By Russ Cohen
I don’t want to have recency bias. One way to stay away from that is to re-look at a players’ performance throughout the year besides the final tournament he would take part in before the 2025 NHL Draft. Anton Frondell showed me enough. It’s not all about points. I saw enough of his all-around game to know that my current ranking of him likely won’t change.
Frondell has been playing against men all season long and then parachuted into the U18s. I haven’t seen anything to change my opinion of him, but I will have two more rankings and sometimes players below will push their way up for a variety of reasons. I do take interviews into account if they are exceptional. It’s important to help see the makeup of a future NHLer.
Here are some key statistics according to InStat. He was upped his hits to 1.17 per game and you saw that in the U18s. His 33% defensive zone starts is one of the highest in this draft and for a future center that’s exactly what you want to see.
His 4.7 shots per game has been a constant. His wrist shot may be the best in the draft. He gets 61% of his shots on goal, again, that’s a big part of being able to be a consistent scorer at the next level when the time is right.
His skating is very good. His hockey I.Q. is high, and a team can let him develop overseas and when he’s ready he can come to North America. He doesn’t have to wait until he’s 20. His contract with Djurgården runs for another year and then he can come over and play in the AHL.
All of these reasons are why I have him ranked above some of the other centers.
