The Grand Rapids Griffins beat the Rockford IceHogs 6-3 on Wednesday morning, and Detroit Red Wings prospect Carter Bear was the biggest reason. Bear scored twice and added two assists, including a power-play goal early in the second period and an empty-netter with 3:33 left.
Bear now has five goals and 13 assists in 13 games with a plus-9 rating. Those 18 points tie him with Laval Rocket defenseman Luke Mittelstadt for first among AHL rookie skaters, and the pair also sit level with Griffins teammate Dominik Shine and Rochester’s Matthew Peca atop the league scoring list.
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Wednesday was Bear’s sixth straight game with a point. He carried a five-game streak and the best plus-minus rating of any AHL rookie into the morning, and he left it with the two biggest goals in the building.
Grand Rapids is 11-2-1-1 with 24 points through 15 games, which leads the Central Division and is the best record in the AHL. Bear, a 20-year-old forward Detroit took 13th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft, has been a central part of that.
That is the part worth watching in Detroit. The call-up conversation around Bear started a week and a half ago, when he had nine points in nine games and the Red Wings recalled John Leonard instead. The case for leaving him in Grand Rapids has not changed, and a four-point morning is the argument for it, not against it. He is playing every night, he is driving the best team in the league, and there is no version of a Detroit recall that helps him if it ends with him watching from the press box.
A look late in the season still makes sense, and Bear is building the kind of year that makes one hard to put off. If the Red Wings do call him up, he has to play.
