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FN AHL Report Cards: Dryden Hunt had career year despite the challenges his teams faced
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
May 14, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: May 14, 2026, 01:04 EDT
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Dryden Hunt wrapped up his fourth season in the Calgary Flames organization this season and served as one of the Wranglers’ alternate captains. He signed a two year, two way contract extension last June and continued to serve his role as a buffer between the NHL and AHL through this season. As a player who is approaching his 10th professional season, he still found ways to take his game to another level personally even when the teams he was assigned to struggled. 

Expectations

With the piece of mind with a contract in hand, Hunt didn’t need to necessarily put on a show this season to earn his next contract. That being said, Hunt isn’t one to fall under the radar to collect a paycheck. He went into this season as someone to challenge other depth players with the Flames for a spot on the opening roster and if he did not make it from the start of the season, he was expected to yo-yo a bit from the NHL to AHL. 
Hunt came off a 40 point year with the Wranglers in the 2024-25 season with 16 goals and 33 assists and while the actual amount of time he was called up to the Flames was longer than the five game stint implies, he continues to be a player that approaches this role with a positive attitude.

Performance

What remained consistent this season was Hunt’s role in injury coverage at the NHL and leadership in the AHL. However, an area where hunt exceeded expectations and surprised, was in his point production. Even with a minor injury that kept him out for a few weeks and three games with the Flames, Hunt put up career numbers at 30 years old.
People joke about dad strength for new fathers in professional sports but with Hunt performing this well in his first full season as a father, the shoe seems to fit. He talked about that dynamic at Wranglers exit interviews last month and said:
“It was fun. I think it helped me when it was a bit of a tougher season, we just weren’t happy with our record, and that kind of thing. But when you come home to bigger and better things, it makes the season kind of go just a little bit better in your mind. It was nice to bring him to the rink a couple days. When you’re younger, you always see the older guys bring their kids to the rink so it’s special to bring my son to the rink. It was a lot of fun having him here.”
Hunt led the Wranglers in overall points and assists with 18 goals and 45 assists for a total of 63 points in 52 games, averaging 1.21 points per game. He finished third in goals and the only players above him were some of his regular linemates in Martin Frk and Rory Kerins. He finished with a plus/minus of plus-4 and in three games with the Flames, he didn’t have any points but finished with a plus/minus of minus-3. 

Outlook

This season especially proved that Dryden Hunt can perform regardless of his environment. The Wranglers really struggled to find scoring, consistency and to just overall finish games at points in the season. Hunt was never one of the players in question when you would wonder what went wrong after a game. He proved there is more he can bring to his game and he didn’t hit his peak when he was younger. 
Guys like Hunt are great to have around the organization not only from a team chemistry standpoint but also with the reliability aspect. The Flames know the player he is and he is an easy call away when they need someone quick and aren’t in a spot to take a chance on a newer prospect with not a lot of NHL experience behind them. He even felt at the AHL level that the younger roster showed maturity as the season went on and experience built up. Hunt said:
“I think it’s just the maturity in our game. We had a lot of young guys. We had guys that got called up on the back end early in the year and guys come and fill in and they did a great job but it’s hard in this league. You play a lot of games in a short amount of nights and I think the maturity of our game got better as the year went on but it’s tough to close out those games. Those points mean a lot earlier on in the season and you kind of realize that as the year goes on. It was frustrating that we couldn’t figure it out and get into the postseason but I think we did a great job building throughout the year.”
The Wranglers finished at the bottom of the Pacific Division and had some tough stretches along the way. You’ve got to think that guys like Dryden Hunt were in those closed door meetings and helped their team navigate the emotions and frustrations that go through a season like that, and because of that, he helped cultivate a culture where the young guys still felt happy to come to work and play with the Wranglers every day.

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