Wranglers Bask in Rewards of Outstanding Season

While most of the remaining teams in the AHL will be kicking off the first round of playoff series this week, the Calgary Wranglers will be basking in the glory of their impressive inaugural season with a well-deserved bye week. The Wranglers rose to the top of the Pacific Division and the league, and held that position for a large majority of the year. While they matched their standings in the Pacific from last year as the Stockton Heat, they improved to the best in the league overall after narrowly missing the top spot in 2021-22.

The Wranglers have had an inaugural season for the books and they have the awards and accolades to show for it. In the last week, they’ve started quite a collection of accomplishments that have trickled out through their final games and season evaluation overall. 

Team Awards

The Wranglers secured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy for the AHL’s regular season title on Saturday night, minutes before beating the Abbotsford Canucks to further solidify their Pacific Division and league standings. They were neck-and-neck with Coachella Valley for both of those spots but won that battle between the AHL’s newest teams. 

Calgary finished the season with a 51-17-3-1 record, 106 points and a .736 points percentage. They also finished up with the best penalty kill percentage in the league at 85.1%.

Individual Awards

Dustin Wolf

It should come as no surprise that Dustin Wolf has earned some recognition after the season he has had. Wolf finished the regular season leading the AHL in all major goaltending categories, including GAA (2.09), shutouts (7), save percentage (.932), wins (42), and games played (55). 

This extraordinary performance has resulted in the Wranglers netminder to be named to the First All-Star Team and the recipient of the Hap Holmes Award.

Around The AHL

• AHL Releases 2023 Preseason Schedule
• 5 AHL Players Who Retired This 2023 Offseason
• AHL Pacific Division News : August 2023
• AHL North Division News: August 2023
• AHL Central Division News: August 2023

Matthew Phillips

Matthew Phillips was another Calgary player who was a cut above the rest. He lead the league in goals for much of the season, but lost his top spot in the last week of play. He finished second in the league in goals and fifth in the league in points. He lead the Wranglers scoring efforts pretty much all season and got a little NHL action prior to Christmas. 

Phillips joined Wolf as the other First-All Star Team representative for the Wranglers. 

Mitch Love

Mitch Love joined Wolf and Phillips at the AHL All-Star Classic in Laval, Quebec this year as the coach of the Pacific Division. It is only fitting for Love to be in the conversation about individual achievements. He has led this team to another outstanding year and picked up his second Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award in a row for the AHL’s most outstanding coach.

Jeremie Poirier

Jeremie Poirier was a new face among the Flames’ affiliate team this year and he had an extraordinary rookie year with the Wranglers. Poirier made the top five for the main three rookie defenseman scoring stats, including second in points (41), third in assists (32) and fourth in goals (9).

As a result of his individual efforts this year, Poirier was named to the AHL All-Rookie Team. 

What’s To Come

Hopefully, this isn’t the end of the recognition this team gets this year. The AHL’s MVP recognition is still on the table and the Wranglers have some very strong candidates for this title. They’ve still got a whole run for the Calder Cup ahead of them and there’s nothing worse than an incredible team’s potential going to waste in a playoff series upset. They really are one of the team’s to beat this AHL postseason.