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Meet the new Calgary Wranglers roster additions for 2026-27

Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers

By Paige Siewert

Aug 4, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 4, 2026, 12:15 EDT

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The 2026-27 season will be a year of many new faces for the Calgary Wranglers. 15 of last year’s players are gone to other teams in and out of North America, including their second captain in team history, Clark Bishop. So before things kick into gear, let’s get to know the new guys who will be donning the Flaming W threads this fall and winter. There are seven true new players, two players who were formerly in Calgary’s AHL system and five guys who got previews on or with the Flames and Wranglers at the end of last season.

Two-way NHL deals

The Flames already have quite a few forwards signed and extended on NHL deals. This includes guys like Dryden Hunt, William Stromgren, Sam Morton, Andrew Basha, and Aydar Suniev. For the new contracts they dealt out this off-season, it mostly went to defencemen.

Ben Jones

27 years old, 6’0”, 187 lbs

Drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights 189th overall in 2017

Position: Left wing and centre (shoots left)

Last Team: Iowa Wild (captain)/Minnesota Wild

Last season’s performance:

AHL – 37GP, 12G, 20A, 32 total points

NHL – 28GP, 1G, 2A, 3 total points

Axel Hurtig

21 years old, 6’5”, 216 lbs

Drafted by the Calgary Flames 208th overall in 2023

Position: Left shot defenceman

Last Team: Calgary Hitmen (captain)

Last season’s performance: 64GP, 6G, 13A, 19 total points

Michael Benning

24 years old, 5’9”, 175 lbs

Drafted by the Florida Panthers 95th overall in 2020

Position: Right shot defenceman

Last Team: Florida Panthers/Charlotte Checkers

Last season’s performance:

AHL – 57GP, 8G, 23A, 31 total points

NHL – 18GP, 2G, 4A, 6 total points

Jake Livingstone

27 years old, 6’4”, 214 lbs

Undrafted, NCAA free agent signing

Position: Right shot defenceman

Last Team: Charlotte Checkers

Last season’s performance: 52GP, 3G, 14A, 17 total points

Andreas Englund

30 years old, 6’3”, 201 lbs

Drafted by the Ottawa Senators 40th overall in 2014

Position: Left shot defenceman

Last Team: Nashville Predators/Milwaukee Admirals

Last season’s performance:

AHL – 52GP, 3G, 10A, 13 total points

NHL – 3 games played, 0 total points

Kirill Zarubin

20 years old, 6’3”, 207 lbs

Drafted by the Calgary Flames 84th overall in 2024

Position: Goaltender (catches left)

Last Team: AKM Tula (MHL)

Last season’s performance: 48GP, .930 save percentage, 2.17 GAA, record of 26-13-3

AHL Deals

The Wranglers and Rapid City Rush need buffer players to account for potential injuries, call-ups and beyond. There are always a few AHL contracts floating around and for these signings, it was a pretty even mix of forwards and defencemen.

Luke Philp

30 years old, 5’10”, 181 lbs

Undrafted, USports free agent signing

Position: Centre/right wing (shoots right)

Last Team: Farjestad BK (SHL)

Last season’s performance: 52GP, 13G, 22A, 35 total points

Ryder Boulton

20 years old, 5’10”, 194 lbs

Undrafted, OHL signing

Position: Left wing/right wing (shoots left)

Last Team: Brantford Bulldogs

Last season’s performance: 48GP, 4G, 4A, 8 total points

Semyon Konopsky

20 years old, 6’5”, 194 lbs

Undrafted, MHL signing

Position: Goaltender

Last Team: Loko-76 Yaroslavl (MHL)

Last season’s performance: 17GP, .930 save percentage, 2.28 GAA, record of 8-5-1

New(ish) guys

All four of these guys got time around Calgary teams last season. Tyson Gross, Abram Wiebe and Jonathan Castagna mostly with the Flames and Kent Anderson and Kyle Walker with the Wranglers. Their appearances were limited and towards the end of the year so here are a few more details on them.

Jonathan Castagna

21 years old, 6’2”, 203 lbs

Drafted by the Arizona Coyotes 70th overall in 2023

Position: Centre/left wing (shoots left)

Contract: ELC

Last Team: Cornell University (alternate captain)

Last season’s performance: 34GP, 15G, 19A, 34 total points

Tyson Gross

23 years old, 6’3”, 194 lbs

Undrafted, NCAA free agent signing

Position: Centre (shoots right)

Contract: ELC

Last Team: St. Cloud State University (captain)/Calgary Flames

Last season’s performance:

NCAA – 36GP, 18G, 23A, 41 total points

NHL – 6GP, 1G, 1 total point

Abram Wiebe

22 years old, 6’3”, 209 lbs

Drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights 209th overall in 2022

Position: Left shot defenceman

Contract: ELC

Last Team: University of North Dakota (alternate captain)/Calgary Flames

Last season’s performance:

NCAA – 40GP, 5G, 24A, 29 total points

NHL – 4GP, 0 points

Kent Anderson

22 years old, 6’3”, 205 lbs

Undrafted, NCAA free agent signing

Position: Right shot defenceman

Contract: AHL deal

Last Team: University of Denver (captain, NCAA Championship winner)/Calgary Wranglers

Last season’s performance:

NCAA – 43GP, 2G, 2A, 4 total points

AHL – 2GP, 0 total points

Kyle Walker

26 years old, 6’3”, 203 lbs

Undrafted, USports signing

Position: Left shot defenceman

Contract: AHL deal

Last Team: Mount Royal University/Reading Royals/Calgary Wranglers

Last season’s performance:

USports – 28GP, 4G, 16A, 20 total points

ECHL – 3GP, 0 total points

AHL – 3GP, 0 total points

This is shaping up to be an interesting roster this fall and while many of them will need to get to know each other in a quick pre-season and AHL camp, I do expect the personalities that remain to help bring this group together. The initial impressions of select players on this list through the rookie camp in early July and their interactions in end-of-season practices is good and positive and they seem ready to buy into the Flames’ system. I imagine it will take a bit of time to get everyone clicking and to establish roles and lineups but by the end of 2026, we should have a much better idea on how well these guys work together.

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