Series preview: Wranglers host Canucks for last two home games of the season
17 days ago
The Calgary Wranglers have four games to go in the regular AHL season and all four of them will be played against the Abbotsford Canucks. This week, they host their opponents to the West and next week they’ll switch venues and face off in Abbotsford. Both of these squads have clinched playoff spots, so their head-to-head will solidify their seedings for the first round of post-season play.
Projected lineups
Calgary
Jakob Pelletier – Ben Jones – Sam Morton
Mitch McLain – Cole Schwindt – William Stromgren
Rory Kerins – David Silye – Adam Klapka
Brett Sutter – Matthew Wedman – Alex Gallant
Jordan Oesterle – Mark Pysyk
Jeremie Poirier – Colton Poolman
Jonathan Aspriot – Yan Kuznetsov
Connor Murphy
Oscar Dansk
Other Options: Riley Damiani (C), Lucas Ciona (LW), Clark Bishop (C), Parker Bell (LW), Artem Grushnikov (D), Brady Lyle (D), Etienne Morin (D), Joni Jurmo (D), Seth Eisele (G)
Abbotsford
Aatu Raty – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Tristen Nielsen – Sheldon Dries – Marc Gatcomb
Arshdeep Bains – John Stevens – Jonathan Lekkerimaki
Aidan McDonough – Chase Wouters
Christian Wolanin – Nick Cicek
Matt Irwin – Akito Hirose
Elias Pettersson – Filip Johansson
Alex Kannok Leipert
Zach Sawchenko
Nikita Tolopilo
Leaders
Calgary
Adam Klapka – 62GP, 21G, 23A
Ben Jones – 68GP, 21G, 22A
Matt Coronato – 40GP, 15G, 27A
Abbotsford
Linus Karlsson – 56GP, 20G, 26A
Aatu Raty – 68GP, 18G, 33A
Arshdeep Baines – 55GP 15G, 36A
Notes and expectations
The Wranglers did have some moves affect them, but not in a bad way. Starting with the call-up of Ilya Solovyov on Apr. 8. The Flames are mathematically eliminated from the NHL playoffs so other cusp players may be pulled up for the last few games of the regular season. For now, it has just been Solovyov but they still have a lot of depth they could test out, especially at centre.
Other Flames prospects’ seasons have ended on the collegiate and junior side of things. 2023 second-round draft pick Etienne Morin finished up his season with the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats, signed an ATO and joined the Wranglers for practice on Wednesday. He will be available for this weekend’s games, so it’s up to the coaching staff to make room in the lineup for him if that’s the direction they are going. Morin had 49 points in 58 games with the Wildcats this season as a blueliner.
Other 2023 draft picks such as Samuel Honzek and Jade Lipinski are said to be the next additions to the AHL lineup according to Sportsnet’s Pat Steinberg. Both of them were with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants this year and were eliminated from the playoffs on Apr. 7. Honzek was dealing with injury for part of this season but still put up 31 points in 33 games. Lipinski was one of the team’s alternate captains and put up 66 points in 67 games in the regular season. This move to the Wranglers has not been announced by the team yet but if and when it is, these players would also be available options for the Wranglers’ playoff run.
Looking into the teams as a whole, the Canucks and Wranglers did not have great showings in their last match-ups. The Canucks fell to the Roadrunners 7-2 last Sunday and the Wranglers fell 5-2 to the Condors last Saturday. Head-to-head, Calgary has the edge in the Abbotsford season series. They sit at 5-1-2-0 on the year but their lead could change depending on how the rest of their games go.
The Calgary side of this series starts on Thursday evening and continues into Friday. These will be the last two home games for the Wranglers in the regular season with Friday being a fan appreciation night. Both games have a start time of 7:00 p.m. and if you can’t catch them in person, you can follow along with the radio broadcast on the Fan960 or stream them for a fee on AHL.tv. FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
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