The El Dorado Lynx returned to the top of the Plante Conference after last year’s 5th place finish, while the Charleston Chiefs — who previously topped the conference — securing the second bye. In the Sawchuk, the Adirondack Aces — just two years removed from back-to-back championships — had a spectacular fourth quarter (16-2-0 and 9-0-0 on the road) to seal the top seed and first overall in the league, while Farmington put together a nice comeback campaign to finish second and take the other bye.

That leaves eight teams vying for a spot in the second round. Here’s what those series hold:

(3) Great Lakes Pilots (43-27-12) vs. (6) Baltimore Crab (36-34-12)

Head-to-head record: Great Lakes won 3-1-2
Top scorers:
GLP: Bouchard (81, 29-69-98), Raymond (82, 36-48-84), Bedard (68, 30-53-83), Dahlin (81, 30-53-83)
BAL: Crosby (82, 43-77-120), Forsberg (82, 52-60-112), Marchessault (82, 49-42-91), Makar (77, 17-73-90)
Goaltenders:
BAL: Luukkonen (37, 3.25, .907), Vejmelka (30, 3.46, .891)
GLP: Demko (51, 3.24, .908), Levi (14, 4.13, .883)

The Pilots are the feel-good story of the season, as the team, with first overall pick Connor Bedard leading the way, finally emerged after several seasons in the basement. The Crab — led by Sidney Crosby, Filip Forsberg, and Cale Makar — are no slouches, but they’re coming into the postseason on a cold streak after having gone 4-10-4 in the fourth quarter. The regular season contests between these two teams featured several offensive slugfests with scores like 7-4, 6-6, 9-5, and 7-6, although it bears noting that Baltimore (which finished the season with five 30-goal scorers) won none of those. Indeed, Great Lakes scored more goals than any other Plante team this year. We’ll see if that continues in the postseason.

(4) Pittsburgh Hornets (39-35-8) vs. (5) South Side Renegades (38-36-8)

Head-to-head record: South Side won 4-2-0
Top scorers:
PIT: Robertson (82, 42-50-92), Hughes (82, 24-65-89), Malkin (82, 26-59-85), Coyle (82, 34-42-76)
SSR: Tkachuk (81, 38-43-81), Teravainen (76, 25-51-76), Larkin (68, 28-37-65), Hischier (71, 35-27-62)
Goaltenders:
PIT: Swayman (35, 2.91, .897), Vasilevskiy (27, 4.01, .883)
SSR: Hellebuyck (60, 2.91, .912), Woll (22, 3.88, .875)

The Hornets are coming off a trip to the Atkinson Cup Final while the Renegades are back in the postseason after missing the cut last year, but as far as 2024-25 is concerned, these two clubs seem like a fairly even match. Pittsburgh has the higher-powered offense, and outside of maybe Brady Tkachuk no one on the South Side roster can bring the firepower to match the Hornets’ Jason Robertson and Quinn Hughes. What makes this series intriguing is Pittsburgh’s penchant for pucks on net — they had by far the biggest shot differential in the league, a whopping +10.4/game, and averaged 41.8 shots for — while at the other end, the Renegades’ Connor Hellebuyck is coming off a magnificent regular season, including 8 shutouts. There’s upset potential here, but it 100% depends on Hellebuyck standing on his head.

(3) San Jose Hosers (49-26-7) vs. (6) Ice Harbor Storm (37-42-3)

Head-to-head record: SJH won 3-2-1
Top scorers:
SJH: Stamkos (79, 63-54-117), Marner (69, 46-63-109), Tavares (80, 40-52-92), Gostisbehere (81, 21-50-71)
IHS: Reinhart (82, 95-39-134), Barkov (73, 27-106-133), DeBrincat (82, 44-71-115), Matheson (82, 11-67-78)
Goaltenders:
SJH: Shesterkin (55, 3.41, .908), Forsberg (28, 5.02, .857)
IHS: Gibson (44, 4.20, .873), Ullmark (38, 3.59, .901)

For San Jose, this post-championship campaign was eerily similar to last — they managed just one fewer win but still finished higher in the standings than in 2023-24. Steven Stamkos’ 63 goals were somehow only good for fourth league-wide, but with Mitch Marner, John Tavares, great defensive depth, and Igor Shesterkin turning in a pretty good season, this is a team that is clearly poised to make another run. By comparison, the Storm — who are the only team to make the playoffs with a sub-.500 record, one year after leading the conference — had the most deadly forward duo in the entire league, with 95-goal man Sam Reinhart next to Aleksander Barkov and his 106 assists, and decent depth behind them. Where the Storm get into trouble is in net: John Gibson was very shaky this year. While Linus Ullmark was better, he’s just shy of meeting the threshold that would make him eligible to play all of the series’ games. That means Ice Harbor must start Gibson for at least three games in a seven-game series and that could be Ice Harbor’s undoing against San Jose’s offense and the third best powerplay in the league.

