Another significant piece of the Chicago Blackhawks\u2019 future will join them shortly.<\/p>\n
Anton Frondell, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, is expected to be recalled from loan at Djurg\u00e5rdens after it was eliminated in the SHL playoffs on Saturday. Frondell could join the Blackhawks as early as next week.<\/p>\n
Unlike Blackhawks prospect Sacha Boisvert, who has been waiting nearly a week for his work visa to be processed after turning pro, Frondell won\u2019t have to get through red tape because he signed his entry-level contract with the Blackhawks before the season. With Djurg\u00e5rdens playing on the road on Saturday and Frondell traveling to North America, a realistic timeline for his arrival is likely next week.<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks play at home Sunday and will depart Monday for a four-game East Coast road trip. At some point during those games, Boisvert and Frondell are expected to make their NHL debuts. The Blackhawks have 13 regular-season games remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as Djurg\u00e5rdens\u2019 done, I think we\u2019d like to get him over here and get him as much experience over here as possible,\u201d Blackhawks assistant general manager of player development Mark Eaton said recently.<\/p>\n
Frondell is coming off a memorable rookie season in the SHL. He became just the fourth 18-year-old to score 20 goals in the SHL and the first since Daniel Sedin did it in the 1998-99 season. Since helping Sweden win the gold medal at the World Junior Championship in early January, Frondell returned to Djurg\u00e5rdens and saw his role and ice time increase over the second half of the season. His game also improved. He scored in 10 of his final 18 regular-season games, and scored an overtime game-winner in Djurg\u00e5rdens\u2019 lone playoff victory. Djurg\u00e5rdens was eliminated by Malm\u00f6 4-1 in the final game of the best-of-three, first-round series on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the confidence is always there with him,\u201d Eaton said. \u201cI think he has gotten a little more ice time. He\u2019s played more consistently, I think, on the second line since World Juniors, so being put more in the situations that speak to his style of game, more offensive situations. Confidence is there, and he just continued with the goal scoring and he scored his 20th last game. So, yeah, just continuing to trend up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frondell was used mostly on the left wing for Djurg\u00e5rdens this season, and that\u2019s where he will likely play for the Blackhawks, too. Joining the top line with Connor Bedard and playing on a power-play unit could also be in the cards.<\/p>\n
One of Frondell\u2019s biggest strengths is his left-handed shot. He and Djurg\u00e5rdens coach Robert Kimby spent a lot of time refining it this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and him worked a lot of shooting in tight spaces or releasing the shot,\u201d Kimby said recently. \u201cTo release the shot even if it\u2019s in a bad position, to work on the mindset that sometimes it\u2019s better to get the puck on the net quicker than having the perfect shot because that\u2019s going to surprise the goalie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimby expected Frondell to join the Blackhawks whenever Djurg\u00e5rdens\u2019 season ended and was grateful to have coached him the past few seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that everyone that plays or coaches a player that is a high draft pick feels privileged because that\u2019s how you feel to be working with a young player with that kind of skill, but also because, in my opinion, I don\u2019t think you get drafted that high without having that drive,\u201d Kimby said. \u201cSo for me, that\u2019s the biggest part. It doesn\u2019t matter with Anton that he\u2019s had a bad game He\u2019s there the next day. He has a good game, he\u2019s there next day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings happen around him, still with a smile on his face, staying late on the ice, working hard, being there early, going to the gym and all that stuff. For us, for me, for coaches, for his teammates, I think that that just gives energy for everyone around him. When you coach a player that wants you to help them to work on their shot or work on their skills, they ask a lot about situations, that makes you want to do it even more. That\u2019s kind of the experience with him now this year where he just wants to learn and get better. Then when you have a player that has that mentality, you\u2019ll do everything you can to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frondell said recently he paid some attention what was going on with the Blackhawks this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun to follow and cool to see the players and a little bit knowing what to expect in the future even though there\u2019s a big time difference and we\u2019re playing our games at the same time maybe and I need to have my nights of my sleep,\u201d Frondell said.<\/p>\n
As for his future with the Blackhawks, he was trying to resist thinking about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s hard when you\u2019re in a team here in Sweden, thinking too much about, like, Chicago and the team who drafted you in the summer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s still in the future. I don\u2019t feel stressed about it, but I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, that future has arrived. He\u2019ll be with the Blackhawks soon enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another significant piece of the Chicago Blackhawks\u2019 future will join them shortly. Anton Frondell, the No. 3 overall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,99],"class_list":["post-537498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}