Dustin Wolf has once again added to his trophy case. The Calgary Flames prospect has already won the Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP, the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as AHL Goalie of the Year, and was also named to the First All-Star team. Now, Wolf has taken home an AHL’s President’s Award for his excellence this past season.
Wolf captures the his first President’s Award
The award was first given out at the end of the 2008–09 season. Annually, a player and/or team that displays overall excellence throughout the year is recognized by the AHL’s Board of Governors and captures the award. Being named goalie of the year and then league MVP made it very easy to see that Wolf deserved the award.
Wolf finished his sophomore season with a save percentage of .932, a goals against average of 2.09, and seven shutouts. This was good enough to lead the AHL in all three of these statistics. Other impressive stats include his 42 wins which tied an AHL record, his 47.34 goals saved above average which is the most in the past 10 years by over 11, and leading the league in minutes by roughly 400.
This is the first time a goalie has won the award since 2017–18 when Mike McKenna was named the winner. McKenna was also the only other goalie to win the award making Wolf just the second goalie to take home this award in AHL history. To put the impressiveness of Wolf taking home the award into perspective, McKenna was 13 years older than Wolf currently is when he won the President’s Award. Only one winner has been younger than the 22-year-old Wolf and that was P.K. Subban when he was 21 in 2010.
Wolf looks to make even bigger strides in the upcoming season
Dustin Wolf has become a cheat code for the Calgary Wranglers and looks more than ready for the NHL. He should be a part of the Calgary Flames come opening night. Wolf has obviously shown tons of promise throughout his time in the AHL and as well in his first NHL start. The Flames currently have three goalies that are ready to face top-level action in Jacob Markstrom, Dan Vladar, and Wolf himself. This will probably lead to one of Markstrom or Vladar being traded to make room for Wolf, Vladar being the extremely likely candidate. Wolf should continue his excellence and it wouldn’t be that shocking if he takes over the Flames’ starting position come the end of the season.
Photo from @CalgaryWranglers on Twitter.
