Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Set a franchise record for longest winning streak. Signed the AHL’s second-leading scorer. Saw one of the NHL’s top prospects moved in a trade that generated headlines across the sport. Added a high-end defenseman in that same trade.
The Cleveland Monsters packed plenty into their long holiday weekend. A run of 10 consecutive wins, which finally came to an end in an entertaining, back-and-forth battle with Grand Rapids on Sunday, has pushed them past Laval and into the North Division lead with 29 points. Their .725 points percentage (14-5-0-1) trails only Calgary and Toronto in the entire league.
On Wednesday, the night before U.S. Thanksgiving, the Monsters won their ninth straight game to establish a franchise record. On Friday, they got 33 saves from Zach Sawchenko to shut out Toronto in front of 14,171 fans at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Then on Saturday afternoon, the parent Columbus Blue Jackets completed a major trade with the Minnesota Wild centered around defenseman David Jiricek.
Jiricek, the sixth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft who turned 21 on Thursday, had made the Blue Jackets out of training camp but only appeared in six games before being assigned to Cleveland on Nov. 20. Losing Jiricek is tough, of course, but the haul coming back from Minnesota included promising 22-year-old defenseman Daemon Hunt, who had 29 points (three goals, 26 assists) in only 51 games last season for the Iowa Wild. Cleveland could stand to benefit from the rest of the deal’s return in coming seasons as well, as Columbus received a 2025 first-round pick, a third- and fourth-round pick in 2026, and a 2027 second-rounder.
Hours before the Jiricek deal went down, the Monsters announced the signing of Rocco Grimaldi to an AHL deal that will keep him with the team through at least the rest of the season. After scoring 36 goals with the Chicago Wolves in 2023-24, Grimaldi went unsigned until the Monsters brought him in on a tryout one day before their season opener. The veteran has more than delivered, using an 11-game point streak – the AHL’s longest this season – to shoot to second place in AHL scoring with 23 points (six goals, 17 assists) in 16 games.
Up against one of the Western Conference’s top teams in Grand Rapids on Sunday, the Monsters erased three separate one-goal deficits before finally falling, 6-4 – their first defeat since a 4-2 setback against Rochester on Nov. 6. Cleveland outscored their opponents 40-22 during their 10-game win streak and climbed from sixth place in the North Division into the lead.
Regardless of Sunday’s outcome, Columbus management – headed by new general manager Don Waddell and Monsters GM Chris Clark – has to be happy with what is happening in Cleveland. The club lost several key pieces from a team that fell one goal short of a trip to the Calder Cup Finals last June, but has looked to be a formidable opponent again in 2024-25. They split an opening-weekend series in Hershey; got a road split from a tough Charlotte team; beat Milwaukee twice two weekends ago; and have defeated Toronto three times already, handing the Marlies their only two regulation losses all season to date.
Grimaldi is one of four Monsters to already reach the 20-point mark this season. First-round pick Denton Mateychuk, whose 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 20 games pace all AHL defensemen, earned AHL Rookie of the Month honors after notching 17 points in 13 games during November. Trey Fix-Wolansky, the Monsters’ leading scorer each of the last two seasons, continues to produce with 11 goals and 11 assists so far in 2024-25. Second-year forward Luca Del Bel Belluz has scored 11 goals in 20 games, already surpassing his total of nine as a rookie.
Potentially adding Hunt will help shore up a blue line corps that includes Mateychuk, Corson Ceulemans, Stanislav Svozil, Samuel Knazko and veteran Madison Bowey. And in net is Jet Greaves, November’s AHL Goaltender of the Month after he finished 7-1-0 with a .927 save percentage and one shutout in eight appearances.
The Monsters are also looking at a favorable schedule in December. After a visit to Milwaukee tonight, Cleveland plays eight consecutive games at home, where they have gone 6-1-0-1 so far this season. The homestand opens Friday with a game against Syracuse.
“Columbus has a bright future with a lot of these guys because they care,” head coach Trent Vogelhuber said minutes the Monsters’ Game 7 overtime loss in Hershey back on June 12. “They love hockey. They know what it takes to win. It’s about doing it for each other… for the guy next to you. That’s how you win. That’s the only reason that we got to this point.”
For the returning players who went through that postseason struggle, as emotionally painful as it was at the end, lessons were learned. Blend them with a promising group of newcomers, and this year’s Monsters have the potential to create plenty of havoc around the AHL.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
