Calgary Wranglers series preview: Wrapping up the regular season in Abbotsford
8 days ago
There are two games left in the Wranglers’ regular season and they’ll both be on the road in Abbotsford, BC against the Canucks. With the Flames ending their season on Thursday, and this series starting on Friday, they expect some reinforcements back to get primed for the AHL playoffs. These two last saw each other a week ago in Calgary which resulted in a two-game sweep of the Wranglers with both games ending in 3-1 decisions.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Forwards: Mitch McLain, Brett Sutter, Cole Schwindt, Riley Damiani, Ilya Nikolaev, Lucas Ciona, Ben Jones, Clark Bishop, Alex Gallant, Rory Kerins, David Silye, Parker Bell, Jaden Lipinski, Sam Honzek, William Stromgren, Sam Morton, Jakob Pelletier
Defencemen: Artem Grushnikov, Jeremie Poirier, Colton Poolman, Mark Pysyk, Jordan Oesterle, Etienne Morin, Joni Jurmo, Brady Lyle, Yan Kuznetsov, Jonathan Aspirot
Goaltenders: Connor Murphy, Oscar Dansk, Matt Radomsky
Other Expected Players (unlikely Friday due to travel): Dustin Wolf, Matt Coronato, Ilya Solovyov, Adam Klapka
Abbotsford
Aatu Raty – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Tristen Nielsen – Sheldon Dries – Marc Gatcomb
Aidan McDonough – John Stevens – Arshdeep Bains
Chase Wouters – Ty Glover
Christian Wolanin – Guillaume Brisebois
Nick Cicek – Akito Hirose
Matt Irwin – Filip Johansson
Elias Pettersson
Zach Sawchenko
Nikita Tolopilo
Leaders
Calgary
Adam Klapka – 64GP, 21G, 24A
Ben Jones – 70GP, 21G, 22A
Matt Coronato – 40GP, 15G, 27A
Abbotsford
Linus Karlsson – 58GP, 21G, 36A
Arshdeep Bains – 57GP, 15G, 37A
Aatu Raty – 70GP, 18G, 33A
Notes and expectations
The Wranglers have had some subtractions since their last game and will have some additions expected in time for these games. Adam Klapka got the call-up to Calgary this week to get some more NHL time. He didn’t get into games earlier this week but did skate in the season finale against the San Jose Sharks where he scored his first NHL goal.
They also released a few players from their PTOs and ATOs. This included Matthew Wedman, who skated in 25 games with the squad this year and put up three points. Also released was goaltender Seth Eisele. Eisele did not get any game time in with Calgary. Sam Honzek is now listed as a roster player after finishing his season with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants but having his official start with the Wranglers delayed due to a minor injury.
A few other moves included the call-ups of Ilya Nikolaev and Matthew Radomsky. The Rapid City Rush ended their season on Apr. 13 and did not qualify for postseason play so these two players joined the Wranglers depth chart. Because of Connor Murphy’s success with the Wranglers this year, there hasn’t been a need to call up Matthew Radomsky for back-up so this is his first transaction to the Wranglers this year.
From the Flames, there are four players who are eligible and expected to rejoin the Wranglers. This includes Dustin Wolf, Matt Coronato, Adam Klapka and Ilya Solovyov. There may be a bit of load management with this group with them just playing on Thursday night. So, they are not expected to play on Friday but will likely be available and in town for Saturday. They’ll be available and key contributors to the Wranglers’ playoff run this year. Other players who have crossed over through the AHL and NHL this year like Connor Zary, Kevin Rooney, and Dryden Hunt are not eligible to join the Wranglers for playoffs and will go into off-season mode with the remainder of their Flames teammates.
This series starts on Friday night and continues into Saturday night to wrap up the regular season. Both games have an 8:00 p.m. MT start. These games will be streamed for a fee on AHL.tv and FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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