The Wranglers and Firebirds last met in the playoffs, when Coachella Valley ended Calgary’s season and made their way to Calder Cup runner-ups. While there has been some NHL graduations and roster changes since their last game, the sting of their last meeting remains. We’ll see if it translates to a physical brand of hockey in their first meeting of the 2024-25 season.

Jakob Pelletier – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt

William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Martin Frk

Lucas Ciona – Clark Bishop – Walker Duehr

Ilya Nikolaev – Jaden Lipinski

Ilya Solovyov – Hunter Brzustewicz

Jeremie Poirier – Jarred Tinordi

Artem Grushnikov – Yan Kuznetsov

Jonathan Aspirot (Rotating through pairings)

Devin Cooley

Waltteri Ignatjew

Max McCormick – Ben Meyers – Ryan Winterdon

Lleyton Roed – Mitchell Stephens – John Hayden

David Goyette –  Logan Morrison – Jacob Melanson

Jani Nyman – Brandon Biro – Jagger Firkus

Gustav Olofsson – Cale Fleury

Maxime LaJoie – Ville Ottavainen

Nikolas Brouillard – Ty Nelson

Ales Stezka

Niklas Kokko

Rory Kerins – 2GP, 2G,1A

Jakob Pelletier – 2GP, 3A

Walker Duehr – 2GP, 1G, 1A

Jagger Firkus – 1GP, 1G

Brandon Biro – 1GP, 1A

Ty Nelson – 1GP, 1A

At this point in the season, just week two, the Wranglers have two games under their belts and the Firebirds have just one. Calgary split their opening series against the Abbotsford over the weekend in two close decisions. Coachella Valley hosted the Bakersfield Condors on Friday and lost 2-1.

With just one goal on the opposing end, there’s not much to report or expect out of the Firebirds right off the bat. The Wranglers, on the other hand, have a couple of players off to a hot start.

The new combination of Calgary’s top line including Jakob Pelletier, Rory Kerins and Dryden Hunt has generated chemistry right from their first few shifts. This line has already combined for seven points in two games with both Kerins and Pelletier having multi-point games in the season opener.

The Wranglers’ new netminder, Devin Cooley, also showed some early character with the organization with his bounce back effort and overall performance on Saturday. He got his first game jitters out and really showed his confidence to help lead Calgary to a win. With three games this week, he likely won’t start all of them, but I would not be surprised if we see him in two out of three.

The Kraken affiliates and the Wranglers only get a single midweek match-up this week before they move on to their respective weekend series’. They’ll face off on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. MT. Streaming options are available on Flo Hockey and keep an eye out on X for live updates from FlamesNation contributors such as myself.