Former head coach Todd Nelson reflects on the Griffins’ 2017 Calder Cup championship.

Head coaches in the American Hockey League face a never-ending stream of decisions. Games can be frenetic, and coaches are constantly analyzing how players are performing and what the opposition is doing to create favorable matchups and give the team its best chance to succeed.

The work doesn’t end when the clock hits zero, either. Coaches must answer for the team’s successes and failures in the media, dive deeper into the game by reviewing video, create a practice plan that balances development with proper rest and recovery, and dissect every potential lineup change and special teams tweak ahead of the next game. If they get it wrong, they’ll hear about it – sometimes from thousands of fans inside a packed arena.

“It’s not an easy job. One time coming home, I looked at my assistant coach and I said, ‘I’m exhausted, and I didn’t even play a shift,’” said former Griffins head coach Todd Nelson. “He said, ‘No, Nellie – you mentally played every shift in your mind. That’s what head coaches do.’”

When the stars align, the taste of victory is sweet. At the end of the year, just one of the league’s 32 head coaches goes home for the summer completely satisfied. And for the 30 seasons of Griffins hockey, Nelson is forever etched in franchise lore as one of two coaches to bring a Calder Cup to Grand Rapids.

“I’m very proud to have been part of the organization in Grand Rapids,” said Nelson. “I’ve enjoyed every stint I’ve had there. But that run was special; we had a great group that really fought for our common goal. It was a great ride.”

For Nelson, the run to the 2017 championship was years in the making. The first player signed by the expansion Griffins franchise in 1996, he eventually played parts of four seasons in Grand Rapids as a defenseman, then began his storied coaching career as an assistant to former teammate Danton Cole on the Griffins’ 2002-03 squad.

Returning to Grand Rapids before the 2015-16 season following a stint as the Edmonton Oilers’ interim coach, he didn’t find immediate success after taking over for Jeff Blashill, who had been tapped as the Detroit Red Wings’ new head coach.

“It was a transitional period for the whole organization,” said Nelson. “Blash had a lot of success, but every coach is different, and a lot of hockey players fear change. We got off to a horrible start, but once the players began to buy in, we had success.”

The rocky debut saw the Griffins win just twice in the first 11 games of the season. The buy-in happened rather dramatically, as they rattled off a franchise-record 15-game winning streak immediately following the sputtering start. Ultimately, the Griffins made the playoffs but bowed out in the second round against the eventual champion Lake Erie Monsters. Nelson realized the foundation was set for 2016-17.

“After that first year, we brought in some key players who complemented the group that was returning, and everything fell into place,” said Nelson. “We completed our hockey team, and they became a really tight-knit group. I firmly believe our closeness as a team helped us prevail.”

Nelson credited the team’s veteran leaders, highlighted by captain Nathan Paetsch and including Matthew Ford, Brian Lashoff, Matt Lorito, Ben Street and Eric Tangradi, but also pointed out a shared trait among some of the team’s youngest players who had recently served as captains of their junior or college teams: Kyle Criscuolo (NCAA Harvard), Joe Hicketts (WHL Victoria), Robbie Russo (NCAA Notre Dame), and Dominic Turgeon (WHL Portland). 

“Those young guys were all former captains of their respective teams,” said Nelson. “It was a situation where I would deliver a message, and I’d hear our leaders emphasizing that same message in between periods. We had strong leadership all the way through, and that’s what made us such a strong team. It didn’t matter how each game went – a win or a loss – we kept the same mindset of just focusing on the next game.”

The 2016-17 regular season was far more even-keeled than Nelson’s first year behind the bench, with no winning streak longer than five games and no losing streak longer than four. The NHL trade deadline always presents an interesting wrinkle for AHL teams, which can face unintended consequences as their affiliate prioritizes its own needs, but Nelson felt a gap was addressed when the Red Wings traded winger Thomas Vanek to Florida for a third-round pick and defenseman Dylan McIlrath.

“We were very skilled, but we lacked a bit of grit, and that’s the reason why the organization went after Dylan,” Nelson said. “I didn’t know him at all at the time, but [Red Wings scout] Archie Henderson liked him – he called him ‘The McIlmonster.’ I asked, ‘Can he handle the heavy lifting when it comes to the pugilism of the game?’ Archie said, ‘Oh yeah, he can.’”

A playoff run that never saw Grand Rapids trail in a series and lose just twice en route to the Calder Cup Finals suggested a commendable level of dominance. Still, Nelson was quick to point out that the margins are thin in the AHL. Even in the team’s opening-round sweep over the Milwaukee Admirals, the series was much closer than it looked, with two games requiring overtime – meaning a bad bounce or two could have changed the season’s narrative entirely.

