Wranglers Send Three to AHL All-Star Game

AHL All-Star weekend is approaching and the Calgary Wranglers have not one, not two, but three representatives from their team making the trip to Laval to represent one of the newest teams in the AHL. Two will be players and their head coach will be on the bench for the Pacific Division. Here’s a look at how these three got here.

Mitch Love

Wranglers Head Coach Mitch Love led the Stockton Heat to a deep playoff run last season and was the main man behind the bench for last year’s Pacific Division leaders. This season, his system has continued to work with the Wranglers finding quite a bit of success in their inaugural season. 

So far in 2022-23, Love has led the Wranglers to a 30-10-2-0 record (as of January 29), putting them first in the Pacific Division and first in the league. This success is even with quite a few core changes to the roster in the offseason and newly graduated minor league players playing in their first professional season. 

In 2021-22, Love was presented the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award, an award that is given to the AHL’s most outstanding coach during the season. He earned this in his first year coaching in the AHL and his first year with the Heat. The Heat finished with a regular season record of 45-16-5-2 record last season. 

Love was named to the AHL All-Star game on January 1 to coach the Pacific Division.

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Dustin Wolf

Every team in the league has got to know who Dustin Wolf is — especially the Pacific Division teams. Wolf has been the key to the success the Heat/Wranglers have had since he joined the team out of the WHL. They have some very talented skaters, but it’s the skill in which Wolf plays at that really makes his team dangerous. 

Wolf’s stat lines have been unbelievable through his year and a half in the AHL and he currently leads the league in wins by a mile. He has 25 wins on the season; the next closest goaltender only has 17. He sits at third in the league with a .928 save percentage and second in the league in the GAA category with a 2.16. 

He was rightfully awarded the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award for being the AHL’s most outstanding goaltender in the 2021-22 season. Wolf also made the AHL’s All-Rookie Team and the AHL’s First All-Star Team in his rookie season with the Heat.

This 21-year-old goaltender got passed up 213 times in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft before the Flames picked him 214th overall. Talk about a steal of a deal. We may be getting a preview into the future of Flames goaltending by the way Wolf has been playing in his pro career thus far.

Matthew Phillips

Matthew Phillips has been more dangerous this season than he has in his past five seasons in the AHL. He missed a handful of games in early December on a call-up with the Flames, and despite that, still leads the league in goals at this point in the season with 24.

This year, he was named the AHL Player of the Month in November. Through that month, he played in 12 games and earned a total of 18 points with nine goals and nine assists. He was red hot to start the season and created quite a distance between himself and other top scorers in the league. 

Phillips is on pace for his best professional season yet and that’s even with last year ending with over a point per game average. Last season, he played in 65 games with the Heat, earning a total of 68 points with 31 goals and 37 assists. 

This year, he is already up to a total of 46 points in 36 games with 24 goals and 22 assists. Many Flames fans have advocated for Phillips’ real shot with the Flames, but he has only played in two games this year and three in his whole career. He has been put in with limited playing time and not much of a real shot.

If he can be half as dangerous at the NHL level as he is at the AHL level, any team in the league would be lucky to have him. Phillips was an AHL All-Star back in 2019-20 and will participate in his second All-Star weekend this season.

All three of these Wranglers representatives are sure to make a positive showing for Calgary at this event. They will join the other all-stars in Laval, Quebec on February 5-6 for the AHL All-Star Classic.