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22/23 Calgary Wranglers Season Discussion


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Wanted to start a place to discuss the Wranglers as their season unfolds. Listed the opening day lineup below

 

Dropped their first game 6-5 against the Firebirds in their first ever game in Calgary. Poirier with the first goal in Wranglers history. 

 

Was just 1 game of course but the Wranglers were really bad through 40 mins so I won't put much stock into what transpired yesterday. Will just say again what I mentioned elsewhere is I'd recommend checking out some games if you are in Calgary. Very affordable and pretty good value for the money. 

 

Once they got going they were a fast and fun team. 

 

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This is an underrated part of having your farm team in the same city. Sutter took in the game yesterday as did multiple members of the Flames brass. 

 

I like what this could do both for development and also for call ups. Gives the organization more line of sight to their prospects, what they need to work on, offer more assistance and in particular Sutter should have more hands on knowledge for when they need to call someone up.

 

 

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Wranglers should be decent team from what I can tell.  No bluechip superstars (Wolf is the closest) but there appears to be several "for sure" future NHLers.  And others like Schwindt, Pospisil, Duehr, Phillips, and Meloche are very close to NHLers right now.

 

What are the lines and pairings on the Wranglers?

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11 hours ago, The_People1 said:

Wranglers should be decent team from what I can tell.  No bluechip superstars (Wolf is the closest) but there appears to be several "for sure" future NHLers.  And others like Schwindt, Pospisil, Duehr, Phillips, and Meloche are very close to NHLers right now.

 

What are the lines and pairings on the Wranglers?

The D-pairings that I remember were

Poirier-Meloche

Gilbert-DeSimone

Kuznetsov-Solovyov

 

Only line I remember was Pelletier-Zary-Phillips, I wanted a line with both Zohorna and Klapka but Mitch Love didn't agree

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20 minutes ago, cross16 said:


in terms of sending him down?

 

likely I would say. The top 9 for the Wranglers is pretty full and pretty deep. 

 

If there's a place where we shouldn't care about winning and should focus on putting prospects into the right situations to build experience, it's got to be the AHL.  Kerins is a scorer.  Just play him there.  The ceiling is higher than some of these other players.

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56 minutes ago, The_People1 said:

 

If there's a place where we shouldn't care about winning and should focus on putting prospects into the right situations to build experience, it's got to be the AHL.  Kerins is a scorer.  Just play him there.  The ceiling is higher than some of these other players.

I think since Treliving took over he has changed the emphasis to getting players ready to play in the NHL, the success last year was a bonus because it was actually prospects contributing.  Kerins might have a higher ceiling than guys like Pospisil or Petterssen, but those guys are probably closer now.  Let him do his thing in the ECHL and if either a top 6 guy graduates or he dominates then bring him to the AHL.

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15 hours ago, The_People1 said:

 

If there's a place where we shouldn't care about winning and should focus on putting prospects into the right situations to build experience, it's got to be the AHL.  Kerins is a scorer.  Just play him there.  The ceiling is higher than some of these other players.

 

 

Which is what the Flames believe (i've heard Treliving says this almost verbatim). It's not like a bunch of AHL vets are getting time over Kerins. 

 

Top line: Pelletier-Zary-Phillips. 2 first round picks and arguably their most pro ready player (especially for a top 6 opening) in the A

2nd line - Sutter - Schwindt - Duherl. Sure you could argue the "upside" might be higher in Kerins then both Schwindt and Deuhr but at the same time you could you argue the NHL potential is better in both Schwindt and Duehr, and they are definitely closer. I know some will point to Sutter on the 3rd line and say why, but that's LW. Kerins is a Center and a right shot who I don't believe has ever played LW. 

 

The 3rd line you may have an argument because it's been a combination of Bishop and Jones that i've seen in that role but that's a tricky one for me too. The focus should be on developing prospects but I also think you need to use the A for depth for your NHL team too. I think they needed Jones for some center depth and on top of that part of development in the A is you need some veteran presence to help the young kids too. 

