Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
ROCKFORD, Ill. … Clad in the San Diego Gulls’ bright-orange 10th anniversary jerseys, goaltender Calle Clang and teammate Tim Washe already stood out when they took the ice on Tuesday night for the start of the 2026 AHL All-Star Classic presented by BMO.
Washe has already built a name for himself as a rookie forward who could be in line for much more work with the parent Anaheim Ducks.
And by the end of Tuesday’s AHL All-Star Skills Competition, Clang stood out for much more than that Gulls jersey. The netminder stopped 16 of 18 shots to win CCM Top Goaltender honors to hold the Western Conference in late in an eventual 18-15 loss to the Eastern Conference. Matched up against Laurent Dauphin (the AHL’s leading scorer) and Christian Kyrou in the Fortune Tires Rapid Fire event, Clang denied nine of 10 shots. Next came the Hard Rock Casino Rockford Pass and Score event, where he shut down Tristan Broz, Jack Devine and Matt Luff on all three attempts. He finished his evening by stopping four of five Eastern Conference attempts in the Upper Deck Breakaway Relay.
The 23-year-old Clang was a replacement for Henderson’s Carl Lindbom on the Pacific Division roster.
Much like Tuesday night, Clang has quietly let his play speak for itself in his third season with the Gulls. He came to the Anaheim organization as a well-regarded prospect in the March 2022 deal that sent Rickard Rackell to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Clang, a third-round pick by the Penguins in the 2020 NHL Draft, also played parts of four seasons in the Swedish Hockey League.
In 2023-24, Clang’s first season in North America, he split the San Diego workload with Tomas Suchanek and Alex Stalock. Last season he divided time with veteran Oscar Dansk.
This season it was San Diego going with NHL veteran Ville Husso for most of the first six weeks of the season. Clang also took a personal leave of absence in November. But injuries hit Anaheim hard in net. Clang made his return to the Gulls on Dec. 7 and soon took over the San Diego job while Vyacheslav Buteyets and Tomas Suchanek have moved back and forth between the Gulls and their ECHL affiliate, the Tulsa Oilers. Husso, meanwhile, went back to the Ducks on Jan. 6 and has remained there since.
Through 19 games, Clang is 11-3-4 with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. That GAA is fifth-best in the AHL, too. Clang’s work has helped to put the Gulls solidly in the hunt for a trip back to the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time in four years. San Diego has not won a playoff series since advancing to the conference finals in 2019.
Getting this team to the Calder Cup Playoffs would benefit a young group of Ducks prospects. It would boost Clang as well. At 21-14-6-3, the Gulls are currently sixth in the Pacific Division, one point ahead of the Tucson Roadrunners. It’s relatively solid positioning, but still precarious enough with the Calgary Wranglers and Henderson Silver Knights hanging around just seven points behind.
A significant test awaits when the schedule resumes with a weekend home-and-home series with one of the Pacific Division’s premier teams, the Bakersfield Condors. It will be a chance for Clang to measure himself against the AHL’s second-best offense (3.46 goals per game) and its third-ranked power play.
And Clang could be back in Rockford’s BMO Center next week when the Gulls visit the IceHogs. Then there is a two-game trip to Texas to close out the month. Game after game after game on the remainder of San Diego’s schedule is against Pacific Division powers or teams like Rockford and Texas scrapping to position themselves in the standings.
Clang will get another opportunity to show what he can do Wednesday night (8 ET/7 CT) in the AHL All-Star Challenge, a 3-on-3 round-robin competition among the AHL’s four divisions. NHL Network (United States) and TSN5 (Canada) will broadcast the game on television while AHLTV on FloHockey will have streaming coverage. Chicago Sports Network (CHSN) will produce the game and air it as well.
The Ducks, who hold the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot, are in their own fight for a trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Down in San Diego, meanwhile, it’s Clang’s net. AHL fans inside BMO Center on Tuesday night saw why.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.