250425 Djurgårdens Anton Frondell och Victor Eklund jublar med pokalen efter match fem i Hockeyallsvenska finalen mellan Djurgården och AIK den 25 april 2025 i Stockholm.
Foto: Johanna Säll / BILDBYRÅN / kod JL / MT0801

This past season was nothing short of a Hollywood-style story for Sweden’s famed Djurgarden organization. Having spent recent years coming up short in its attempt to gain passage back into the big league SHL, where the storied franchise is always felt to have belonged, some major steps were taken last offseason to turn the goal of promotion into a reality.

One was hiring Niklas Wikegard to be the team’s general manager, a former coach and Washington Capitals scout who had since become a media personality as one of Sweden’s most recognized hockey pundits. Wikegard immediately went to work in giving aging stars Marcus Krüger, Linus Klasen, Daniel Brodin, and Viktor Andrén some very seasoned assistance by adding former NHLer Patrick Thoresen (41) and vets of many years, Fredric Weigel, Ludvig Rensfeldt, Tyler Kelleher, and Colby Sissons. Topping off the wave of recognizable notables was his talking Djurgarden legend (and former Detroit Red Wings draft pick) Dick Axelsson out of his leave of absence and all he did was come in and rack up 45 points in as many games.

241011 Djurgårdens sportchef Niklas Wikegård under ishockeymatchen i Hockeyallsvenskan mellan Djurgården och Kalmar den 11 oktober 2024 i Stockholm.
Foto: Simon Hastegård / BILDBYRÅN / kod SH / SH0529

There were other shrewd and clever adds from around the Swedish hockey scene as well as recent older draft picks such as Jonny Tychonick (OTT) and Arvid Costmar (VAN). At midseason, he brought in San Jose Sharks property Mattias Hävelid to bolster the blueline and later brought back current Montreal Canadiens prospect Linus Eriksson (2024 draft), who came up with Djurgarden but spent the bulk of the season gaining SHL experience with Växjö. Both came in on loans and immediately helped.

Topping off his onslaught of continual tweaking was Wikegard loaning in New Islanders goaltending prospect Marcus Gidlöf, one of the rising stars in the prospect scene this past winter. After dominating the U20 circuit (14-4, 2.00 GAA, and .911 SV%), the 19-year-old came out of nowhere to put up an 11-6 record for Leksands of the SHL and suit up for Team Sweden at the WJC. With nothing else going on, he stood in goal for Djurgarden for the final two games of the championship series and not only was the victor in both but flashed a 0.53 GAA and .980 save percentage along the way.

The fairy tale season concluded in a victorious 4-1 series victory over local archrival AIK Stockholm, getting the team to the long-desired promised land known as the SHL. At the same time, it’s a rare occasion where it seems like everything a GM touches turns to gold.

Indeed, that phrase is becoming quite apt in connection with Djurgarden’s prospect pipeline in recent years.

For all the wild headlines described above, the absolute cherry on top, especially for the world of NHL draft prospects, was the season experienced by super prospects Anton Frondell and Victor Eklund. Oh yes, our seventh and ninth-ranked prospects in this summer’s draft were key ingredients in Djurgarden’s run at the title. In what’s starting to feel like a yearly rite of passage, the team managed to experience its incredible run while working these two exceptional talents into the fold, and they didn’t just get their feet wet but played key offensive roles in the endeavour. Whereas Frondell was lights out for the majority of the period between the end of January and early March (9-12-21 in 12 games), Eklund’s contributions were felt all season long and included one hat-trick and nine multipoint outings.

Moreover, the two were seeing special teams play and gelling wonderfully with the old stars that dotted the team’s roster, combining savvy ability with a world of youthful enthusiasm, an aspect that was honoured greatly by one of the most passionate fan bases on the European continent. Individually, their evolutionary paths to this point have been different. We’ll start off with Frondell, whose DY-1 junior season saw him score well over a PPG in the U20 league and star at the U17 World Hockey Challenge. The husky center, whose game just reeks of a power game, then spent last summer dealing with an injury that impacted the start of this season, one that also saw him miss time due to other physical difficulties throughout the fall. It wasn’t until the World Junior A Challenge last December that he got back into the swing of things.

And boy did he!

241011 Djurgårdens Anton Frondell under ishockeymatchen i Hockeyallsvenskan mellan Djurgården och Kalmar den 11 oktober 2024 i Stockholm.
Foto: Simon Hastegård / BILDBYRÅN / kod SH / SH0529

He became an offensive beast. The one-timers were an absolute treat to watch, but there were moves and dishes that pulled the fans out of their seats as well. The way he moved around the ice, you’d never have known he’s just an 18-year-old kid. The cage on his face was the only thing giving it away. Maybe it was all too much, too soon, because he eventually slowed down once the playoffs came along, admittedly seeing his role diminished for such a veteran-laden team chock-full of former NHL draft picks.

As soon as the league championship had been wrapped up, he was ushered to the airport for a flight to Texas to join the nation’s U18 squad in the middle of the U18 Worlds. We didn’t get to see the version of him we wanted, even seeing the coaching staff leave him on the bench when the going got hot in the playoffs, but he still put up three points in five games and came away with a silver medal..

