It’s been an extended 5 months for the reason that Calgary Wranglers ended their season within the playoffs in opposition to the Coachella Valley Firebirds, however we now have lastly made it to October. AHL hockey is coming again to Calgary and kicks off on Oct. 13. Sadly, we now have to be a bit extra affected person to see the Wranglers in individual as their residence opener isn’t till Oct. 28. The Wranglers have huge footwear to fill after their excellent inaugural season however fortunately for them, the footwear to fill are their very own.
Projected roster
Forwards
Mitch McLain, Brett Sutter, Ilya Nikolaev, Ben Jones, Clark Bishop, Alex Gallant, Rory Kerins, Parker Bell, Mark Duarte, William Stromgren, Lucas Ciona, Connor Zary, Emilio Pettersen, Martin Pospisil, Ben Jones, Cole Schwindt, Adam Klapka
Defencemen
Colton Poolman, Brady Lyle, Yan Kuznetsov, Jarrod Gourley, Jeremie Poirier, Nick DeSimone, Will Riedell, Sam Jardine, Jonathan Aspirot, Ilya Solovyov
Goaltenders
Dustin Wolf, Oscar Dansk, Connor Murphy
*Injured – (Lengthy-term)
Kevin Rooney, Jakob Pelletier
Final yr
Calgary’s new AHL group did virtually as a lot as they might of their inaugural season simply shy of taking residence the Calder Cup. They held the highest spot within the Pacific Division for almost all of the season, clinched the league by the tip of the yr and made it to the Division Finals of the Calder Cup Playoffs earlier than their season resulted in an additional time determination.
That they had the league’s MVP between the pipes for them, the Coach of the 12 months behind the bench and a wide range of different particular person standouts within the rookie and scoring classes. The Wranglers have been represented on the All-Star recreation with three representatives together with head coach Mitch Love, goaltender Dustin Wolf and standout ahead Matthew Phillips.
In 2022-23, the Wranglers completed with an impressive common season report of 51-17-3-1 and went 5-2-2 within the playoffs.
Scoring leaders
Matthew Phillips – 36G, 40A, 76P
Connor Zary – 21G, 37A, 58P
Ben Jones – 17G, 37A, 54P
Nick DeSimone – 8G, 38A, 46P
Emilio Pettersen – 19G, 25A, 44P
Goaltending at a look
Dustin Wolf – 55 GP, 42-10-2 report, 2.09 GAA, 0.932 SV%
Oscar Dansk – 17GP, 8-6-2 report, 2.75 GAA, 0.905 SV%
Daniil Chechelev – 2GP, 1-1-0 report, 3.37 GAA, 0.881 SV%
This yr’s expectations
The Wranglers’ bar was set very excessive after their excellent season final yr. To present them an inexpensive analysis, I’d put the group’s objectives as attempting to match what they did final yr and proceed to enhance on their depth within the playoffs. Nonetheless, there could also be a lapse in expertise this yr, even when simply momentary.
A lot of the core stays the identical however with Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney for positive gone on account of harm and surgical procedure restoration for at the very least just a few months, Matthew Phillips in Washington lighting it up and different key gamers on the shortlist for call-ups, it would come all the way down to the blokes that have been typical second pairings or third or fourth liners. These are going to be probably the most constant guys skating for this group and can make or break their report.
It’s already been said that Dustin Wolf will begin the yr within the AHL and there’s no telling at this level if that will likely be an extended or short-term task. Wolf is predicted to make it into NHL video games this yr and his absence from the Wranglers is certain to have an effect on their efficiency. They nonetheless have goaltending depth to roll with and Oscar Dansk is predicted to be the back-up for many of the season.
With out seeing a recreation on this new season but, I might count on the Wranglers to nonetheless land inside the high three within the Pacific Division. Coachella Valley ought to stay their high competitors for league and division titles and so long as they carry over some foundational successes that they had final yr, they need to nonetheless be a aggressive group on this league.
The Calgary Wranglers open their season on Friday, Oct. 13 on the highway in opposition to the Manitoba Moose.
