one goal in his past five games. He is plus-3 with the Blues.
WALLINDER first career fight. Not bad!#LGRW pic.twitter.com/fRtddnLwSD
— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) January 8, 2026
Hockey Now Network
Philadelphia: Injured Matvei Michkov is expected to be ready to play tonight. Philadelphia Flyers.Â
New Jersey: James Nichols says if the team is going to keep the GM and coach, then maybe it’s time to change the core. New Jersey Devils
Pittsburgh: Are the Penguins considering a position change for Evgeni Malkin? Pittsburgh Penguins.Â
Griffins are accomplishing all this with call-ups and injuries to key players like Lombardi, Mazur and Buium. Though yes they benefit from a couple veterans as do other AHL teams this is an impressive group! They probably expected to have Finnie and Sandin-Pelikka and were without Danielson for a while, as well. The recent DHN headline could be edited to Wings could soon be bolstered by wealth of potential talent from Griffins.
Here are a couple more Griffins stats that are ridiculously impressive. With 60 points, they currently have 13 more points than any other team in the AHL, and that team (W-B/Scranton) has played two more games than GR.
And the Griffins Goal Differential is +68 (124 GF vs. 56 GA). That’s a team GAA of around 1.75. No goalie who’s played for the Griffins this year has a GAA of more than 1.93 (Postava) or a Sv% of less than .929 (Tokarski).
That says as much about the Griffins defensive play as it does about the quality of their goaltenders.
Someone new steps up each game OTC. Pretty impressive.