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Hunter Brzustewicz reflects on off-season, pre-season and the road ahead with the Wranglers

Photo credit: Photo Credit: Darren Scott Francis/Abbotsford Canucks

By Paige Siewert

Oct 19, 2026, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Oct 19, 2026, 01:28 EDT

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It’s been quite an eventful fall for Calgary Wranglers blueliner Hunter Brzustewicz.

After splitting last season between the AHL and NHL, many were thinking it was his time to be a full-timer in the NHL. Even he acknowledged he has work to do in his exit interview and was candid in saying he’s not quite an NHL player yet. Due to the roster changes over the summer and his waiver status being in his entry level contract, Hunter was cut from Flames camp and sent down to the Wranglers. He played in two preseason games and didn’t register any points. While he surely would like to be playing NHL games right now, he is facing his role and reality right now with grace and a humble mindset.

When he reflected on his preseason performance, he said:

“I felt better as I went. I thought the first game I started sort of slow a little bit. Just positioning-wise. Getting my feet underneath me in the first game. But like a short camp, you gotta be ready. I felt good throughout the summer. Really good at the end of summer. So all the stuff they told me to work on, I felt really good coming into camp.”

As an individual, Brzustewicz has been playing well, but finding an everyday partner for him on the blueline is still being determined. He spent quite a bit of time with Nick Cicek, Turner Ottenbreit and Artem Grushnikov last season with the Wranglers and Olli Maatta and Joel Hanley with the Flames. This year, he’s rotated between Mike Benning and Jake Livingstone. In adjusting to these new players and rotating pairings, he said:

“I’ve always talked about chemistry off the ice is just as important. I think that’s where it starts, the foundation. If you talk, you talk more on the ice and I think that goes a long way. I’m just trying to control what I can. But whoever I get paired up with, you just gotta be ready for it.”

Hunter Brzustewicz was one of the only blueliners that survived the summer on the AHL side with the exception of late-season ATO adds, Kent Anderson and Kyle Walker, who made the opening roster for the Wranglers but has since been sent down to the Rapid City Rush. For Brzustewicz, when he was in the NHL last season, he was battling with Brayden Pachal for a spot. Now, they’re both in the AHL battling for the next defensive call-up to the Flames. When asked about that dynamic, Brzustewicz said:

“We’re great. Everyone knows at the end of the day, it’s a business. It doesn’t matter who gets called up, you’re happy for them. You’re a teammate at the end of the day. At the same time, we’re both competitive and I think everyone wants to be in the NHL. I think that’s always the goal. If he’s working towards it, I’m working towards it. You’re happy for the guy next to you if it’s not you.”

When Pachal was sent down and some of the initial speculations were that the Flames may continue to carry eight defencemen in the NHL. with Brzustewicz the choice to take that spot by fans and insiders. Hunter Brzustewicz does a good job of blocking out the noise and just focusing on the controllable variables in his game and the results that come from it, come. He’s working the hardest he can for the call-up and when his time comes, he’ll be ready.

For now, he’s taking advantage of top paring minutes, time on the top power play unit, if not the second unit and how to react in big game moments early in the season. Just a few nights ago in San Jose, he saved an empty net goal by taking a penalty that was essential at that point in time. He has also been catching up well on the backcheck and has had a chance to showcase more of his scoring abilities.

In seven games this season so far, he has one goal, which was an empty-netter, and four assists. He sits at a plus-2 plus/minus rating and has been averaging two shots a game. The next game on the schedule is going to be an especially important one for him as he plays his brother Henry for the first time in their professional careers. Henry plays for the Reign and they’re set to play this week on Tuesday.

Hunter said ahead of this game, “I just want to beat my little brother. I can’t let him have all the wins sometimes.”

The last time these two played was in junior in a playoff series between Hunter’s team, the Kitchener Rangers and Henry’s team, the London Knights. The Knights swept the Rangers and ended their season. Understandable why Hunter is going to be especially amped up for this game.

As far as what the rest of the season looks like, that is going to be quite variable for number 48. He could be called up on a moment’s notice if there is an injury or trade at the big club level or he could be with the Wranglers for a while. The goal remains unchanged for him. Play in the NHL and, like he’s said multiple times before, is to treat that time like the blessing it is.

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