William Stromgren is now shortlisted as a could-be call-up candidate for the Calgary Flames.
As long as he can remain in that conversation, it might not be long before the 22-year-old winger is summoned for his NHL debut.
“He was the first guy I brought up when they called me,” Wranglers coach Brett Sutter revealed after the Flames shuffled their forward deck earlier this week, opting to promote Sam Morton and Dryden Hunt from the AHL club. “I have been really happy with him. He’s playing harder and straighter and faster than he’s ever played, so I think he’s taken major steps.”
There’s one major step that remains — from the AHL to the NHL.
As the Flames flounder at the bottom of the standings, fans are clamouring for a glimpse of anybody who could be a future factor.
Stromgren, a second-round pick in 2021, certainly has played his way onto their let’s-see list.
He leads the Wranglers with a dozen assists this fall. In fact, he’s sitting among the Top-10 in the AHL in apples.
Although he has been more setup man than sniper, Stromgren did bury his second of the season during Tuesday’s loss in Bakersfield, beating a proven NHL netminder in Connor Ingram on a breakaway.
Watch a replay of that blocker-side bullet and you will understand why the Flames’ development staff have been pestering him to shoot more often.
“I feel like I have turned around a lot of things in my game that have become better,” Stromgren told Postmedia before the Wranglers departed on a marathon trip that continues this weekend in San Diego and Coachella Valley. “The defensive stuff, without the puck, I feel like I’ve done a great improvement. But I have a far way to go.”
This 6-foot-3 lefty should feel a sense of urgency when he looks around the Wranglers’ locker room. It’s a constant reminder that there is fierce competition for future jobs on the Flames’ flanks.
Matvei Gridin, 19, has serious star potential, while fellow 2024 draft pick Andrew Basha fits more of a sparkplug mold.
Aydar Suniev, who turned 21 this week, seems to be figuring out how his offensive gifts can translate to the pro game.
The depth chart becomes even more crowded if you don’t believe that Rory Kerins projects as a pivot. The 23-year-old operates as the Wranglers’ first-line centre but, in seven NHL appearances so far, he only has worked the wing.
“I think William is aware of where he’s at now in terms of his development and that other people are coming,” said Ray Edwards, who helms the Flames’ department of player development. “You see it this year with Grids and Aydar and Bash all there. There’s a whole new crew of younger guys coming that he has to separate himself from. But I think he’s done a good job. He just needs to keep going.”
At his best, Stromgren can offer an intriguing blend of size, speed and playmaking and puck-protection abilities.
The key is showing that every night. He was on the call-up radar midway through the 2024-25 campaign, another name that was debated internally before Kerins was elevated for his big-league debut, but faded from the conversation with a way-too-quiet second half.
“He’s been more consistent this season. Now, he still has to be better there,” Edwards said. “I don’t know the exact number, but if he’s played 15 games, I would say that 11 have been really good games. But that needs to be 15, right?
“When he is on, he really pops. There are games where you’re like, ‘Yeah, that’s an NHL player there.’ But then he might have a down game and then he gets better. He just has to find that game-in, game-out consistency. Because, frankly, if he goes up and does that, he will be right back down. So he has to find a way to bring it every night.
“He’s finding it more than he’s not this year, but that’s the area he has to get better at.”
Calgary Wranglers forward William Stromgren, front, battles for a loose puck in American Hockey League action at the Saddledome. David Moll, courtesy of Calgary Wranglers
That isn’t news to Stromgren, who played one pro season at home in Sweden and now is in his third winter with the Wranglers.
Before the trip, for example, it was bothering him that he had been spending too much time on the perimeter in the offensive zone — “and you’re not going to score goals that way.”
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“You don’t have a lot of space for error. You can’t have a day off at work,” he stressed. “I mean, you want to be perfect, but you’re not always, right? So you just want to get yourself in good positions to be as close to perfect as possible. If you can do that on a daily basis, it’s just going to work out better for you.”
The hope is that work will pay off with his first career call-up — and then with an extended stay on the Flames’ roster.
He’s on the shortlist again, which is an important start.
“He possesses the puck really well so he can hang onto it in hard areas and make small plays for his linemates, so he buys them time and buys them space to get open,” Sutter praised. “He’s a big, long body, so he has a good reach. That allows him to check better, as well, and get some of those pucks back.
“And he has a little bite to him for a big man, which I think you love, because he is just a kid still and he’s still kind of growing into that body and getting bigger and stronger, and that will continue to grow for him. But he has a little edge to him, which I think every coach likes.
“He has taken huge jumps in a lot of areas here already in this early season, and I think it’s just going to keep getting better and better for him because he seems pretty determined this year.”
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