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Wranglers reflect on season of adversity in season-ending exit meetings
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Photo credit: Terence Leung/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
May 1, 2025, 12:00 EDTUpdated: May 1, 2025, 00:01 EDT
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The Calgary Wranglers ended their season on Apr. 26 in a shutout loss to the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The way their division was structured in the AHL, their first round of playoffs consisted of a best of three series. They lost in triple overtime in game one then 2-0 in game two and this put the bow on their roller coaster of a season.
The team came together for exit meetings on Apr. 29 and took some time to reflect with the media. The general theme of the group was what Trent Cull reiterated after their final game: adversity. This team faced a wide range of changes this year. Some expected with the position they are in the AHL such as call-ups, and waiver claims but some not as expected like injuries, trades and coaching changes. 
Captain Clark Bishop built off of that point, saying:
“I think it was mentioned a lot in the last couple of days about the adversity we faced. It’s never easy going through that as a team and individuals, but we overcome it, and we got to the playoffs, and unfortunately, we just came up a bit short.”
When they talked about the playoffs, it didn’t matter whether the players were newcomers or veterans; the general hatred towards the Firebirds stayed consistent. Even so, the triple overtime game to start their playoff series stuck out to them as a cool game to be a part of despite the end result. The players talked about scarfing pizza down between periods, chugging Gatorades and relying on a lot of salt to stay sharp. Their legs were burning and the arena was quite hot despite the dwindling crowd as time went on. 
Yan Kuznetsov put it best when he talked about this rivalry saying:
“They’re our main rivals for the division and if you want to win something in this league, we’re probably going to have to go through them.”
Individually, there were many players that were quite happy with their season as they had career years, while others knew very specific areas of their game they would like to work on. William Stromgren was second on the team in assists, but upon reflection said:
“Been lots of ups and downs. Points are just points. You want to make it to the NHL, my consistency level has got to be better. My highs are good but my lows need to be better.”
As some of these players continue to work towards their ultimate goals of being everyday NHLers or just making it for their debut, they also have similar plans for their summers. They want to get faster, stronger, bigger and more consistent overall. Like good professionals, they also want to polish their strengths and make their weaknesses less harmful at the level they are playing at. 
For most of these guys, that starts with taking their minds off hockey for the next few weeks and letting their bodies fully heal from the last eight months they just played. Many of the guys saw what someone like Rory Kerins was able to achieve in a summer and in combination with the former AHL guys up with the Flames, this brings a lot of motivation for the upcoming months. 

Final regular season stat leaders

Top five scorers

Rory Kerins – 63GP, 22G, 28A
Martin Frk – 67GP, 27G, 33A
Dryden Hunt – 49P, 16G, 33A
William Stromgren – 70GP, 14G, 35A
Sam Morton – 70GP, 20G, 25A

Standout categories

Most games played – Yan Kuznetsov (72)
Most goals – Rory Kerins (33)
Most assists – Jeremie Poirier (37) 
Most points – Rory Kerins (33)
GAA – Devin Cooley (2.94)
SAV% – Devin Cooley (0.905) 

Highlights

It’s nearly impossible to clip every big moment that came out of the season, but these are a few that stand out.
Rory Kerins scores with seven seconds to go in regulation in game one of the playoffs against Coachella Valley.
Sam Morton’s backhanded bar down goal.
Adam Klapka’s Christmas scrap.
Sam Honzek’s breakaway goal.
Walker Duehr’s hat trick goal.
William Stromgren’s filthy shootout goal at the beginning of the season.

AHL graduates (full-time Wranglers who got looks with the Flames)

Clark Bishop (6 games)
Sam Honzek (5 games)
Rory Kerins (5 games)
Drden Hunt (5 games)
Ilya Solovyov (5 games)
Hunter Brzustewicz (1 game)
Sam Morton (1 game)

Contract statuses

The end of every season brings some roster uncertainty as the spring and summer go on. These are the players that need to be re-signed, released or may be debating their comeback to professional hockey.

RFAs

Sam Morton, Adam Klapka, Jeremie Poirier, Yan Kuznetsov, Connor Murphy

UFAs

Dryden Hunt, Tyson Barrie, Martin Frk, Clark Bishop, Jonathan Aspirot, Jarred Tinordi

Who to watch at Worlds

This is the last we’ll hear of for most of these guys until things like rookie camp, transactions or development camp kick off but there are still a couple of opportunities to watch a couple of cusp players at the IIHF World Championship tournament. It was announced on Monday that Sam Honzek will be joining Slovakia for Worlds and on Tuesday, Adam Klapka was also announced to be joining Czechia for the same tournament. 
Worlds are being played in Sweden and Denmark this year and go from Friday, May 9 to Sunday, May 25. Klapka will play Sweden to start his tournament on May 9 at 12:20 p.m. MT and Honzek will be playing on May 10 against Team Canada for a 4:20 a.m. MT game.
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