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Projecting the Calgary Wranglers’ 2026-27 roster after the 2026 NHL Draft
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Jun 29, 2026, 08:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 29, 2026, 02:00 EDT
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The Calgary Wranglers, like the Flames are looking to make a huge improvement on the 2025-26 season and move forward with a clean slate going into the last season in the Saddledome. This organization is trying to make moves to put them back in a contender conversation and develop their new and existing assets to fit into that plan. For the Wranglers’ side of things, they finished the season far from a playoff spot, and with five unrestricted free agents and 10 restricted free agents. Many are still pending contracts, but this is what the AHL roster is starting to form into.

Confirmed player options

The Wranglers have quite a few players from last year’s roster still without contracts, UFAs and RFAs alike. The ones that have been locked down are listed below. Some of these players like Sam Honzek, Hunter Brzustewicz and Aydar Suniev, may be optioned to the Flames depending on how their camps go, but they have the flexibility to play in the AHL if the situation calls for it due to their waiver-exempt ELCs. 
Left Wingers – Andrew Basha, Alex Gallant, Dryden Hunt, Sam Honzek
Centres – Jonathan Castagna,  Rory Kerins, Sam Morton, Tyson Gross
Right Wingers – Aydar Suniev
Left-Shot Defencemen – Axel Hurtig, Kyle Walker, Abram Wiebe 
Right-Shot Defencemen – Kent Anderson, Hunter Brzustewicz 
Goaltenders – Arsenii Sergeev, Kirill Zarubin

Projected roster

After the dust of the draft settles, the evaluation of the picks who are available for AHL assignment and free agent signings will begin with the Flames. The Wranglers have already lost some assets such as Etienne Morin, Martin Frk, Daniil Miromanov and Simon Mack. They’ll need to beef up their scoring with their top goalscorer, Frk, signing in the KHL. 
The AHL squad will want to hang on to a few veterans and already have some of their leaders from last season locked down like Sam Morton, Rory Kerins and Dryden Hunt. There will likely be some unpredictable additions depending on how things shake out in the remainder of the summer and into the fall. An educated guess of the roster at this point in the off-season might look something like this:
Left Wingers – Dryden Hunt, Andrew Basha, Brennan Othmann, Alex Gallant, Lucas Ciona, Sam Honzek 
Centres – Tyson Gross, Jonathan Castagna, Rory Kerins, Sam Morton, Carter King
Right Wingers – Aydar Suniev, William Stromgren, Parker Bell
Left-Shot Defencemen – Axel Hurtig, Abram Wiebe, Kyle Walker, Artem Grushnikov 
Right-Shot Defencemen – Kent Anderson, Hunter Brzustewicz, Gavin White
Goaltenders – Arsenii Sergeev, Owen Say, Kirill Zarubin 

Changes on the horizon

The chatter in the Calgary market is that multiple Wranglers from last year, including Nick Cicek, Ivan Prosvetov, Justin Kirkland and Clark Bishop, are expected to test the market in free agency and may not be back next season. If that is the case, the Wranglers will lose their second captain in team history and the next player to be in that role could go to a few different players. Cicek was also wearing an A for the squad, so if both are gone in addition to Martin Frk, some other members of the AHL team are going to get their chance to showcase their leadership abilities. 
Justin Kirkland and Nick Cicek are likely looking for teams where they have better chances at NHL time and as more prospects are added to the pool for the Flames, so is the competition at their positions. The team is trending in the younger direction and with many prospects opting to play their upcoming seasons in the NCAA or on their Junior teams, it may be now or never for some of the cusp players looking to emerge with the Flames.
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