(4) West Virginia River Rats (46-29-7) vs. (5) Boston Banshees (40-35-7)

Head-to-head record: WVR wins 3-2-1
Top scorers:
WVR: Draisaitl (82, 42-77-119), Ehlers (82, 39-60-99), Aho (78, 29-51-80), Guentzel (66, 27-48-75)
BOS: Thomas (82, 24-65-89), Josi (82, 12-62-74), Pavelski (82, 27-33-60), Thompson (71, 36-20-56)
Goaltenders:
WVR: Saros (62, 3.88, .885), Primeau (22, 3.11, .905)
BOS: Sorokin (45, 3.77, .886), Brossoit (23, 3.42, .903), Annunen (14, 2.34, .931)

These teams haven’t faced each other since the second quarter (and the Banshees had a very rough start to the year before finding their game) so Boston’s midseason pickup of Roman Josi adds an interesting wrinkle to a fairly even matchup. The defenseman put up 56 points in 42 games in his half-season with Boston, but he’ll have his hands full with West Virginia’s skaters, as Leon Draisaitl, Sebastian Aho, Jack Hughes & co. give the Rats one of the league’s most dangerous lineups from top to bottom. Even winger Owen Tippett chipped in a sneaky 40 goals. Neither team’s starting netminder had good years, and we may even see Boston platoon Laurent Brossoit and Justus Annunen for a few games to try to counter the bigger guns on the Rats; that could change the complexion of a close series, especially if West Virginia’s Juuse Saros continues to struggle at the other end. West Virginia was also tied for the second-worst penalty killing percentage during the regular season (78.5%) — Boston’s PP was just average, but that too could be something to watch.

Farmington centre JT Miller has captured the 2024-25 GWMHL scoring title, tallying 149 points (75 goals, 74 assists) in 81 games: the eighth most productive season in league history. Meanwhile, Sam Reinhart of the Ice Harbor Storm made the final quarter interesting as he challenged the all-time single-season record for goals set in 2008-09 by Ilya Kovalchuk. With 95 on the season, Reinhart came just one shy of tying Kovalchuk’s record.

The post-draft period is often quiet on the trade front–not so this year, as four deals have been made in the 24 hours since the last selection was made.

The biggest name to move is, by far, Alex Pietrangelo, once part of the one of the league’s most dominant defense pairings, who Salem shipped to Boston for a 2nd round pick in 2025. Boston also sent its 4th in 2025 to Vancouver for young blueliner Jayden Struble, who had only just been drafted the day before. Vancouver sent a second young defenseman out when it traded hard-hitting prospect Tyler Kleven to Farmington for another 4th rounder.

Prior to those moves, Denver took a swing at shoring up its blueline by acquiring Jeremy Lauzon and Nils Lundkvist from Parry Sound for forwards Alex Newhook and Jakob Silfverberg.

There wasn’t much intrigue surrounding Great Lakes Pilots‘ first overall pick in this year’s rookie draft, and sure enough, the team drafted centre Connor Bedard to start the day’s proceedings. Bedard was joined by six other forwards drafted by the Pilots, including Cutter Gauthier and Mavrik Bourque: a very different Great Lakes roster is on the horizon.

Adam Fantilli (Clarington), Logan Cooley (Portland), Leo Carlsson (Hershey), and Logan Stankoven (Vancouver) rounded out the top five. The first defenseman picked was Olen Zellweger, who went eighth overall to Winnipeg.

It was a relatively quiet day on the trade front. The Boston Banshees acquired veteran Joe Pavelski from the West Virginia River Rats in exchange for forwards Victor Olofsson and Oskar Olausson and West Virginia’s own second rounder. Not long after, Vancouver sent fan favourite Mark Stone to the reigning champion San Jose Hosers for the Hosers’ first rounder, 22nd overall, with which the Night Train selected Ivan Miroshnichenko. Boston also moved a third rounder this year to Charleston for a second in 2025: the only 2025 pick to change hands so far this year.

Five trades were completed within 24 hours of trading opening for the 2024-25 GWMHL season–a sign of what promises to be a busy preseason ahead of the rookie draft.

In three deals, the Vancouver Night Train unloaded several players, including longtime veterans. First, they sent winger Jordan Kyrou and defenseman John Marino to the El Dorado Lynx in exchange for the 12th overall pick in the upcoming draft as well as a 3rd rounder. Vancouver would also send defensive defenseman Adam Pelech to the Boston Banshees for a 2nd round pick and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo to the Winnipeg Falcons for a 4th.

After acquiring Pelech, the Banshees reconfigured their blueline, first sending young Alex Vlasic to Clarington for a 2nd rounder, then Dmitry Orlov and forward prospect Samuel Poulin to West Virginia for another 2nd.

