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Arsenii Sergeev’s development was one of the best feel good stories of the season
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Paige Siewert
May 5, 2026, 14:00 EDTUpdated: May 5, 2026, 00:15 EDT
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Arsenii Sergeev’s story with the Calgary Flames organization this year is perhaps one of the most positive storylines we’ve seen come out of the 2025-26 season. Sergeev signed an entry level contract in April of 2025 when he finished up his season at Penn State University. He didn’t get into any games last season and got his first looks with Calgary in the preseason. His spot in the depth chart was determined to be in the ECHL to start where he played 12 games. Fast forward to April 16, he’s starting in an NHL game with the Flames and picked up his first win in his first start. How did he progress so fast in seven months?
The short answer is capitalizing on opportunity. The longer answer takes a look at the other factors in the organization that allowed him to get meaningful games in and eventually make that NHL debut. Now the implication is not that Sergeev is an every day NHLer now, but being rewarded for a year where he was quite the work horse is not something to discount. Where Sergeev really made a name for himself this season, was in the AHL.
Arsenii Sergeev started in his first game for the Calgary Wranglers on Dec. 21 2025, against the San Diego Gulls in their annual Winter Wranglerfest game, which is one of the highest attended games of the season. He only gave up one goal in his AHL debut and picked up a 2-1 win in this game. Sergeev was called up in late December when Ivan Prosvetov went down with a lower body injury that kept him out of the lineup for about a month and a half. When Sergeev got the call, he was sitting at a 6-6-0-0 record with Rapid City, a 2.94 GAA and a 0.922 save percentage. 
While Prosvetov was out, Sergeev and Owen Say were splitting the time in net. On Jan. 7, Sergeev was named to the ECHL All-Star team but couldn’t end up attending the event on Jan. 19 as by that time, Owen Say suffered a lower body injury of his own and was shut down for the season to get surgery. Sergeev was all of a sudden promoted to starter for the Wranglers after being third in the call list at the start of the season. 
Between mid-December to mid-April, Sergeev played 29 games with the Wranglers. Calgary’s AHL squad struggled this year with consistency and scoring but Sergeev was often a light, keeping hope alive in some of the harder stretches of play. He’d give his chance to win but also had moments where you could see it was his first year of professional hockey so those moments were approached with some grace. By the end of the season, Sergeev’s record finished 6-13-8-0, his GAA was 3.35 and his save percentage was .898. In his last four games of the season he had two wins, a loss and an overtime loss.
Ivan Prosvetov was able to come back in late January but coming back from injury and some shaky starts gave Sergeev the priority in net. Prosvetov ended up playing 11 games between late January to the end of the season and only picked up two wins in that stretch. Sergeev continued to prove he earned the starter spot and was starting to be trusted for back to back starts as well.
So when it comes to giving a guy a look at the end of the Flames season, Sergeev clearly worked his tail off and an NHL start is a great reward for a job well done. On the morning of the Flames’ season closer against the Los Angeles Kings, Devin Cooley was ruled out with an illness and Sergeev was called up on an emergency basis. At Wranglers exit meetings, he had some time to reflect on that whole experience and talk about what it meant to him. For Sergeev, he didn’t mind the last minute call. He actually preferred it. Sergeev said:
“I think it’s the best way to get called up. Because if there was time the night before, I probably wouldn’t sleep the night.”
It wasn’t enough time for him to call over any friends or family from Russia, but Sergeev didn’t mind not having that extra pressure for his first start. He was worried if they came over to watch, it would jinx his first start and he would lose. For Sergeev, the result was the complete opposite. For a netminder that many Flames fans hadn’t seen yet at all, he shocked the crowd in the best way. If he was nervous, his play didn’t reflect that. He stopped 10 shots in the first period and was dialled in straight from puck drop.
His first goal against came in the second period off the stick of Quinton Byfield shortly after the Flames scored the opening goal of the game. That would be the only puck that made it past Sergeev the rest of the night. Sergeev ended up stopping 27 shots in the 3-1 win and was awarded the first star of the night. His dexterity and athleticism were on full display the whole game and gave the Calgary crowd much to be excited about.
At the time of the call-up, this move felt like something the team may have been doing to throw in the towel for the last game of the season and possibly help their draft odds, but clearly, the results tell a different story. Sergeev said it himself. He said:
“Nobody expected the guy from the East Coast was gonna win the game in the NHL. I just do my job and I do it to the best of my abilities.”
Sergeev has only one more year left on his entry level contract and is expected to be with the Wranglers to start the 2026-27 season. His one game preview in the NHL made a lasting impression that makes him a strong candidate to be the next guy up if needed. A big jump when he was fifth on the call list at the start of the year. The 23-year-old goaltender has much to be proud of, showing so much development in a year where both the AHL and NHL teams struggled.

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