Calgary Wranglers: Season 20

[TheLastOlympian07 2,388]

The Calgary Wranglers were the team to beat coming into the VHL's 2nd decade as they had won 5 Continental Cups which was most in the VHL after 19 seasons. However, Season 20 would be a rebuilding year as the Wranglers had won back to back championships in Season 18 and S19. Let's look at what had happened.

 

 

GM: Jardy Bunclewirth

Record (after S20): 72 GP | 17 W | 52 L | 3 OTL | 37 P | 306 GF | 481 GA

Playoff Record (after S20): N/A

 

Season 19 Draft:

Round 2, Pick 16: Michael Hodgson

Round 3, Pick 24: Thomas Kessel

Round 4, Pick 32: Pass

 

As you can see, the Wranglers trade away their 1st round pick to chase the cup and was only able to select 2 players from the Season 19 VHL Entry Draft to help out for Season 20. Michael Hodgson and Thomas Kessel though did not make the roster.

 

Season 20 Regular Season - 72 GP | 17 W | 52 L | 3 OTL | 37 P | 306 GF | 481 GA

The Wranglers didn't have a great season as a result of chasing the cup and were rebuilding. The team finished with a 17 win season which results in just 37 points. This however was still good enough to finish 3rd in the North American Conference and 7th overall out of 8 teams.

 

The two holdovers from the cup runs are Jardy Bunclewirth and Matthew Gunnarsson who were far and away the best players on the team. Matthew Gunnarsson led the team in scoring with 58 goals and 87 assists for 145 points in 72 games. Jardy Bunclewirth had a great season of his own with 61 goals and 69 assists for 130 points in 72 games. Roman Andreev was a surprise rookie who slotted onto the first line with these two and he scored 45 goals and assisted on 66 goals for 111 points. Mathias Chouinard, Hamza Ahmed and Gabriel Cedarland had some good season as well with 92, 83 and 83 points a piece. The teams forwards had some good seasons but the defense is a whole other story.

 

The Wranglers had no defenseman on the roster for this season so goalie Zach Henning who wasn't the most polished goalie had a tough season. The rookie goaltender went 13-44-3 with a 0.835 save percentage and a 7.14 G.A.A with no shutouts and 7 assists. Overall, it is clear as mud to see why the Wranglers didn't do much this season, they had plenty of players to score but no one to stop the opponents from scoring.

 

Trades:

https://vhlforum.com/topic/69625-calgary-season-20-trades/

 

Awards:

None won this season.

 

Overall:

The Calgary Wranglers went through the dreaded rebuild as the team had just won back to back Continental Cups. So the team tried to recoup what it could from aging players and had a mini fire sale. It has been proven time and time again that a teams championship window isn't more than a few seasons. The Wranglers have some strong pieces to build around with Jardy Bunclewirth and Matthew Gunnarsson as well as Roman Andreev who broke out in a big way. The team needs to look for defense for and foremost as well as a goalie who won't put up a 7.14 G.A.A.

 

Calgary Wranglers Career Stats (after S20)

Edited September 17, 2019 by TheLastOlympian07