Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League

Saskatchewan’s Finest: Broncos’ Stromme brings winning hockey to Humboldt

(Photo credit to Marla Possberg)

Landen Stromme’s Under-15 2018-19 North East Wolfpack team reads like a 2024-25 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League all-star squad.

Zac Somers. Caden Drury. Jacob Cossette. Nicholas Andrusiak.

Throw in the likes of Western Hockey League veterans Connor Hvidston, Nate Misskey, a San Jose Sharks prospect, Roan Woodward, and Rhett Ravndahl.

And Stromme as its beating heart.

It must have been some team: they went 25-2-4 on the year.

“It’s so cool to see what all these guys are doing because I know all their younger selves would be pretty proud of them, and I am too,” Stromme says.

“(That being said) when I have one of my buddies in the corner, I am not going to go easy on them, probably the opposite. I’ve known many of these guys a lot of my life, and it’s so cool to square off against a bunch of them here in junior. The hockey world is so small, people don’t realize how small it is.”

Seven years and 164 junior hockey games later, most with the Humboldt Broncos, the ever-humble Stromme more than belongs with all those guys.

A hard-nosed, energetic presence, he may not have the same flash as some of those names listed above, but he more than makes up for it with his thunder.

That he was named the Broncos captain, this off-season should be a zero surprise.

“I’m a player who does everything for the team,” he says genuinely.

“People throw around that term ‘glue guy,’ and I think it’s a little misused because they say that this kid is ‘just’ there for his personality or positivity, but I take pride in my style of play and how it is effective in helping the Humboldt Broncos win games. I can be physical and defend well, but I take pride in my game. I take pride in penalty killing and bringing the energy every night, giving my team my best 60 minutes, and knowing that I can live with what I put out there every time I put on that jersey.”

Stromme will turn 20 in November and hails from Choiceland, SK, 30 minutes west of Nipawin.

He comes by his immense maturity quite honestly. His father, Kyle, an Underground Mine Supervisor for Cameco, a Potash mining company, left home as a young teenager to work as a fruit picker in British Columbia. Landen’s mother, Jolene, is a hard-working self-employed entrepreneur. That his parents have scraped and clawed for the life in and out of hockey they have given Stromme and his little brother Jace is not at all lost on Landen.

“Growing up in Choiceland with my family, it was amazing. I am so privileged,” he says.

“My parents raised me in a way that when I moved away for hockey at 15, I was ready. Some kids don’t have that opportunity and struggle when they leave their parents’ house, so I am honoured to have the family that I do.

“I always say to the (Broncos players): you could be working a 9-to-5 job right now, or you could be sitting in your chair studying for school seven days a week,” he adds.

“We have quite the blessing to be able to play junior hockey; I try to tell the younger guys these things to keep them in perspective. That is something I learned from my dad, who had to work so hard to play hockey, and I’ve just looked up to him my whole life in that way because he has earned everything he’s gotten. It’s just not that hard for me to be a hard worker when I grew up seeing it from both of them every day.”

Stromme was named captain of the Broncos in mid-October, following up a remarkable group of recent men to wear the ‘C’ for the ‘Green-and-Gold.’ The likes of Ethan Zielke, who is thriving in NCAA Division I, and the brilliant late Logan Schatz spring to mind.

Landen served as an assistant for another great one, Cage Newans, last season, and Stromme credits the departed Newans for setting the example of what a captain, leader, and Humboldt Bronco should be.

So, the choice was evident when the new Broncos’ head coach, Brayden Klimosko, felt it was time to pick the new ‘C.’

“I initially wanted to give it a few weeks to see who would step up as the leader of our group,” says Klimosko.

“I had the players vote, and it was overwhelming in (Stromme’s) favour to be our captain. I was really impressed with the feedback I got after naming him as the captain from the people in the community, and that was the moment I knew we had chosen the right guy. The players and community both felt there was only one choice.”

Thoughtful and intelligent, Stromme is simultaneously grateful for his small-town roots and eager to move away from the stereotype of what many in the area end up doing for most of their lives.

He wants to get into Kinesiology, potentially working in physiotherapy or chiropractic, noting that he has always been interested in fitness.

Stromme notes that he has been intentional in helping to bridge the gap potentially created by the departure of six-year head coach Scott Barney and the in-coming Klimosko.

That he has had the great opportunity to learn under the ex-NHLer and master developer Barney and the three-time SJHL Coach of the Year Klimosko is abundantly clear to him.

“I’ve been very lucky and very privileged to have both those coaches for sure,” Stromme says.

“I think it was lucky and perfect to start my (junior) career with Barney because he set such a great standard of what a hockey player should be and look like and how to grow up in and out of the game. Then, to end it with a down-to-earth guy like Brayden, who is so great at making everyone feel like part of the team, it’s an honour, and I am just really blessed.”

As a person, leader, and hockey player, Stromme is undoubtedly one of Saskatchewan’s Finest, and the Broncos and the SJHL are fortunate to have him.