Flames send forward Adam Klapka to the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers for the playoffs

The Calgary Wranglers are getting some reinforcements. Well, one big reinforcement.

On Thursday morning, the Calgary Flames announced that they’ve assigned forward Adam Klapka to the Wranglers for the post-season. Klapka was hurt last week in the regular season finale against the Los Angeles Kings, and team officials indicated during exit interviews that he would be headed to the Wranglers once the medical staff gave the go-ahead.

The 24-year-old Klapka is a 6’8″, 235 pound right shot winger that the Flames originally signed as a European free agent during the 2022 off-season. Since joining their system in 2022-23, he’s progressed pretty steadily. On the AHL side, he’s figured out how to be a borderline dominant player at times, using his size, speed and skill to his advantage, and progressively increasing his per-game offensive output.

Klapka’s AHL performances have earned him a bunch of NHL looks. He played six NHL games in 2023-24, scoring his first NHL goal in the season finale. In 2024-25, he broke camp with the big club and has split the season nearly half-and-half between the NHL and AHL: 31 games with the Flames (10 points) and 33 games with the Wranglers (26 points).

Aside from a short AHL stint in March, Klapka’s been with the Flames on the NHL roster pretty much continually since Feb. 21. He was most recently called up on Mar. 12 and carved out a really nice niche for himself, impressing both on the fourth line and the top line and creating offence with both units. He’s on an expiring contract, his waiver exemption runs out this season, and Flames bench boss Ryan Huska has openly praised his play, so all signs point to Klapka getting a very long look at the NHL roster this coming fall in training camp.

As such, this stint with the Wranglers could very well be his last. The Wranglers lost 4-3 to Coachella Valley in triple overtime on Tuesday night, and Saturday night’s Game 2 is a do-or-die game for them. One hopes that adding Klapka could hopefully give the Wranglers enough oomph to force Game 3.