Last season Penguins goaltending prospect Calle Clang got his first taste of the SHL, the top league in Sweden.
Clang, 19, was recalled to his club Rögle's roster and was serving as backup for a game against Farjestad in February. After Rögle's starter allowed three goals in the first four minutes, Clang took the ice and played 46 seconds, stopping the only shot he faced. Rögle put its starter back in net at the next stoppage, calling the brief switch a "reset" for the starter.
Clang spent the rest of the year in the second-level league Allsvenskan playing for the last-place club Kristianstads, and posted a .919 save percentage and a 2.46 goals-against average in 32 games.
He shone in net in the play-out round after the regular season, recording a .952 save percentage, 1.49 goals-against average, and a 3-2 record to save Kristianstads from relegation. He was voted the league's best junior player.
After a successful first year of professional hockey, the Penguins' 2020 third-round pick is part of Rögles goaltending tandem entering this season, and he's looking to push for the starting job.
Rögle is currently competing in the Champions League, an annual tournament of 32 teams from various leagues from countries across Europe. Clang earned the start in Rögle's second game of the tournament on Saturday, and earned the win against the German club Red Bull Munich.
"It was awesome," Clang told me in a phone interview on Sunday. "It was good to have the fans back in the building. And it felt pretty good. It was a crazy game, we scored with six seconds left. So it was kind of amazing."
Clang's partner in Rögle's goaltending tandem is Christoffer Rifalk, a 25-year-old who spent the last two years with Rögle, and one of the top goaltenders in the SHL last year in the starting role. Clang said that in conversations with coaches, he's been told that he's going to have to earn his starts this year. He's excited about the challenge of pushing for the starting job.
"He's a really, really good goalie," Clang said of Rifalk. "He's one of the best goalies in the league. So he's gonna be a tough battle, but I'm really looking forward to it. And I think I might give him a really, really challenging year for him too."
Amidst the battle from the starting job, Clang said that he and Rifalk have a great relationship, and that he's been able to learn from Rifalk
"He's a phenomenal guy," Clang said. "He has some more more games in the league than I have, so I can really learn from him and his experience from coming into this league from Allsvenskan, and do pretty much the same journey as he did. So he's teaching me really good and I'm really, really enjoying working with him. It's been fun."
ROGLE BK
Clang is working with a new goaltending coach in Rögle, Peter Hirsch (with whom he said it's been "pretty easy" to build a strong relationship) after the organization's previous goaltending coach Magnus Wennström earned a job in the KHL this summer. And although Andy Chiodo was promoted from Pittsburgh's goaltending development coach to head goaltending coach this offseason, Clang said that he still works virtually with Chiodo on almost a weekly basis.
"He's has helped me so much last year, and I'm really happy for him to get promoted to the Penguins," he said of Chiodo. "We still have a good relationship. We talk pretty much every week on Zoom calls. He's watching my games. We talk about the games, but also the practices. So we're having a really good relationship and I'm really enjoying working with him. He's a top guy."
Clang was able to meet with Chiodo in person in July when Clang played for Sweden in the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, a camp used as an evaluation tool for the World Junior Championship. He said that he had "good conversations" with Chiodo, and that Chiodo told stories of his few games in the NHL and playing with Marc-Andre Fleury. Chiodo
"He knows what is what it's about," Clang said. "He has the experience to learn how to make it to the NHL, and I'm really, really happy to have him on my side."
When I spoke with Chiodo in the spring, he spoke highly of not only Clang's play, but also his attitude.
"He's a really competitive guy," Chiodo told me. "He has a winning mentality. He works extremely hard. He's a pretty big kid at 6-2. I think he wants to continue to get stronger, but he has a really solid base. He's athletic, and he's able to win hockey games this year for a team that wasn't having much success when he wasn't in the net (Kristianstads only won two games last season without Clang) and I think he brings a really positive attitude, a team-first mentality, and he wants to win hockey games. I think he did a really good job for his team, especially early in the season, and a little playoff run at the end of the year. It's going to have to be earned, but I think he's put himself in a really good position to take that next step."
One of Clang's focuses this offseason was losing weight and getting faster, a decision he made after conversations with Rögle's strength coach Erik Olsson. Last season he weighed between 88-89 kilograms (about 194-196 pounds), and says now that he's down to somewhere between 84-85 kilograms (about 185-187 pounds). He credits changes in his diet and learning more about nutrition as the biggest reasons for the change in weight. In the preseason action he's been in so far, he said that he feels "much stronger, much faster" on the ice as a result of those changes.
When I spoke with Clang last season, he sounded like he was in no rush to make the jump to North America, and was focused on developing the right way.
"It could take two years, five years, even one year," he said of when he might make that move. "First of all, I need to get to the highest level here in Sweden and have some good years here, then I'll move over when I feel like I'm ready."
If Clang can earn some regular starting time this season with Rögle, he's one step closer toward making that move.
