Calgary Wranglers: 2026 Off-Season/Free Agency HUB

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Written by Paige Siewert - Wranglers Beat Reporter, FlamesNation

Follow Paige on Twitter/X -> @thathockeygirly

The Calgary Wranglers started their season on the right foot but once some key call-up’s such as Yan Kuznetsov, Hunter Brzustewicz and Matvei Gridin took place, they started to show some cracks in the foundation.

This was furthered by goaltending injuries to Ivan Prosvetov then Owen Say and the team really struggled to rally behind the inconsistencies.

Arsenii Sergeev came in from the ECHL to help in net and ended up being a positive story but by the time he was there, most of the damage was done.

The team took quite a hit in the standings and by the All-Star and Olympic break, the season was looking bleak. If they were to even hope to qualify for playoffs, they would’ve needed something beyond what they had shown up to that point in the season.

This group didn’t have the morale or fight left in them to go on a 10 game winning streak and had lost many valuable points in overtime and shootout losses earlier in the season. As hope for playoffs dwindled, so did their confidence on the ice.

The team tried to rally for each other and had good sparks here and there but the overall roster could not piece it together at the right times and ended up relying on individual performances from some of their top scorers like Dryden Hunt, Martin Frk and Rory Kerins.

It was a tough year for the players and coaching staff alike and in Brett Sutter’s first full season as Head Coach, his frustrations were shown after each tough loss.

Changes were expected after a season like that and it has already started to take shape. The Wranglers have added John Dean as a new assistant coach and their other existing assistant coach, David Liffiton was just added last summer. It’s a new coaching staff and it appears they’re going to get quite a fresh start this Fall.

After the Flames announced qualifying offers and contract extensions, the core that remains right now is Rory Kerins, Dryden Hunt, William Stromgren, Sam Morton, Alex Gallant, Aydar Suniev and Arsenii Sergeev.

The Wranglers can really only go up from here and this season is the year for the cusp players like Hunt, Stromgren, Kerins, Morton and Suniev to earn a spot before the Flames’ large prospect pool out of the NCAA and respective major junior leagues catch up to them.