241120 Djurgårdens Victor Eklund under ishockeymatchen i Hockeyallsvenskan mellan Djurgården och Västerås den 20 november 2024 i Stockholm.
Foto: Jesper Zerman / BILDBYRÅN / kod JZ / JZ0589

We can’t say all that about Eklund, though, whose season never really slowed down or saw any dips. The still underdeveloped goal-scorer with incredible hockey sense, a player we already saw dress up for Djurgarden 30 times in his DY-1, was a full-fledged top nine winger from the outset. And he just kept jiving and connecting with his teammates throughout the season, never going more than five games (twice) without getting his name on the scoresheet. Even a midseason break that saw him in Canada for the WJC, where he collected six points and a +7 on his way to a silver medal, couldn’t trip him up.

A hardworking, determined competitor, he was never afraid to go anywhere on the ice he needed to in order to get his job done. So great was the trust the scouting staff had in him that Eklund remained on one of the power play units even in the playoffs, where he ultimately put up two goals and seven points in 16 games. Unlike Frondell, he got to hang around in Stockholm to experience the multiday celebration of this historic promotion and the lavish festivities that accompanied it.

Of course, what we experienced with Eklund and Frondell isn’t all that surprising,g seeing as how Viktor is William’s younger brother, who himself is coming off a career-best season with San Jose (41 assists, 58 points) in just his second full season of NHL play. As brothers go, the two are very close, and the distance between their humble abodes doesn’t keep them from communicating regularly. And their father, Christian “Fimpen” Eklund, was a long-time heart-n-soul player for the Djurgarden organization for much of the century’s first decade. As such, Victor’s coming from a proven line of pedigree, something that will surely soften any worries an NHL team may have right now about his 160-pound frame.

Then again, with the way he produced this winter, it’s hard to have any concerns about his long-term viability as a scorer. He was arguably the top overall producer at a pro level of any kind among this draft’s first-year draft eligibles. And for comparison’s sake, his 38 Allsvenskan points in his draft year for Djurgarden topped Jonathan Lekkerimäki’s 24 in his draft year, outscoring the similarly sized fellow right winger by 13 goals in the process!

Now, this whole story is certainly a good one, but it’s not, well, the whole story. And that little note about Lekkerimäki leads us right into the juiciest detail of Djurgarden’s overall success.

In recent years, the club has become a factory for NHL draft picks. Both the pro team and its junior program have long been the source of NHL draft picks on a yearly basis. Even just going back five years to 2020, the NHL world was given first-rounder Alexander Holtz. A year later, it was first-rounder Eklund, fifth-rounder Oskar Jellvik, and seventh-rounder Carl Lindbom, who is on the brink of an NHL job with the Vegas Golden Knights. In 2022, we saw forwards Lekkerimäki, Liam Öhgren, and Noah Östlund all go in the first round alone, much less second-rounder Calle Odelius and third-rounder Adam Engström.

2023 was a bit quiet for the club on the draft front (fourth-rounder Vilmer Alriksson), but last summer delivered us the highly touted Linus Eriksson (2nd round). And on top of Eklund and Frondell this summer, who could each end up being top 10 picks (a club novelty!), we have every reason to believe that Djurgarden prospects Theo Stockselius, Erik Nilsson, Arvid Drott, and perhaps even overagers Wilson Björck and Lucas Stockselius (there’s that name again) will hear their names called or, well, see them listed on the electronic draft board of this year’s decentralized event.

That’d be quite a turnout for a single European club.

Looking forward – and that’s a big part of what we at McKeen’s are all about – the highly touted 2026 draft also includes a Djurgarden prospect who is all the way up at the top of the rankings. His name is Viggo Björck, and the only player for the 2026 draft to have been more anticipated longer is Gavin McKenna. In fact, Björck already saw a game of Allsvenskan action this season and promptly scored his first goal. Despite spending the bulk of the season as a 16-year-old, he was already the top scorer in Sweden’s top U20 circuit, setting an all-time record among juniors with his 89 points in 51 total games. We saw him do really nicely for himself at the U17 WHC (5 points) and then put in a tremendous DY-1 effort at the U18 Worlds, going 4-4-8 with a +5 in seven contests.

Saying his star is very bright may be an understatement!

But as we spend the 25-26 season following his every step, perhaps even at the SHL level, we’ll also be looking at forward Marcus Nordmark, who himself has star potential after dominating the U18 level and clipping at a PPG pace for Djurgarden’s U20 squad this year. In 2027, we expect to be very excited about the names Alex Engman, William Hedlund, Leo Schlegel, and Hampus Zirath, but that’s all literally music of the future to our ears.

Summing up, hardly a year goes by without us having to keep a watchful eye on the Djurgarden program. It continually develops top-flight talents and consistently finds ways to incorporate them into the pro team’s plans. This is not even to mention the many players from the program who go on to dot the line-ups of other SHL and Allsvenskan clubs. As of next season, those aforementioned plans will mean SHL hockey once again. Until then, the fairy tale 25-26 season for the club will finally conclude when we see where Eklund and Frondell are selected, knowing each will soon be part of a very fortunate NHL franchise.