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<\/p>\nWhere Anton Frondell was going to play this coming season was decided long before he was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks. It was decided even before it was known which division Djurg\u00e5rden would be playing this season.<\/p>\n
Djurg\u00e5rden general manager Niklas Wikeg\u00e5rd had it arranged long before that.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, we already talked about it in October, November (of 2024) that it doesn\u2019t matter if we\u2019re going to play SHL or HockeyAllsvenskan, in the second league in Sweden,\u201d Wikeg\u00e5rd said by phone on Friday. \u201cSo it would be good for him to play at least one more year in Sweden and just mature physically as a player. So we had a mutual agreement with the agents and him and his father that he\u2019s gonna stay for one more year in Sweden and play.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a difficult year where he came into the season a little bit wrong, a little bit injured and kind of like all the young players had ups and downs in his play. To play in Sweden, when you play under pressure all the time to win in Sweden \u2014 Europe is different than North America where you have to qualify for the next league and you don\u2019t want to fall out \u2014 so to play those games, (that\u2019s) extreme pressure for a guy who\u2019s 17 years old. \u2026 So, there was no thoughts from our side where he\u2019s going to play next year. We were 100 percent sure that he\u2019s gonna play with us for the season coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lot has happened since late 2024. Djurg\u00e5rden earned its promotion to the SHL by winning HockeyAllsvenskan. Frondell, 18, played a part in that and emerged as one of the top players in the draft class. The Blackhawks selected him with the No. 3 pick.<\/p>\n
Still, the plan remained.<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks learned more about Frondell\u2019s plan after drafting him. Originally, they hadn\u2019t ruled out his coming to training camp and seeing how he stacked up against NHL competition in preseason games. But as the Blackhawks negotiated Frondell\u2019s entry-level contract and discussed what he sought for the upcoming season, he expressed his desire to return to Djurg\u00e5rden for another year.<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks were understanding. They see the benefit in Djurg\u00e5rden playing in a higher league and Frondell facing better competition. The Blackhawks still offered him a training camp invite.<\/p>\n
Recently, Frondell decided he wouldn\u2019t travel to Chicago for camp. He didn\u2019t want to interrupt his SHL season. Djurg\u00e5rden opened training camp last week and will begin its season in early September.<\/p>\n
Wikeg\u00e5rd believes Frondell\u2019s development will be best served by being in one place for an extended period. Wikeg\u00e5rd used the last four months as an example; in that time, Frondell played with Djurg\u00e5rden until the end of the playoffs in April, then went to play in Texas for the U18s, then he was off to the NHL Scouting Combine, then the NHL Draft and finally the Blackhawks development camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we hadn\u2019t talked to the junior team national coach, he would be with the junior national team now and then he would go to the camp with Chicago and then go back to us, then in November go to another camp with the international team and then the junior World Championship and so on and so on,\u201d Wikeg\u00e5rd said. \u201cSo that\u2019s going to be like a wasted season for a guy like that. So we talked to his agent and Chicago too \u2014 I think they understand it \u2014 that this guy, this type of player in this age, he needs to go to the rink, put his physical clothes on, go to the gym, put his hockey gear on, practice day after day after day after day, play games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s going to be an incredibly important season for this guy, and that\u2019s going to be extremely important for him in the coming 10 to 15 years. We\u2019ve seen several guys in Sweden \u2014 we have William Eklund, who is the brother to Victor here, coming over to play those nine (NHL) games (in the 2021-22 season), coming home, didn\u2019t know where to find himself, probably. \u2026 NHL is the best league in the world, for sure, and everybody wants to play there, but they\u2019re going to have lots of time to come over and play there.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anton Frondell was invited to Blackhawks training camp but will spend the fall with Djurgarden instead. (Matt Winkelmeyer \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Wikeg\u00e5rd also believes Djurg\u00e5rden can provide the optimal development environment for Frondell. They know his game. They know what he needs to work on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to his hockey, he\u2019s such a big guy that he still has those hands, still has the ability to do things with the puck all the time, reads the play well, has a tremendous shot,\u201d Wikeg\u00e5rd said. \u201cHe looks like a grown-up senior player already. \u2026 He\u2019s just going to have to keep being strong without the puck, read the play a little bit more, take a little more good decisions when it comes to the defensive play. Just keep on going to the gym, just keep practicing extra with the team and stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he has time with us, that\u2019s going to be another step for him. He took a step from juniors to senior last year and this year it\u2019s going from the second league to the first league. Just put in repetitions and ice time, that\u2019s what you want to do, then you\u2019re going to have the whole package for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the Blackhawks will undoubtedly be interested in is how Djurg\u00e5rden actually uses Frondell. What position will he play? Where will he be in the lineup? How much ice time will he get? Will he be on the power play? Will Frondell\u2019s development be prioritized?<\/p>\n
Wikeg\u00e5rd can\u2019t guarantee anything, but he expects Frondell to play a key role this season. For now, Frondell will also play on the wing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Sweden, we can\u2019t rebuild,\u201d Wikeg\u00e5rd said. \u201cWe can\u2019t prioritize players. We have to win all the time. \u2026 When we build the team before the season starts, him and another guy named Victor Eklund are on first three lines with us, so he\u2019s gonna have his time. He\u2019s going to have his games; he is going to have his shifts at five-on-five and five-on-four, probably not four-on-five, but he\u2019s a regular player in our lineup. That\u2019s what we feel about him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to play a guy like Anton Frondell or Victor Eklund in a fourth line. We\u2019re going to place them in creative spots where they should be. They should play in their role that they are meant to play in, probably the same thing up in Chicago, I guess. You\u2019re not gonna play Anton in a checking line. So he\u2019s going to play creative minutes in our line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frondell will also have meetings every two weeks with coaches to go over his development plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do special drills for him, covering the puck, strong on the boards, you know, all those things,\u201d Wikeg\u00e5rd said. \u201cHe\u2019s still so young, so in Sweden, you have hockey gymnasium, hockey school, so he\u2019s working on the fundamentals all the time. We try to add another 80-90 extra practices for all these young players this year. So games, regular training and 75-80 extra practices for him just working on the fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frondell was likely a long shot to make the Blackhawks this season. If he can continue to develop at Djurg\u00e5rden and be ready for the NHL a season from now, that\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n
(Photo: Kirby Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where Anton Frondell was going to play this coming season was decided long before he was drafted by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,7520,575,85],"class_list":["post-43218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}