The San Jose Hosers have beaten the odds and finished a miraculous postseason run with a victory over the Pittsburgh Hornets in game 5 of the Atkinson Cup final to take the 2024 championship. It’s the first title in franchise history.

It can only be described as a Cinderella run, as the Hosers — who underperformed during the regular season compared to last season’s lofty numbers — came in as the fifth of six seeds in the Sawchuk. They opened the playoffs by beating the West Virginia River Rats in OT in game 6 of the first round, then beat top seed Ice Harbor in game 7 of the next round, also in OT. The Hosers would then knock out Boston in 6 before its triumphant series against the Hornets. San Jose never had home ice advantage.

Congratulations to James and the Hosers for a well-deserved crown, and to Scott and the rest of the playoff teams for a great postseason!

The rookie draft may still be weeks away but teams have already begun shuffling their rosters in anticipation of the 2023-24 GWMHL season. Of course, three-quarters of the moves so far have involved the Boston Banshees in some way.

The Banshees got things started by adding Anthony Mantha from the Vancouver Night Train in exchange for defensemen Nate Schmidt and Alexander Alexeyev along with a third round pick. Then, they picked up another winger in Victor Olofsson plus a second rounder from the Great Lakes Pilots for defenseman Alec Regula, two seconds, and a fourth. Finally, Boston flipped centre Michael McLeod to the Baltimore Crab for Mathieu Joseph. The additions of Mantha, Olofsson, and Joseph all help shore up the wings for the Banshees, although they’re surely not done yet.

The biggest trade so far, however, didn’t involve Boston, as the El Dorado Lynx, overloaded on the left side, sent Kyle Connor to the Charleston Chiefs for right winger William Nylander. Nylander, a Charleston staple for seven seasons, put up 33 goals and 71 points in 81 games last year, while the slightly younger Connor scored 28 goals and 59 points in 79 games.

After its historic rise from the league basement to its first championship in 2022, the Adirondack Aces have just captured their second straight Atkinson Cup with a 2-1 win over the El Dorado Lynx in game 6.

The Aces’ Nino Niederreiter played playoff hero, scoring both Adirondack goals in the win. Rookie netminder Daniil Tarasov was the unlikely starter and shut the door after Alex Ovechkin scored in the first period.

Big congrats to Janelle for the well-deserved win, and to Chuck for putting in a great series!

Steven Stamkos, one of the key drivers of the San Jose Hosers‘ potent offense, won the 2022-23 regular season scoring race with 151 points, the most by any player since Zach Parise tallied 153 in 2010. Stamkos, whose total is the sixth most points scored in a single season, finished with 72 goals and 79 points, and was joined by teammates Mitch Marner (134) and Nazem Kadri (120) in the 100-point club.

Adirondack‘s Chris Kreider, meanwhile, posted a historic season of his own with 87 goals, becoming the first player since 2008-09 to break the 80-goal barrier and finishing second behind Ilya Kovalchuk’s 96 for most goals in a single season.

John Carlson of the Farmington Fighting Saints finished the season as the league’s most productive defenseman, posting 94 points, 10 ahead of second-place Brent Burns. Boston winger Michael Bunting scored more than any other rookie, with 62 points, edging Trevor Zegras (57).

West Virginia‘s Juuse Saros and San Jose’s Igor Shesterkin led the way in goalie wins with 39 and 38, respectively, while Connor Hellebuyck‘s 5 shutouts was a big reason his South Side Renegades will be seeing playoff action.

The 2022-23 GWMHL regular season has come to close, but not before some last-minute drama as teams vied for those last playoff spots.

In the Plante, the South Side‘s strong 11-4-3 fourth quarter helped them leapfrog both Baltimore and Parry Sound in the standings to grab third spot behind conference leaders El Dorado and Pittsburgh. Two teams on the bubble, Denver and Salem, both struggled in the quarter, but in the end Salem’s 6-9-3 record was enough to put it one point ahead of Denver for the sixth and final playoff berth.

El Dorado and Pittsburgh will get first-round byes as the playoffs begin next week. Third seed South Side will play sixth seed Salem, while fourth seed Baltimore will take on fifth seed Parry Sound.

In the Sawchuk, defending champion Adirondack parlayed a sparkling 16-1-1 quarter into a second place finish behind the mighty San Jose Hosers, who finished with 60 wins and whose 419 goals is the fourth most in league history and best since 2008-09. Otherwise, the standings didn’t change much in the quarter, as Boston held off a fading Vancouver for the final playoff spot.

San Jose and Adirondack will get some R&R during their first-round byes. Third seed West Virginia will play sixth seed Boston, and fourth seed Farmington will face fifth seed Ice Harbor in what is going to be a heck of a first round series.