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Series preview: Wranglers host Oilers affiliate with a couple of new faces from the Flames

Photo credit: Photo Credit: Eric Boldt/Calgary Wranglers

By Paige Siewert

Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 9, 2026, 09:54 EDT

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It’s been a quiet midweek in the AHL as no games took place league-wide for the second week of the season. All the action kicks back in this weekend. The Calgary Wranglers continue their four game homestand with a two game set against the Edmonton Oilers’ affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. The Wranglers have a perfect 2-0 record and the Condors come into this series 1-1 after a split against the Henderson Silver Knights last week.

Last game’s lines

Calgary

Dryden Hunt – Ben Jones – Aydar Suniev (inactive)

William Stromgren – Rory Kerins – Alex Nylander

Sam Morton – Tyson Gross – Andrew Basha

Will Dineen – Jonathan Castagna (inactive) – Luke Philp

Jake Livingstone – Hunter Brzustewicz

Abram Wiebe – Mike Benning

Axel Hurtig – Kent Anderson

Kirill Zarubin

Bakersfield

Aku Raty – Viljsmi Marjala – Quinn Hutson

Eduards Tralmaks – Robertson – Griffith

Jack Kopacka – Simon Tassy – Daniel D’Amato

Connor Clattenburg – William Nicholl – Ethan Keppen

Damien Carfagna – Tomas Cibulka

Samuel Sjolund – Josh Brown

Riley Stillman – Beau Akey

Matt Tomkins

Connor Ungar

Leaders

Calgary

Alex Nylander – 2GP, 3A

Jonathan Castagna – 2GP, 2G (inactive on NHL call-up)

Axel Hurtig – 2GP, 2G

Bakersfield

Quinn Hutson – 2GP, 2G, 1A

Josh Brown – 2GP, 3A

Daniel D’Amato – 2GP, 1G, 1A

Notes and expectations

For a quieter week in game action, it was a louder week on the side of roster changes. On Monday, the Flames announced that Connor Zary and Brayden Pachal were placed on waivers. By midday Tuesday, it was confirmed that they cleared and they were both assigned to the Wranglers. On the flip side of that, the Flames called up Aydar Suniev and Jonathan Castagna to fill the open spots. Both made their season debuts in Thursday’s game against the Avalanche, with Castagna making his NHL debut. For Zary and Pachal, no NHL player ever wants to take a step down so their response to that in this series will be quite noticeable.

These two players come into a strong Wranglers lineup, but need their playing time. They’ll likely slot in on the top lines or pairings depending on how the line chemistry looked throughout the week at practice. Pachal will pretty much be playing with new blueliners but Connor Zary has at least seen a few forwards up with the Flames and was teammates with William Stromgren, Rory Kerins, Dryden Hunt, Alex Gallant and Ben Jones in his last full season in the AHL and Luke Philp previously with the Stockton Heat. He was lined up with Dryden Hunt and William Stromgren at practice.

In media availabilities this week at practice, both Pachal and Zary shared their disappointment in the roster moves but realize they have a job to do to earn their way back up. The coaching staff also backs them and feel as if they are approaching these moves in a mature way. Zary and Pachal are expected to make their Wranglers season debuts on Friday pending any other roster changes.

This series starts on Friday at 7:00 p.m. MT and continues into Sunday for a 1:00 p.m. MT start. These games are streamed for a fee on AHLtv on Flo Hockey or the radio broadcasts will be streamed on the Wranglers’ Mixlr channel. Daily Faceoff Calgary contributors Ryan Pike and I will have live updates on X (formerly Twitter).

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