At points of last season, Rory Kerins was in and out of the Calgary Wranglers’ lineup and a call-up to the National Hockey League seemed very far away. Flash forward to this season, and there’s possibly no player in minor league hockey who’s done more to elevate his stock.

On the basis of 10 strong offensive games over the past month, on Friday the American Hockey League announced that Kerins was their Player of the Month for October.

Kerins, 22, was a sixth-round pick by the Flames in the 2020 NHL Draft. He went pro in 2022 but spent the majority of his first season (2022-23) with the ECHL’s Rapid City Rush. He spent all of 2023-24 with the Wranglers and showed flashes of brilliance with 16 goals and 32 points on the season, but he was a spectator here and there – and his scoring dipped – down the stretch and he dressed for just a single playoff game.

The current campaign is the final one on Kerins’ entry-level contract and with several promising young forwards behind him waiting for their opportunities at playing pro hockey in the near future, this season is a great opportunity for Kerins to attempt to lay claim to a prominent spot in the Flames’ prospect pecking order.

Through 10 games in October, Kerins had nine goals and two assists for 11 points. He leads the AHL in goals outright, and is tied with teammate Walker Duehr and Milwaukee’s Vinnie Hinostroza for the league lead in points. It remains to be seen if Kerins has developed into a more well-rounded player than he’s shown in the first two seasons of his ELC, but at the very least he’s shown that he can be a tremendously useful offensive player in spurts.

Time will tell if Kerins’ superb October is an aberration, or perhaps a sign that he’s turned a corner and become as effective in pro hockey as he was as a junior with the Ontario Hockey League’s Soo Greyhounds.

The Wranglers are back in action on Tuesday night when they face the Bakersfield Condors.