“It was just our internal confidence that helped us win those games,” said Nelson. “We talked about funneling pucks to the net, and Tomas Nosek shot from a bad angle and scored in overtime in Game 1. In Game 3, Kyle Criscuolo scores on a high tip on a shot from the point. It wasn’t just his skill; it was his determination that helped seal the series. It was passion that helped us win.”

The next two rounds featured higher-seeded opponents that had home-ice advantage over the Griffins: the Chicago Wolves had claimed the Central Division title over Grand Rapids by one point, and the San Jose Barracuda had secured the top spot in the Western Conference with a .699 winning percentage. Nelson credited his team’s depth for rising to the challenge of those two series.

“It’s a total team effort by each individual, each line, each defensive pairing, your goaltenders, the coaches and management,” said Nelson. “The line that really propelled us to win against Chicago was Evgeny Svechnikov, Matt Lorito and Kyle Criscuolo. Once you get deep into a playoff run, you need the big boys to come to play. They came to play all playoffs, but against San Jose, it was guys like Eric Tangradi, Ben Street, Matt Ford and Mitch Callahan who rose to the top. I attribute that to [then Red Wings general manager] Ken Holland and [then Griffins general manager] Ryan Martin for building a team with tremendous depth.”

The final challenge saw a rematch of the 2013 Calder Cup Finals against the Syracuse Crunch. Neither team had lost a home game during the 2017 postseason, resulting in a ferocious series between two teams that had not met during the regular season.

“They were tenacious, they were all over us,” recounted Nelson. “They were more determined than anyone else we faced. It was hard to generate offense, but we won the first two, one in the last 14 seconds [on a Nosek goal] and one in double overtime [courtesy of Street’s winner]. We had to lick our wounds after dropping Game 3. We persevered in Game 4, but there was a bit of a melee after the game. With guys like Dan Renouf and Dylan McIlrath, we had enough muscle to handle that. Our guys stood tall, and that put a bit of an exclamation point on the win.”

With the chance to end the series in five in Syracuse, the Griffins were shelled. The Crunch scored five first-period goals in a blowout win. The silver lining was that Grand Rapids had a chance to win a championship on home ice, with the final two potential games held at Van Andel Arena. They would only need one, however.

“Everybody knows that the most dangerous animal is a caged animal,” said Nelson. “That’s the way Syracuse played, but the line of Tyler Bertuzzi, Tomas Nosek and Martin Frk showed up, they went out there and tied it in the third period, and Frk scored off a botched faceoff play to win it with his unbelievable shot. It came right down to the final seconds, but our guys did it. There was no greater feeling than when that buzzer went because Syracuse was surging, but our guys got the job done.”

Nelson would go on to take an assistant coaching gig with the Dallas Stars in 2018-19 before returning to the AHL as head coach of the Hershey Bears, where he won back-to-back Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024. His captain in each of those seasons? Dylan McIlrath.

“He’s a lot like the strong leaders we had, like Nathan Paetsch or Matt Ford, who became captain after that,” said Nelson of the 2016-17 roster that featured four eventual Griffins captains in Paetsch, Ford, Lashoff, and the late-season pro debut of current captain Dominik Shine. “They all commanded respect from the team in their own way.”

Nelson is now back on an NHL bench, serving as an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins’ staff is tasked with developing some younger players around the existing veteran talent, headlined by a trio of future Hockey Hall of Famers in Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.

“There are definitely some pieces here that can help us make some noise,” said Nelson. “Even with the star power we have, they’re just like everybody else. They want to contribute and have success, so they’ve been receptive to what we’re trying to teach. And they offer their experiences on what works and what doesn’t. As a coach, you want to guide the group in the right direction. I’m enjoying it.”

In addition to the lasting memories, Nelson has a permanent reminder of his first-ever Calder Cup as a head coach, standing out among the eight championships (five Calder Cups and three UHL Colonial Cups) he’s amassed as a player and coach.

“I was walking through the medical room early in the season, and I saw [starting goaltender] Jared Coreau’s sleeve of tattoos,” said Nelson. “He said I needed to get one, and I told him I would if we won the Calder Cup. At the beginning of the final series, he asked if I remembered our bet. I’ve never had a tattoo in my life, but we end up winning the cup. We won on a Tuesday, and within a few days, Jared says I have an appointment at the tattoo shop.

“I have some Scandinavian heritage, so now I have a Viking helmet on my right arm.”

Kyle Kujawa is a Grand Valley State University graduate and lifelong hockey fan who enjoyed a 12-year career in sports that began as a public relations intern with the Griffins in 2010. After two seasons (and one Calder Cup!) as a full-timer, he moved on to the Detroit Red Wings’ PR staff, where he spent nine seasons (2013-22). He turned in his press credentials for the corporate world in 2022 but has remained involved in hockey through various freelance writing gigs, coming full circle with an opportunity to contribute to Griffiti.