The LA Kings have selected forward Elton Hermansson with the 19th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, their first of now ten scheduled selections on the weekend.<\/p>\n
Before making the selection, the Kings traded down from Pick 17 to Pick 19, acquiring a third-round selection from thenUtah Mammoth in the process, Pick 83.<\/p>\n
The Vitals
Name: Elton Hermansson
Position: Forward
Shoots: Right
DOB: February 5, 2008
Height: 6-1
Weight: 181
Hometown: \u00d6rnsk\u00f6ldsvik, SWE
NHL Central Scouting Final Ranking: 5 (European Skaters)
Sportsnet \/ Sam Cosentino Final Ranking: 16
The Hockey News \/ Ryan Kennedy Final Ranking: 17
Elite Prospects \/ Cam Robinson Final Ranking: 17
FloHockey \/ Chris Peters Final Ranking: 24
Stats (Modo, Sweden-2): 38 GP, 21 G, 10 A, 21 PTS, 22 PIM<\/p>\n
Expert Opinions
Scott Wheeler \/ The Athletic
Stenberg and Bj\u00f6rck have deservedly held the spotlight for the Swedes in this class, but Hermansson is one of several other legit prospects for Tre Kronor this year and impressed at U17 worlds and Hlinka. He also played up at the February Five Nations with the U18 team last year, and was productive in their international schedule again this year. He was productive on a deep-at-forward \u00d6rebro junior team last year as well and played with MoDo\u2019s HockeyAllsvenskan club at the second-tier pro level (which was positive after a slowish start in J20 but finished with a quiet playoffs in a reduced role). He was highly productive at U18 worlds to finish out his draft year, but scored six of his points against Denmark and was inconsistent in both his play and his competitiveness.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a right shot, but he has played a lot of both wings, and he impresses with his individual stick skill. He\u2019s not the most well-rounded or defensively responsible winger, but he\u2019s talented with the puck in his hands and a threat inside the offensive zone, with an ability to go one-on-one, play and pull pucks under driangles, out-wait goalies and just generally play with some swagger. He wants to go out there and make plays and score goals, and he\u2019s willing to try things, sometimes in bad spots. He\u2019s also a threatening shooter off the flank, both into his curl-and-drag wrister or getting open for his strong one-timer. And he has a great feel as a saucer passer. He has a bit of an awkward\/upright skating posture that bends at the ankles, but he has some speed, and he\u2019s a 6-1 winger with legit handling, finishing and passing who has clear first-round talent. I want to see him be firmer with the puck when he has it and harder on the puck when he doesn\u2019t at times, for sure. His play against men for much of this season and internationally is hard to ignore with his skill set, though, too.<\/p>\n
Sam Cosentino \/ Sportsnet
Had great bookends to the season while playing with his peers. He kicked off the year with 11 points in five Hlinka-Gretzky games and ended the season with a strong showing at the U18s where he put up 12 points in seven games en route to a gold medal and a top player award. He is a good-sized winger with a goal-scoring acumen. Hermansson was moved up to the Allsvenskan mid-season and still showed he was able to contribute offensively. His 11 goals topped all 17-year-old players in the Allsvenskan.<\/p>\n
Chris Peters \/ Flo Hockey
In a draft that doesn\u2019t have a ton of players with dynamic skill, Hermansson has plenty of skill. He\u2019s among the better puckhandlers in the draft and displays higher-end creativity in his ability to use the offensive zone to his advantage. While the offensive elements of his game are excellent, his lack of strong play off of the puck and occasional disinterest in the defensive side of the game makes him a more difficult sell in scouting meetings. He can score, though, and in a class that doesn\u2019t have a ton of those naturally gifted offensive players, I could see a team betting on his scoring and skill capabilities.<\/p>\n
Quick Take \u2013 The LA Kings need high-upside offensive players in their prospect pool and they just drafted one in Elton Hermansson. That\u2019s exciting. Hermansson\u2019s profile is extremely interesting in that he played professionally last season as a 17-year-old, with Modo in the second division in Sweden, and produced at a very impressive rate. How exactly does that league compare to others across Europe, I\u2019m not exactly sure, but it\u2019s certainly not playing against 16-year-olds. Hermansson was utilized in a regular role in men\u2019s professional hockey and produced at over 0.5 points-per-game. That\u2019s impressive. On the wings, he instantly becomes the organization\u2019s top forward prospect, especially from an offensive-upside standpoint. Hermansson was selected right around where he was rated in external rankings, in the middle of the first round, and the Kings are quite excited to add him into the mix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The LA Kings have selected forward Elton Hermansson with the 19th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-728996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728996","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=728996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}