Artem Grushnikov looks to separate himself from the pack this season

Artem Grushnikov played his first full season with the Calgary Wranglers last year after coming to the team on a mid-season trade in the 2023-24 season. He enters the last year of his entry level contract this season and has some development to do to figure out where he fits.

Meets expectations

Grushnikov has positional skills that are smooth and show his potential but he doesn’t have many stand out moments. This season will be one for him to prove his value in the organizational depth chart and make a space for himself. He is expected to improve and to do that he needs to find parts of his game that raise his value and if that is not done in scoring, it needs to be done on the speed, puck management or physical side. 

Last season, he played in 61 games with the Wranglers and put up a goal and four assists. In the season before that, he split his season between the Wranglers and Texas Stars. He had one assist in 20 games with the Wranglers and one goal and four assists in 44 games with the Stars. 

Grushnikov needs to continue to be one of almost guaranteed blue liners night in and night out and needs to find that edge along with his regular defensive partner, Jeremie Poirier. These two were the third pairing last season and are projected to be in the same spot. If either of them wants NHL time in the near future, they need to show some real edge to their game. 

Exceeds expectations

In his professional career so far, Artem Grushnikov has not exceeded five points in a single season. As a defenceman, points aren’t the end all or be all of his impact, but if that side of his game takes a stride forward, he can be leveraged more in big game opportunities like special teams, overtime or close match-ups.

Grushnikov would need to emerge as one of the Wranglers best defensive options or at least top three to exceed the expectations set for him. Right now, he’s in that bottom half category with some hefty competition in front of him, with teammates Yan Kuznetsov and Hunter Brzustewicz already getting looks with the Flames. 

Below expectations

For Grushnikov to under-perform, he’d need to make little or no improvement from last season. He would continue to be an option on the blue line but may be the odd one out on some nights and be scratched as a result. If he plays the same way we saw him play last season, his goals of making the NHL will continue to be a little too far out of reach and he will need to evaluate if his career continues in the AHL or in an international league.