This season, there has been a revolving door of transactions between the Calgary Wranglers and Calgary Flames. Since the last time the Wranglers were in action, multiple other transactions took place that took away a couple of key players on their squad but reassigned others for their use. The Wranglers need some help at this point in their season after dropping both games to the Coachella Valley Firebirds and Bakersfield Condors this week. 

Projected lineups

Calgary 
Forwards: Mitch McLain, Ilya Nikolaev, Lucas Ciona, Ben Jones, Clark Bishop, Alex Gallant, Rory Kerins, Mark Rassell, Mark Duarte, William Stromgren, Emilio Pettersen, Jakob Pelletier
Injured: Brett Sutter, Dryden Hunt, Kevin Rooney
Defensemen: Colton Poolman, Ilya Solovyov, Mark Pysyk, Brady Lyle, Yan Kuznetsov, Jonathan Aspirot, Sam Jardine
Injured: Jeremie Poirier
Goaltenders: Dustin Wolf, Oscar Dansk
San Jose
Ethan Cardwell – Kyle Rau – Tristen Robins
Danil Gushchin – Jack Studnicka – Nathan Todd
Oskar Lindblom – Cole Cassels – Scott Sabourin
Jordy Bellerive – Tanner Kaspick – Jacob Peterson
Artem Guryev – Shakir Mukhamadullin (Inactive on call-up)
Valtteri Pulli – Radim Simek
Nikolai Knyzhov – Ethan Frisch 
Eetu Makiniemi 
Georgi Romanov

Leaders 

Calgary 
Matt Coronato – 27GP, 12G, 17A (inactive on NHL call-up)
Emilio Pettersen – 37G, 7G, 19A
Ben Jones – 37GP, 12G, 12A
San Jose
Danil Gushchin – 38GP, 14G, 23A
Nathan Todd – 38GP, 8G, 20A
Leon Gawanke – 26GP, 8G, 19A

Notes and expectations

For Wranglers lineup updates, let’s start with who is up with the NHL club. Adam Klapka was called up last weekend for the first time in his NHL career and has skated in three games with the Flames so far. Cole Schwindt was called up shortly after as a new fourth-line centre position emerged. Walker Duehr also got the call from the Flames on Thursday after playing in just two games with the Wranglers.
A few more permanent losses hit the Wranglers the last few days too. Adam Ruzicka and Nick DeSimone were put on waivers by the Flames on Wednesday for the purpose of AHL assignment. By Thursday afternoon, both were picked up by different NHL teams. Former Wranglers alternate captain, Nick DeSimone, is headed to the New Jersey Devils and Adam Ruzicka’s new home will be with the Arizona Coyotes. 
Now for the ones who have returned. Jacob Markstrom has since returned to game action and that has brought Dustin Wolf back for the Wranglers. At a good time too. Oscar Dansk has been a solid backup this year and has risen to the occasion when Wolf is called upon. However, their last game was a little out of character and Connor Murphy, who has since returned to Rapid City, had to come in relief of Dansk after he let in six goals from the Condors. 
Perhaps the biggest return for the Wranglers in this series is Jakob Pelletier. Pelletier is expected to skate in his first game of the season after suffering a shoulder injury in the preseason that required surgery. He is ready for game action and depending on his progress, will likely be on a path back up to the Flames lineup.
Pelletier’s return for this series kicks off on Friday at 8:00 p.m. MT. It will continue into Saturday for an hour earlier start time of 7:00 p.m. MT. Both 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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