Six members of this year's Moose Jaw Warriors team finished the season with NHL entry level contracts and three of them will be continuing their seasons with their respective NHL team’s American Hockey League affiliates.

Brayden Burke has joined the Tucson Roadrunners, Kale Clague is with the Ontario Reign and Oleg Sosunov will be playing with the Syracuse Crunch.

All three teams are in the AHL's Calder Cup Playoffs, which opened on Thursday night.

Sosunov was an instant fan favourite with the Warriors with his height, standing in at six-foot-eight, but he showed over the course of the season that he could play as well.

The Russian rookie import finished with seven goals and 26 points in 71 games for the Warriors. He had a plus-35 rating during the regular season.

"It was a good experience for me, I really liked this team, I really liked this town, crowds were pretty good, coaches, everything was good," said Sosunov. "The guys were really good teammates and I really enjoyed this season here."

Sosunov was a sixth round pick by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2016 NHL Draft and came to Moose Jaw with the 39th selection in the CHL Import Draft.

He got off to a fast start offensively in Moose Jaw with four goals in his first seven games and all seven of his goals came in 2017.

Sosunov said he was able to take a lot away from his first experience of playing in North America.

"All year I tried to improve myself so I learned a couple of things and became a little bit better this season," he said.

Before the season, Sosunov signed a three-year entry level contract with the Lightning and following the Warriors' second round playoff loss, he was assigned to the Crunch in the AHL.

The 20-year-old said he's excited about the next step in his hockey career, "Hopefully I will make it to the pro level next season," he said.

The Crunch open the AHL Playoffs on Friday night when they host the Rochester Americans for Game 1 of their best-of-five first round series.

Burke and the Roadrunners opened the playoffs with a 4-2 win over the San Jose Barracuda on Thursday. Burke didn't dress for the game, but former Warrior Noah Gregor finished a minus-two in his first professional action. They play Game 2 on Saturday.

Clague and the Reign are down 1-0 to the Texas Stars after falling 4-3 in overtime in Game 1 on Thursday. Clague wasn't in the lineup for the game. They play Game 2 on Friday night.