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Series Preview: Wranglers head to Abbotsford for their first road series of 2026
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Jan 10, 2026, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Jan 9, 2026, 21:32 EST
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The Calgary Wranglers are headed west for a short road trip to Abbotsford, BC. They had a jam packed schedule out of the Christmas break and finally had this week to catch their breath and recover before returning to game action. They play a back-to-back weekend series for their first road trip of 2026. 

Last game’s lines

Calgary
William Stromgren (inactive) – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt 
Matvei Gridin – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Carter King – Sam Morton – Parker Bell
Alex Gallant – David Silye – Lucas Ciona
Turner Ottenbreit – Daniil Miromanov 
Nick Cicek – Artem Grushnikov  
Simon Mack – Etienne Morin 
Arsenii Sergeev (starter)
Owen Say 
Abbotsford
Lukas Reichel – Nils Aman – Josh Bloom
Vilmer Alriksson – Ty Mueller – Dino Kambeitz 
Anri Ravinskis – Chase Wouters – Cooper Walker
Jackson Kunz – Nick Poisson – Zach Okabe 
Jimmy Schuldt – Victor -Mancini 
Nikolai Knyzhov – Jett Woo
Joe Arntsen – Philp Waugh 
Jiri Patera (starter)
Nikita Tolopilo  

Leaders

Calgary
Rory Kerins – 33GP, 13G, 20A
Martin Frk – 36GP, 14G, 17A
William Stromgren – 33GP, 6G, 23A (inactive on NHL call-up)
Abbotsford
Ben Berard – 31GP, 8G, 9A
Nils Aman – 25GP, 2G, 15A
Sawyer Mynio – 31GP, 3G, 10A

Notes and expectations

This week was a big one for Wrangler, William Stromgren. It was announced by the Flames on Monday that he was called up for the first time in his professional career. He told the media he found out this news after the Wranglers’ game on Sunday and officially made his NHL debut on Wednesday against the Montreal Canadiens, but was scratched the next night against the Boston Bruins. Owen Say also got a look at the NHL but just from the bench. On Monday, he was recalled to the Flames on an emergency basis to cover for Devin Cooley, who was sick. Say didn’t see any ice time and has since returned to the AHL. 
The rest of the Wranglers squad got a much lighter week than what they were subject to after the Christmas break. They had five days between games and finally got some time to refine things at practice in their home buildings. After Sunday’s loss to the Roadrunners, Head Coach Brett Sutter talked about the break between games after playing six in nine days. He said:
“Yeah, you know what? It’s going to be nice to get some practice time. Really. We haven’t had a stretch of practice in two months now being on the road and travelling and coming home and playing every second day. So that’s going to be huge for us. Just work on some of the details in our game, some of the structure stuff that we have to clean up and even getting some conditioning in and that sort of thing and letting guys heal up. Really important few weeks for us and we’re going to get some work in for sure.”
On the other end of the ice, Abbotsford is not as fresh as Calgary is coming into this series, as they played a back-to-back against the Bakersfield Condors back on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday’s game resulted in a 5-3 loss for the Canucks and Thursday’s resulted in a 4-1 loss. Both the Wranglers and Canucks are going to be looking to get back in the win column in this series. 
This series kicks off on Saturday night for an 8:00 p.m. MT puck drop. They’ll play game two the following afternoon at 4:00 p.m. MT. You can stream the games for a fee on Flo Hockey and FlamesNation contributors Ryan Pike and I will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).

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