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Wranglers Series Preview: First meeting with the Moose
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Photo credit: David Moll/Calgary Wranglers
Paige Siewert
Nov 29, 2024, 10:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 28, 2024, 20:22 EST
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It is a pretty light week of hockey for the Calgary Wranglers with it being American Thanksgiving week. They only play one two-game series against the Manitoba Moose this weekend to make up their action. This series is the first meeting between these teams this year and they’ll face each other four times between now and Dec. 11.

Projected lineups

Calgary
Jakob Pelletier – Rory Kerins – Dryden Hunt
William Stromgren – Sam Morton – Walker Duehr
Sam Honzek – Clark Bishop – Martin Frk
Lucas Ciona – David Silye – Alex Gallant
Yan Kuznetsov – Ilya Solovyov 
Jarred Tinordi – Jeremie Poirier 
Artem Grushnikov – Jonathan Aspirot 
Devin Cooley
Waltteri Ignatjew
Manitoba
C.J. Suess – Dominic Toninato – Anderson-Dolan
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby – Brad Lambert – Parker Ford
Mason Shaw – Ben King – Nikita Chibrikov 
Fabian Wagner – Kevin Conley – Tyson Empey
Ashton Sautner – Elias Salomonsson 
Ville Heinola (Called up) – Dawson Barteaux
Dylan Anhorn – Tyrel Bauer
Kaapo Kahkonen
Thomas Milic 

Leaders

Calgary 
Rory Kerins – 19GP, 13G, 6A
Walker Duehr – 19GP, 10G, 8A
Jakob Pelletier – 19GP, 3G, 15A
Manitoba
Nikita Chibrikov – 15GP, 3G, 8A
Brad Lambert – 14GP, 3G, 6A
Elias Saolmonsson – 14GP, 3G, 6A

Notes and expectations

In some roster news going into this series, Ilya Nikolaev was back with the Wranglers after being sent down to the Rapid City Rush. He did get a couple of games in with the Rush but did not register any shots or points. However, on Thursday, news dropped that Nikolaev was put on waivers for mutual contract termination. FlamesNation’s, Mike Gould, has the scoop here. 
Otherwise, everyone else who missed some time last weekend such as Hunter Brzustewicz, (who was scratched last game) should rotate in sometime this weekend. Calgary made another move with their ECHL affiliate, calling up Joni Jurmo yesterday as well. With the defensive depth they’re running with, the extra D-man system might be here to stay. 
For the Moose, they expect only one major change in the lineup going into this weekend. That is due to the call-up of Ville Heinola. He was with the Moose on a conditioning assignment and has since been recalled to the Winnipeg Jets. They also announced their 2024-25 leadership group on Wednesday. This consists of Dominic Toninato as captain and Mason Shaw and Ashton Sautner as alternate captains. They should be pretty fired up going into these games debuting their letters. 
The Wranglers are going to be fired up too. The league’s former top team was dealt their first series sweep last weekend by the Tucson Roadrunners. Calgary has been able to keep up with scoring for the most part but some defensive breakdowns and slow starts have been the reason for their limited losses this season. It’ll be interesting for this series because the Moose have not been super hot on the offensive side of things so far this season. Calgary almost doubles Manitoba on goals for with 65 to their 38. Note the Wranglers have five games in hand, however. 
Both teams should feel pretty fresh going into these pairs of games with it being their only games this week. This will be Calgary’s last road series of this stretch before returning home.  Game one starts on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. MT. They’ll get a day break in this series then get right back at it at 1:00 p.m. MT on Sunday. You can catch the streams for these on Flo Hockey for a fee and FlamesNation contributors will have updates on X (formerly Twitter).

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