Calgary Wranglers win Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as AHL regular season champions

With a 3–2 victory over the Abbotsford Canucks on Saturday night, the Calgary Wranglers officially captured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the AHL’s top team in the 2022–23 regular season.

The Wranglers finished their inaugural campaign with a 51–17–4 record and 106 points in 72 games. Naturally, as the league’s top team, the Wranglers also finished atop the Pacific Division and earned a bye through the first round of the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs.

Nick DeSimone, Dryden Hunt, and Adam Klapka scored for the Wranglers on Saturday. Fresh off making his NHL debut earlier this week, Dustin Wolf made 28 saves to lock down his AHL-leading 42nd victory of the year.

Although they’d never won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy before this season, this isn’t the first time the Wranglers franchise has finished near the top of the AHL standings. Under the Stockton Heat moniker in 2021–22, the team finished second in the league with a 45–16–7 record, winning the Pacific but ultimately falling to the Kilpatrick Trophy-winning Chicago Wolves in the Western Conference Final.

Back in 2001, the Saint John Flames won the Calder Cup after defeating the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in six games in the AHL championship final series. To date, it remains the only title won by the Flames’ AHL affiliate, as well as the most recent professional hockey championship captured by a Calgary Sports and Entertainment-owned team.

The Wranglers will now embark upon what they undoubtedly hope will be a long playoff run. With their “W” logo painted under the ice at the Scotiabank Saddledome, the Wranglers will enjoy home-ice advantage throughout the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs.

The 2022 Heat also enjoyed a first-round bye and dispatched the Bakersfield Condors and Colorado Eagles en route to a berth in the Western Conference Final. It remains to be seen whether the Wranglers will be able to avoid picking up rust while the other six playoff teams in the Pacific square off in best-of-three series.

We’ll have all the details on the Wranglers’ playoff schedule when it becomes available.