The Nashville Predators AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals have already started their 2024-25 campaign as well with a pair of road games ending in a win and a loss.
The Admirals have a roster full of prospects with NHL quality talent in the long run, but as of now the focus is letting these guys cook more in the AHL while the Predators have a roster built to contend for the Stanley Cup after a summer of busy free agency pickups.
The home-opener for the Admirals is Saturday against the Rockford IceHogs, but before that they'll have one more road game at Rockford, affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks.
The first two games of the season for the Admirals featured a 3-0 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins, and a 4-1 win over the Chicago Wolves.
Standouts from the Admirals after 1-1-0 start to season
The decisive win over Chicago saw associate captain Cal O'Reilly put up a four-point game, while goalie Matthew Murray stopped 31 of 32 shots for the win between the pipes.
The Admirals are getting adjusted to life after Yaroslav Askarov in net. Murray is now in his fourth season in the AHL and has already received one NHL call-up this season with Juuse Saros being held out of the NHL season opener due to injury. He backed up Scott Wedgewood.
Magnus Chrona, acquired in the trading of Askarov with the San Jose Sharks, started the Admirals season opener while Murray was the NHL backup. Chrona made 24 saves on 26 shots, but the Admirals offense couldn't provide him any goal support.
Expect the Admirals to run a 1A/1B goalie duo until one of them sets themselves apart as the primary starter.
Joakim Kemell also found the back of the net in the win over Chicago, picking up where he left off from his rookie AHL season where he scored 16 goals and 41 points in the regular season, along with another 11 points in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Kemell figures to have a decent chance to get an NHL call-up this season if injuries pile up, or if the Predators decide to take drastic measure later in the season and trade some guys.
Other high profile prospects for the Admirals who figure to get hard looks to get an NHL call-up this season includes Zachary L'Heureux, Reid Schaefer, Adam Wilsby and Marc Del Gaizo.
Del Gaizo just hit the 200-game milestone for the Admirals on Saturday, putting him in small company with only 27 other players since the Admirals joined the AHL, per radio play-by-play announcer Aaron Sims.
I failed to mention this .@mkeadmirals note from last Saturday's win at Chicago:
— Aaron Sims (@aaronadmirals) October 17, 2024
the game was the 200th as an Admiral for Marc Del Gaizo. He is just the 28th player to reach that milestone for Milwaukee since the team joined @TheAHL.#MilHockey
Del Gaizo was put on waivers out of Predators training camp and was the last player to be cut before the season started. Thankfully he wasn't claimed as he's one of the top defensive prospects in the system and has already proven his value on the NHL level.
Be sure to follow the Admirals all season long as many of these prospects are the future of the Nashville Predators in the coming years.