One hundred ten Griffins players have gone on to play in the National Hockey League (NHL) fifty-three of them made their NHL debut after skating for Grand Rapids. Nine former Griffins had their named engraved on the Stanley Cup as members of the Detroit Red Wings in 2008. While Detroit and Ottawa have been frequent NHL destinations for former members of the Griffins, owing to their respective affiliation tenures, every NHL club has had a Griffins alumnus on its roster at some point. Numerous Griffins players have been recognized by the IHL or AHL for their play. Donald MacLean won the Les Cunningham Award as the AHL's most valuable player for the 2005–06 season; Niklas Kronwall won the Eddie Shore Award the previous season as the league's top defenseman. Derek King was a co-winner of the L