{"id":521075,"date":"2026-03-24T23:57:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/521075\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:57:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:57:21","slug":"islanders-first-rounder-victor-eklund-coming-stateside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/521075\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders’ first-rounder Victor Eklund coming stateside"},"content":{"rendered":"

After his season in the Swedish Hockey League with Djurgardens ended Saturday with a playoff loss to Malmo, first-round pick Victor Eklund<\/a> will travel to North America this week and join the AHL Bridgeport Islanders, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear whether Eklund will make his debut over the weekend, with Bridgeport facing Laval on Saturday and playing in Providence on Sunday. <\/p>\n

That will likely depend on how he feels after making the trip.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Islanders forward Victor Eklund (73) runs a drill during Development Camp at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow, N.Y. on Monday, June 30, 2025.
\n Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Eklund was quoted in a Swedish outlet, HockeyNews.se, after Djurgardens\u2019 season ended, saying that he\u2019d like to make the trip over and had spoken recently with Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, his Djurgardens teammate and close friend, Anton Frondell, made his NHL debut against the Islanders with the Blackhawks on Tuesday. Frondell was the third overall pick in last summer\u2019s draft; Eklund went 16th.<\/p>\n

Eklund finished the season with six goals and 18 assists over 43 games in the SHL, his first year in Sweden\u2019s top division. <\/p>\n

After taking some time to adjust to the higher level, Eklund\u2019s game took an upward turn after World Juniors, where he played a leading role in helping Sweden to a gold medal.<\/p>\n

\"NewEklund is set to join the Islanders\u2019 AHL squad. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cVic, we\u2019ve been playing together the whole year, we got to play with each other,\u201d Frondell said. \u201cLike always, he\u2019s a hardworking guy. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen someone work as hard as him or like to compete as much.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not that big, he\u2019s not that heavy, but he runs over guys in the SHL. Especially in the playoffs, the last games against Malmo. Just running over guys, creating a lot of energy. That\u2019s something, playing with him, I feel like he\u2019s creating so much energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Islanders inked goaltender Josh Kotai, an undrafted free agent out of Augustana University, to a two-year entry-level deal, the team announced. Per PuckPedia, it is a two-way deal carrying a $965,000 AAV at the NHL level and an $85,000 salary in the minors.<\/p>\n

Kotai, 23, had a .938 save percentage and 1.99 GAA with Augustana this season. He measures 6-foot-1, 165 pounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After his season in the Swedish Hockey League with Djurgardens ended Saturday with a playoff loss to Malmo,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,465,43,1718],"class_list":{"0":"post-521075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-nhl-draft","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-sweden"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116286865423275673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}