 

Could move him to 3rd line RW but as Sak says then what do you do with Posposil?

 

As much as I agree it would be great to find a way and I really like Kerins, I'm not sure it's as easy as just "play him there". 

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Wranglers 1-1 on the weekend losing 6-2 on Friday with Dansk in net.  Zohorna and Klapka with the goals.  4-2 victory for the W#1 on the season on Saturday, Wolf with the W making 33 saves and goals by Zary (2), Phillips and Duehr (EN).

 

Rapid City also opened their season going 1-1.  Kerins with 2 goals and an assist, Chechelev in net for both giving up 6 goals on 62 shots, and Nikolaev was held off the scoresheet in both.

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1 hour ago, sak22 said:

Wranglers 1-1 on the weekend losing 6-2 on Friday with Dansk in net.  Zohorna and Klapka with the goals.  4-2 victory for the W#1 on the season on Saturday, Wolf with the W making 33 saves and goals by Zary (2), Phillips and Duehr (EN).

 

Rapid City also opened their season going 1-1.  Kerins with 2 goals and an assist, Chechelev in net for both giving up 6 goals on 62 shots, and Nikolaev was held off the scoresheet in both.

Could be safe to assume Kerins will go ham in the E but needs to stay awhile for icetime? What are the 1-3 Cs in the A?

Is Ruzicka officially a predicament now? Not playing and would likely get claimed?

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1 hour ago, conundrumed said:

Could be safe to assume Kerins will go ham in the E but needs to stay awhile for icetime? What are the 1-3 Cs in the A?

Is Ruzicka officially a predicament now? Not playing and would likely get claimed?

Zary-Schwindt-Jones I believe.  Ruzicka is probably first in if there's an injury and there will be one eventually and it could be long term.  One thing I would say with Sutter is that young or old he runs his practices to keep the guys not playing sharp so if they are counted on.  I wouldn't move him for the sake of seeing if he can play elsewhere because I don't think we have any other options ready incase of a long-term injury at C.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wranglers with an offensive explosion last night to move to 4-5 on the season.  Like the big team there was a lot of turnover between this year and last year mainly at C and D with Gawdin, Philp, Froese and Kirkland and then Valimaki, Mackey, Welinski and Gravel gone from the blueline, so the fact they aren't playing like last year and Wolf is above 3GAA shouldn't be raising alarms, Pelletier with a bit of a slow start offensively and Zary struggled a bit defensively early.  Rory Kerins made his debut last night, had 8 points in 7 ECHL games.

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Zary at a PPG pace early and 19th in the league in goals is the biggest positive for me so far this season. I wasn't necessarily concerned about his progression but he needed a breakout year offensively or you would have questions about his future. So far so good. 

 

Porier another good early story. Top 15 in rookie points and tied for the lead for Dman with a player who was a top 6 pick. I was very impressed with Porier in the one Wrangler game i've seen so far this year

 

 

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39 minutes ago, cross16 said:

Zary at a PPG pace early and 19th in the league in goals is the biggest positive for me so far this season. I wasn't necessarily concerned about his progression but he needed a breakout year offensively or you would have questions about his future. So far so good. 

 

Porier another good early story. Top 15 in rookie points and tied for the lead for Dman with a player who was a top 6 pick. I was very impressed with Porier in the one Wrangler game i've seen so far this year

 

 

 

Phillips continues his torrid pace, Pelletier is okay so far and Poirier killing it, IMHO.

Happy to see Zary get some pro games early in the season.

Good to see them start to look more like a team.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This team is rolling right now and a lot of fun to watch.  3rd in the league in goals now with Pelletier and Zary over a point per game, Poirier tied for the lead league, Kuznetsov has looked better each time I've seen him, Wolf back to his form last year.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Wranglers are the number 1 team in the AHL right now. Backing up a good season from last year with a better one. 
 

impressive. Mitch Love is going to start to get NHL interest as early as this offseason I would imagine. If not this off-season it’s likely coming soon. 

 

 

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