PERSEVERANCE: THE STORY OF THE 2025-26 ROCHESTER AMERICANS
Leone, players reflect on the team’s 70th anniversary season on locker cleanout day earlier this week
Apr 30, 2026By Andrew Mossbrooks | @ Mossbrooks48
It was Tuesday. The final Tuesday in April. A time where for the last several seasons Amerks players and their fans would be gearing up for another playoff game in the Flower City or perhaps prepping their Rochester swag for a trip down the I-90 to invade Syracuse on the road.
That was not the case this time around.
This year, the last Tuesday in April was locker cleanout day, meaning this season for the Rochester Americans was over. It came to a close just two days prior in Game 3 of a first-round series loss to Toronto.
The last time an Amerks season ended this early into the year was due to a global pandemic.
“We had a group that…went through a lot this year,” said head coach Mike Leone as he paused mid-sentence to gather his thoughts.
He’s not wrong, by the way. Here are a few noteworthy bits that back this statement:
- Through the first six games of the season, Rochester had five different goalies make a start. This was a first in franchise history.
- A total of 41 different players wore an Amerks jersey this season, including a dozen rookies.
- Over 400man games were lost across the roster due to injuries and call-ups.
- At the NHL trade deadline, Rochester lost its leading scorer, Isak Rosén.
- Entering playoffs, the Amerks faced a Marlies team that had 12 players play NHL games this season. On the other side, Rochester had a dozen players named to its playoff roster that had never experienced postseason hockey.
“I haven’t been a head coach for a long time, but when you lose your captain and your assistant captain for pretty much the entire season, it’s extremely difficult.”
In October, Zach Metsa was named the 65th captain in franchise history. He missed 53 games due to finding success with the Sabres.
Josh Dunne was believed to be in the conversation for captaincy, ultimately being appointed as one of the team’s alternates. He was recalled to Buffalo Oct. 25 and never came back.
“You’re going to lose people and that’s part of the job. You want that. And those two guys, no, they’re not the most skilled, but they just work. They deserve it. When we lost at Toronto, they were the first two that reached out.”
But before getting to the handshake line Sunday evening at Coca-Cola Coliseum, the Amerks had to scratch and claw their way to even making the playoffs. And they did so with an often on-the-fly roster.
“I can’t tell you if we played the same lineup two times in a row besides playoffs.”
The various lines and defense pairings forged by Leone and his staff throughout the season were often underdogs on paper, but when the puck dropped, they were ready.
“A lot of guys stepped up throughout the year,” said Brendan Warren, who at one point early in his career was an ECHL call-up and now ends the season as the longest-tenured active Amerk.
“This was a team that never gave up. We kept battling through whatever was thrown at us.”
Things thrown their way included a nine-game winless skid from February into March, the longest of its kind for an Amerks’ team in over a decade.
“We never doubted our ability,” said Trevor Kuntar, a once rejected player at Providence who was given a second chance by Leone and became an instant 20-goal scorer in his first season with Rochester. “We knew if we played a certain way that we had the chance to win every single night.”
For Kuntar, it was a change of scenery. For others, it was patience being rewarded.
“The coaches gave me a role and gave me a chance to take advantage of an opportunity,” said Olivier Nadeau, who in his final year of an entry-level contract cracked the AHL lineup full-time after two years with ECHL-Jacksonville.
After three points in nine games over parts of two years with the Amerks, Nadeau broke out with a 26-point campaign (13+13) in a full-time role with the club, finishing as the team’s top-scoring rookie.
“I think, all around, I got way better this year. I had been waiting for that moment and with the number of injuries we had, I was moved up in the lineup and my confidence was building.”
No matter who was in their lineup, the Amerks didn’t waiver. Their power-play finished first in the Eastern Conference. Yes, they struggled, and yes, for the first time in a number of years, the question became will they make the playoffs, not when. But when doubt crept in, they always seemed to rise to the occasion.
There was Kuntar’s overtime goal against the Marlies in March to snap the nine-game skid.
There was Matteo Costantini’s overtime heroics over the league-leading Providence Bruins in early April.
There was Carson Meyer’s power-play equalizer in the waning minutes of the third period at Hershey on the final day of the regular season, ultimately providing the Amerks the single point they needed to lock up a playoff berth.
It seemed any time the Amerks needed it, they got it.
“Perseverance is the word that comes to mind with this group,” said Leone. “We went through a really hard time, but somehow we managed to find a way to make the playoffs.”
“I think we’ll probably always remember this team as the one that went through a ton of adversity and just kept battling through it,” said Warren.
“We just made it happen,” said Mason Geertsen, a 10-year pro who continues to develop. “It’s not about how much skill the guys had, but how hard we were going to work.”
“We had a tremendous group,” said Zac Jones, the reigning Eddie Shore Award winner as the AHL’s top defenseman. “Coming to the rink every day was fun. We just worked extremely hard. We faced a ton of adversity, and I think we proved a lot of people wrong this year.”
The 2025-26 Rochester Americans, as listed on paper in October, looked poised for another deep playoff run. The story that ends this season feels different than the one that was being authored at that time. But as external belief waned and concern grew, it never changed the temperature within the dressing room.
The 70th season of Amerks hockey will be remembered for the team emulating principles of its city. It was gritty and required a blue-collar effort to achieve success. A group of misfits and castoffs became can’t miss. This team gave its all for the city that embraced them all year as it has since 1956.
“I believe we pushed this group as far as we could,” said Leone. “We maximized everything that we had out of this group. In my four years of being a head coach, I’ve never been more proud of a group of people.”