The Calgary Wranglers, who were at one point this year the AHL’s best team, have had an up and down year that caused them to drop in the standings. Their play in 2025 put their playoff qualification chances at risk, but they still managed to secure the fifth seed in the Pacific Division, earning a playoff berth. Now is the time when the regular season goes out the window and playoff performance is all that matters in the short-term. They get started on Tuesday in round one of the playoffs against the fourth-seeded Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Projected lines
Calgary
Rory Kerins – Sam Morton – Dryden Hunt
William Stromgren – Sam Honzek – Martin Frk
Clark Bishop – Carter King – Ty Tullio
Alex Gallant – Cater Wilkie – Lucas Ciona
Yan Kuznetsov – Hunter Brzustewicz
Ilya Solovyov – Simon Mack
Jonathan Aspirot – Jeremie Poirier
Devin Cooley/Waltteri Ignatjew
Connor Murphy
Coachella Valley
Nathan Villeneuve – Logan Morrison – Jagger Firkus
Carson Rehkopf – Oscar Fisker-Molgaard – David Goyette
Ian McKinnon – Luke Henman – Tucker Robertson
Justin Janicke – Andrei Loshko
Nikolas Brouillard – Ville Ottavainen
Gustav Olofsson – Ty Nelson
Ryan Jones – Jakub Fibigr
Ales Stezka
Nikke Kokko
Victor Ostman
Regular season leaders
Calgary
Rory Kerins – 63GP, 33G, 28A
Martin Frk – 67GP, 27G, 33A
Dryden Hunt – 49GP, 16G, 33A
Coachella Valley
Ben Meyers – 57GP, 23G, 28A
Jani Nyman – 58GP, 28G, 16A
Logan Morrison – 72GP, 14G, 28A
Notes and expectations
Playoff rosters needed to be submitted to the league prior to their first game and this brought to light who the Wranglers would and would not be bringing along for the post-season ride. They will carry three goaltenders and Connor Murphy was already with the team for the last regular season game. Calgary announced on Monday that they have released Kaden Bohlsen from his amateur tryout and Charles Martin, Connor Mylymok, and Trevor Janicke did not make the cut for playoff rosters.
Instead, the Wranglers have a little help with the recent additions of Ty Tullio, Simon Mack, Carter King, Carter Wilkie and the return of Dryden Hunt from the Flames. It was determined at the end of season media availabilities that Zayne Parekh would not be available for the Wranglers and there was no official confirmation of Adam Klapka coming down as he was a little banged up at the end of the season.
Coachella Valley is also expecting reinforcements to help pad their lineup with experienced veterans. The Seattle Kraken didn’t make the playoffs this year either so some of their AHL grads are now available. They expect Jani Nyman, John Hayden and Cale Fluery back on the ice for them for this playoff series.
Head to head, the Firebirds had a substantial edge in the season series. These teams know each other well, and other than facing each other in playoffs every year since their teams joined the league in 2022, they also saw each other eight times in the regular season. Coachella Valley won the season series 6-2 and their last head to head series in late March ended in a split. Last year in playoffs, Calgary went 1-2-1 in their best of five against the Firebirds and lost the series in game four.
All these playoff games (up to three) will be played in Coachella Valley with game one getting started on Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. MT. Streaming will be available on AHL.tv on Flo Hockey and multiple FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).
Presented by…
This article is presented by Servus Credit Union. Start saving now to have your chance at winning $1 million with the Servus Big Share® Contest.
