FlamesNation prospect update: European developments and BCHL pre-season

Training camp is just about to get underway for the Calgary Flames, but the hockey season has already begun in Europe! We have a few news items on a pair of European Flames prospects, as well as an update on one of the North American prospects that wasn’t in attendance for rookie camp!

Let’s dive in with our first prospect update of the season!

As we reported on earlier this week, 2021 second-round pick William Strömgren departed from Rögle BK with a mutually-agreed contract termination and joined Brynäs IF the same day. Strömgren debuted with Brynäs’ SHL team – sort of – a couple days later.

Strömgren dressed as Brynäs’ 13th forward and was credited with one 22-second shift in the club’s 5-4 overtime loss to Rögle. SHL clubs routinely dress 13 forwards and seven defenders, but typically the 13th forward and seventh defender don’t play a ton. When you factor in that Strömgren just arrived with his new club and had very little practice time, his lack of playing time isn’t all that unexpected or unusual.

The Flames’ 2022 second-round pick Topi Rönni suffered a minor injury during his time with Finland at the Four Nations tournament in Slovakia at the end of August. He missed a couple weeks of action for Tappara – basically the early part of the Champions League group stage – but returned to action in a limited role in Tappara’s junior club’s 3-1 win on Sept. 17.

Rönni dressed as second line centre and had two assists in 10:42 of play. He didn’t dress the following night, but that’s not unusual considering (a) he had just missed a couple weeks and so they might’ve wanted to ease him in, and (b) he’s listed on the men’s team roster, so the point of him playing a junior game was probably just to give him a warm-up. Tappara’s Liiga team is scheduled to play on Wednesday, so we’ll see if Rönni dresses for them.

Absent from the Flames’ rookie camp was 2022 pick Cade Littler. Instead of being one of many youngsters at the Young Stars Classic, he was preparing for his BCHL season with the Wenatchee Wild. Dressing as the first line centre in four of the club’s five pre-season games, he led the team with two goals and seven points. Considering he’s the only NHL-drafted player on his team – and one of just a handful with NCAA commitments – it’s what you would expect to see from Littler.

Wenatchee begins their regular season schedule on Friday night against Surrey.