The Calgary Wranglers are taking a break from the Scotiabank Saddledome and hitting the road while the Flames use the venue. They play two games this week, starting with a Friday match-up against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. They’re once again without their All-Star goaltender as Dustin Wolf was called up to the Calgary Flames earlier this week. That is just one of the multiple moves between the Wranglers and Flames this week. 

Projected lineups

Calgary
Emilio Pettersen – Clark Bishop – Matt Coronato
Mark Rassell – Ben Jones – Walker Duehr
William Stromgren – Cole Schwindt – Mitch McLain
Lukas Ciona – Rory Kerins – Alex Gallant
Ilya Solovyov – Mark Pysyk
Jonathan Aspirot – Colton Poolman
Oliver Kylington – Brady Lyle
Oscar Dansk
Connor Murphy
Additional possible lineup options – Ilya Nikolaev, Jakob Pelletier and/or Kevin Rooney.
Coachella Valley
Forwards: Luke Henman, Kole Lind, Max McCormick, Cameron Hughes, Ian McKinnon, Andrew Poturalski, Ryan Winterton, Tucker Robertson, Ville Petman, Marian Studenic, Shane Wright, Jacob Melanson, Logan Morrison
Defensemen: Peetro Seppala, Cale Fleury, Mitch Reinke, Ryan Jones, Gustav Olofsson, Ville Ottavainen, Jimmy Schuldt, Connor Carrick
Goaltenders: Cale Morris, Ales Stezka, Jack LaFontaine 

Leaders

Calgary
Matt Coronato – 27GP, 12G, 17A
Emilio Pettersen – 35GP, 7G, 19A
Ben Jones – 35GP, 11G, 12A
Coachella Valley
Cameron Hughes – 36GP, 10G, 23A
Max McCormick – 34GP, 15G, 16A
Kole Lind – 34GP, 6G, 21A

Notes and expectations 

The Wranglers have a long list of injuries that provide hope of reinforcements but the timelines are unknown. After his 2023-24 debut on Jan. 11, Oliver Kylington was held out with a groin injury but might be healed enough to play during this road trip. Jakob Pelletier and Kevin Rooney have been practicing and once they are ready, it would make some major improvements to the lineup. 
Even with injuries out of the picture, there are guaranteed to be some lineup adjustments for this game against Coachella Valley. The Flames announced on Wednesday that they put Walker Duehr on waivers for the purpose of an AHL assignment. He cleared and was sent to the minors, so he is available for the Wranglers for this game. 
To get some depth back up to the NHL team’s homestand, the Flames called up Adam Klapka. This is his first NHL call-up in just his second year in professional hockey. He has yet to play an NHL game, but that may change soon. Adam Klapka was fourth in team scoring before his call up with 21 points in 33 games played. 
The organization did a right winger for a right winger straight swap so Duehr could very well slot into the second line in Klapka’s spot. Duehr played in 50 games with the Wranglers last year (including playoffs) and earned himself an NHL contract over the summer. Their game against the Firebirds should be his first game with the team this year. 
As mentioned earlier, Dustin Wolf is back up with Calgary to cover another minor injury Jacob Markstrom is fighting off. Wolf will not be available for this game and likely not Saturday either. Connor Murphy was expected to come back up to backup Oscar Dansk and a transaction from Rapid City confirmed that on Thursday. 
In the standings, there is a bit of a difference between these teams. The Wranglers sit narrowly in second in the Pacific Division while the Firebirds are in fourth place in the division. Head to head the Firebirds have an advantage over the Wranglers. Both in the season record and the overall record. 
They’ve played three times this season with their last match-up taking place a couple of weeks ago. The Wranglers won in the first meeting between these two on Nov. 11 with a 4-1 final score and fell in the second one on Jan. 1 with a 6-1 final score. The latest game between these two was on Jan. 2, which finished with a 3-1 final score for the Firebirds. A win on Friday would even the score in the overall 5-6-0-0 record and the 1-2-0-0 season record for the Wranglers. 
These teams play on Friday night in a busy night in the AHL with nine other games on the schedule. The Wranglers and Firebirds play at 8:00 p.m. MT. These games can be streamed for a fee on AHL.tv and FlamesNation contributors Mike Gould and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).

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