Ontario Reign: Numbers for the 2025-26 season

The Ontario Reign had their most successful season since their inaugural AHL season in 2015-16. In contrast, that team made a run to the Western Conference Finals; this year’s Reign squad bowed out in the Pacific Division Semifinals in a tough five-game series against their I-10 rivals, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

Even with their season coming to an abrupt end, the Reign had a season to remember under the guidance of first-year AHL head coach Andrew Lord, and a roster made up of many first and second-year players. Like 2015-16, the Reign captured the Pacific Division crown.

This year’s Reign team wasn’t defined by individual success, but a team that bought in from day one and identified as one. The highest scorer had 56 points, which wasn’t in the top 25 in the AHL.

With all of that success in mind, let’s see how the 2025-26 numbers looked for Reign this season.

Goals scored

The Reign finished the season with 237 goals (3.29 per game), good enough for 8th in the league. The Reign had three 20-goal scorers — Martin Chromiak led the way with 28 and 15 5v5 goals — and 11 players scored at least ten. All year long, it was scoring by committee for the Reign.

Goals against

The Reign surrendered 187 goals in the 72 games this season (2.60 per game), ranking in the top five. The Kings organization has focused on a defense-first philosophy for almost 20 years, and that mindset has trickled down to their AHL affiliate. It makes sense because every NHL team wants its AHL team to follow suit, making player call-ups an easy transition.

Points percentage

The Reign finished the season with 99 points, their most since joining the AHL, tallying a .688 points percentage. Ontario’s .688 points percentage ranked fourth in the AHL. That eclipsed the 2015-16 Reign squad’s .684 points percentage.

Special teams

The special teams for the Reign were up-and-down at certain points in the season, but finished in the top 10 in both power play and penalty kill. The power play ranked 8th overall (21.2%), 12th at home (19.7%), and 6th on the road (22.9%). Chromiak led the way with 12 power-play goals, all of them coming off blistering one-timers from the left circle, and 24 power-play points. He was a vital part of the successful five-man first power-play unit the Reign ran from December on.

The penalty kill finished 6th overall (84.2%), 15th at home (81.9%), and 1st on the road (86.7%). The penalty kill on the road was spectacular and a big reason why it finished in the top 10 overall despite the home penalty kill being near the middle of the pack. One of Ontario’s most successful units on the penalty kill was when Kenny Connors, Jared Wright, Angus Booth, and Kirill Kirsanov were all on the ice together. Think about that: three rookies and one player in his second year forming one of Ontario’s better penalty kill units.

Home record

The Reign enjoyed some home cooking at Toyota Arena. Ontario’s 26 home wins were second, and their six regulation losses were the lowest out of any team in the AHL. Their .778 points percentage on home ice was also the best, even better than the league’s Kilpatrick trophy winner (best record in the AHL), the Providence Bruins.

Away record

Ontario’s road record wasn’t as impressive as its home ice record, but it wasn’t pedestrian either. The Reign finished with a record of 21-14-1-0 away from home ice. Ontario’s 21 wins ranked in a tie for 6th, and its .597 points percentage ranked 7th.

Overall record

Overall, the Reign finished with a 47-20-3-2. The club’s 47 set a franchise record and ranked third behind the Bruins and Grand Rapids Griffins, en route to its second Pacific Division crown.

Assists leader

Glenn Gawdin led the Reign with 35 assists. Despite his goal-scoring taking a dip this year, Gawdin still proved to be an effective two-way, play-making first-line center again for the Reign.

Leading point scorer

If you had asked me minutes before puck drop on opening night, my prediction for the leading scorer on the Reign would’ve been Cole Guttman. Fast forward eight months, and it was Chromiak with 56 points. Chromiak lit the lamp 28 times and added 28 helpers for a career high 56 points.

Shots on goal

This was one of the stats that made me scratch my head at times during the season. Although the Reign had no issues scoring throughout the year, they didn’t accumulate many shots on goal. In fact, Ontario’s 26 shots on goal per game ranked second-to-last in the league. There are a lot of factors that go into that, such as not shooting the puck a lot, focusing on quality over quantity, or blocked, wide, or off the post shots that don’t count as a shot on goal. Chromiak led the team with 178 shots on goal this season.

Save percentage

The Reign had five goalies play in at least one game this season. When calculating every AHL team’s save percentage that didn’t include empty-net goals, the Reign were tied for fourth overall with a .906 SV%. Among qualified netminders on the team, Erik Portillo led the way with a .907 SV%. If you look at all of the goalies, Hampton Slukynsky’s .957 SV% in a small two-game sample led the team.

Rookie success

Finally, we get to the rookies. This year’s Reign squad saw two rookies in particular play an important role on the team. Those two players were Connors and Wright. Connors served as Ontario’s third-line center, played a strong two-way game, and was trusted in all situations, including protecting a lead late in a game. He led all Reign rookies in scoring with 26 assists and 41 points.

Wright played alongside Connors for most of the season and finished second behind him in rookie scoring with 30 points. His 17 goals and +27 rating led all Reign rookies. Wright’s speed was always on display and plays a prominent part in his game. Although Connors had a brief cup of coffee with the Kings, Wright’s call-up lasted for the final month and into the team’s five-game playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.

Koehn Ziemmer deserves an honorable mention here before I close this out. He finished third in rookie scoring with 24 points, but didn’t have the same role he was accustomed to in juniors. He played on the fourth line with little power play time and was a healthy scratch for a good portion of the first half. However, he had a knack for scoring big goals. His best moment came on February 7th, when he led the Reign to a 4-3 comeback victory over the Bakersfield Condors by scoring a natural hat trick, the first of his pro career.

Featured image credit: Megan Sanders/Ontario Reign

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