Blackhawks select Anton Frondell No. 3 overall in 2025 NHL Draft
The Chicago Blackhawks selected center Anton Frondell of the Swedish Allsvenskan’s Djurgardens with the third overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft Friday night at The Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
The past couple of seasons have been quite the roller coaster for the talented pivot. More than a year out from this Draft, he was perceived by many scouts as a top-three prospect, but injury woes shortened his 2024-25 season and bled into the start of his 2025-26 campaign, too. He turned things around in a big way, however. He had an incredible season relative to his age in Sweden’s second-tier pro league. His 25 points in 29 games were the second most in league history for an under-18 player.
To put it in perspective, as Daily Faceoff’s prospect analyst Steven Ellis did: no other player of Frondell’s age had more than a single point. Frondell was integral in helping Djurgårdens get promoted to the SHL, Sweden’s top league, for the upcoming season. The only Draft-eligible player to outscore him in the Allsvenskan this season was his teammate and close friend Victor Eklund.
What makes Frondell a special prospect: he can do a bit of everything. He has a deadly release, which means he could be a dangerous goal scorer at the NHL level. But he’s also a sturdy 6-foot-1 and 205 pounds, giving him the frame to play a heavy game when needed. And he has the deft playmaking skill to back up his shooting talent. He’s an intelligent reader of the play and protects the puck extremely well. He has the ceiling to become a first-line center who also battles the other team’s top forwards.
Frondell, 18, will stick around in Sweden at least one more season to help Djurgardens navigate the SHL as a freshly promoted club. He signed a contract extension in March.
“Frondell has experience down the middle and on the wing, which makes him intriguing,” Ellis said. “Frondell has a fantastic shot release and he’s getting even better at attacking pucks, too. I wish he’d dominate shifts more consistently, but he’s still one of the best players every time he hits the ice. I’m not too worried about that moving forward, though – he had to make up for lost time by prioritizing scoring lanes. There’s a reason his teammates and peers consider him to be one of the most difficult players to play against, too: he’s got that dog in him. Frondell is as good of a power forward as you’ll find in this class, and he has so many translatable skills.”
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