The Calgary Wranglers opened their 2026-27 regular season on Friday night, defeating the visiting Abbotsford Canucks at the Saddledome.

The Wranglers had a disappointing season in 2025-26, and they went through quite a few changes over the off-season. Of the 20 players that donned the Flaming W sweater in the season-opener, nine were playing their first game for the Wranglers and two more were returning to the Flames’ affiliate after time away.

Four players ended up playing their first-ever American Hockey League games in the win: defencemen Abram Wiebe and Axel Hurtig, and forwards Tyson Gross and Jonathan Castagna. The quartet ended up being among the Wranglers’ stand-outs in the win.

Here’s how their debuts went.

A Calgary native, this 24-year-old centre signed an entry-level deal with the Flames as a college free agent back in March after his senior year with St. Cloud State University, where he served as captain. Gross joined the Flames and played six games, scoring his first NHL goal during his stint.

In his AHL debut, Gross centred a line with Sam Morton and Andrew Basha. He ended up scoring the Wranglers’ second goal midway through the first period, receiving a pass from Alex Nylander in the slot and firing a wrister past Nikita Tolopilo.

Originally drafted by Vegas and acquired by the Flames in the Rasmus Andersson trade, Wiebe joined the Flames after his junior year with the University of North Dakota, signing his entry-level deal in April, just prior to the end of the NHL season. He got into four games with the Flames.

In his first AHL game, Wiebe skated with Mike Benning on the Wranglers’ second pairing. He didn’t register any points, but he played pretty capably, including navigating a scrambly section of the second period after his stick broke and he had to use Aydar Suniev’s stick to defend.

Originally drafted by Utah and acquired by the Flames in the MacKenzie Weegar trade, Castagna signed his entry-level deal with the Flames in the spring but it didn’t kick in until the fall – he was a bit banged-up after Cornell’s college season so he didn’t play any pro games, but he was around the Flames and Wranglers getting the lay of the land.

Castagna had a pretty great first pro game. He played on the fourth line with Will Dineen and Luke Philp, but he also was a pretty significant part of a pretty effective Wranglers penalty kill that successfully nullified four Abbotsford power plays.

Oh, and he scored twice, getting his own rebound in the net-front area in the first period to open the scoring, then adding an empty-netter to close it out.

A seventh-round selection by the Flames, Hurtig is going pro this year after a pair of seasons with the Calgary Hitmen, including spending last season as captain. He signed his entry-level deal with the Flames in the spring.

In his pro debut, Hurtig played on the third pairing with Kent Anderson, another rookie. (Anderson captained the University of Denver’s NCAA championship team last spring, then played twice with the Wranglers.) Hurtig and Anderson were rock solid, though on a couple occasions Hurtig was a bit too focused on the puck and Abbotsford forwards managed to sneak behind him, leading to scoring chances. But considering their pairing had a combined two pro games prior to the season-opener, they were quite good.

Wranglers head coach Brett Sutter offered his assessment of the four players making their AHL debuts following the game.

“You know what? I didn’t think any of them played like first-year players tonight,” said Sutter. “I thought they did a really, really good job. I thought even the back end, especially the first half of the game, like three rookies in the lineup on D, and they did a good job shutting down plays and denying plays early and showing some composure. So I thought, to a man, they were all really good.”

The Wranglers return to action on Saturday evening to conclude their opening series with Abbotsford.