Blackhawks sign 2025 draft pick Anton Frondell to entry-level contract: Where will he play?
The first step for the Chicago Blackhawks was signing Anton Frondell, the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, to an entry-level contract. That was accomplished Tuesday with Frondell agreeing to a three-year deal.
The next step is for the Blackhawks and Frondell, 18, to determine where he’ll play. Will it be the NHL? Will he return to Sweden to play for Djurgården in the SHL?
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson was hopeful after drafting Frondell that he’d at least join the team in training camp.
“I believe he’ll be able to come to training camp, yeah,” Davidson said on June 27. “There’s probably contract situations and all that has to be figured out before that, but we’ll see. I don’t think we have any expectation one way or another right now. The plan as we stand here today is that he’s playing in Djurgården in the SHL next year, but we’ve got a lot of time to figure out if that’s the best path. I think it’s a great path if that’s the one that occurs. We’ll just kind of figure that out.”
Frondell’s situation is more complicated than the Blackhawks probably thought when drafting him. After helping Djurgården get promoted to the SHL last season, there’s pressure for Frondell to return and give Djurgården one more season before jumping to North America.
It may be what Frondell wants too. He recently mentioned how much playing for Djurgården means to him.
“I grew up a Djurgården fan, so I’ve been in the crowd singing and trying to help the team win,” Frondell told The Athletic at the NHL scouting combine. “And now being (on) the team, being a part of the group who’s doing it, was really cool. And I don’t think I know how big this is. Some people are saying like, this is historic, this is history, this would be a historic team for the club. And maybe that’s not what I thought during the play, I was just thinking, ‘I love to play hockey and we’re going to win this,’ not how big it would be. We played AIK in the finals, biggest rival game in the whole Sweden, I don’t know, maybe the whole Europe. It’s like, AIK and Djurgården hate each other. And being able to show them that we are the king in Stockholm and that they are our little brother was just a cool experience.”
There is an argument to be made that Djurgården could be an ideal development place for Frondell this season. It’s a team and a coach who know him. He played up in the lineup last season and would be expected to have a larger role this season. Marcus Krüger, a former Blackhawks player, is the captain at Djurgården and has become someone Frondell looks up to. Djurgården’s promotion to Sweden’s top division would also allow Frondell to play against better players. Frondell’s entry-level contract does slide a season if he plays in fewer than 10 NHL games this coming season.
Djurgården coach Robert Kimby shared in May the areas he thought Frondell could still improve.
“ I think that he has everything within himself,” Kimby told The Athletic. “One of the things for me is to learn to release it night after night. Even if he’s young, he’s so strong. Sometimes even playing against men, you could almost feel like he didn’t bring every muscle or every piece of power that he had. Because even in our league, he got penalties because he ran over guys sometimes. So that’s one of the things, just for him to get comfortable understanding that, well, this is how good I am, just to dominate. And I’m not saying it’s a mental thing because it’s not, because he’s really strong, but to be comfortable just owning every game.”
On the other hand, it’s possible Frondell has what it takes to play in the NHL this season. The Blackhawks envision him being a future linemate to Connor Bedard. Whether that’s realistic now is difficult to gauge. The Blackhawks would love to see how Frondell performs at the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase in September and then at their NHL training camp and in some preseason games. If the Blackhawks could be hands-on with Frondell immediately, just as they were with recent top picks Bedard and Artyom Levshunov, that’s also ideal. Frondell would be eligible to play in the AHL, but he’d just as likely be loaned to Djurgården.
One potential challenge to bringing Frondell over to the Blackhawks training camp is Djurgården’s season will already be underway. Djurgården’s training camp begins on July 28, and the first game is Sept. 13. It’d be up to Frondell and both teams to agree how that would work and what would be best for Frondell’s development.
Historically, there are examples of top-five NHL draft picks playing in both leagues the year after being drafted. Leo Carlsson went immediately to the play for the Anaheim Ducks in the NHL in 2023. Lucas Raymond returned to Frölunda for another season in the SHL before playing for the Detroit Red Wings the following season. Prior to Frondell, there were four players drafted in the top five in the last decade, and two stayed in the SHL for another season and two went to the NHL.
Which way will Frondell? The answer should come soon.
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