How Blackhawks rookie Anton Frondell is preparing to play center in the NHL

Anton Frondell has an opportunity to be the Blackhawks‘ first-line center, at least for the first month of the season during Connor Bedard’s absence.

The 19-year-old Swedish forward personally hasn’t given much thought to what line he will play on. But he has spent his entire summer thinking about and preparing for his new position.

His tryout at center at the end of last season came unexpectedly, since he had played exclusively on the wing for his Swedish club, Djurgardens. He showed promise in his first 12 NHL games, nine of which were spent at center, by recording nine points. But he also struggled on faceoffs and missed some defensive assignments.

By the time the puck drops for the Hawks’ 2026-27 season opener Sept. 29 at the Golden Knights, he should look more comfortable at center.

“You need to know the whole game and how to play the role in the middle,” Frondell said Friday on the phone from Sweden, where he was driving home to a hearty pasta dinner.

“I’m trying to study it, watch a couple players and look deep into faceoffs and how to try to win more.”

Panthers star Aleksander Barkov has long been Frondell’s idol, so the fact he’s one of the most dominant two-way centers in the world made him an obvious choice to feature in Frondell’s video sessions this summer. Frondell also got to face Barkov on the ice for the first time in an exhibition game before the world championships in May.

At the dot, Frondell (who won only 30.2% of his faceoffs in those 12 games) has an extremely long way to go to catch Barkov (56.9% over his last two healthy seasons). But after studying Barkov, he thinks his sheer strength could be an advantage.

“Faceoffs is a lot of timing, a lot of reacting quick to when the puck drops, and then if you’re strong and you have a lot of power in your faceoffs, you can win a lot of them,” Frondell said. “That’s a way for me to win more: with my power.”

It’s worth noting Frondell’s weight has held steady at 209 pounds for the past year. Unlike many other Hawks forward prospects, he has already filled out his 6-1 frame and then some. He is undoubtedly a power forward, which makes him something of a unicorn within the Hawks’ young core.

At his size, increasing quickness and explosiveness must be higher priorities, which Frondell realized upon joining the Hawks in March.

“[With] the style of hockey and the rink I’m used to — the Swedish size — the game is a little bit different, and I could see that right away when I got to play a couple NHL games,” he said.

“[In Sweden], you can save your speed or use your glide a little bit. In the NHL, it felt like everything was tighter. As a center in the D-zone, you need to get out to the corner quick, then get back in front of the net, [then] maybe to the other corner.”

During Frondell’s 2024-25 draft year, his skating was considered a weakness, but the Hawks were less concerned about it than other teams because they could tell how hard he was working to improve it — and how steadily it was improving as a result.

That trend has continued this summer, which Frondell has spent doing sprints in the gym and then translating those movements onto the ice.

“I feel like when I’m at my top speed, I can use it,” he said. “But I want to get into my speed faster so I can earn time and space in the first couple steps.”

He certainly hasn’t slacked training-wise. He took only about a week off after the world championships before resuming light skating with brothers William Eklund (Sharks) and Victor Eklund (Islanders), two close friends.

Then he ramped up his on-ice work with a group of players including Tom Willander (Canucks), a summer training partner for the last several years.

Since last week, Frondell — along with the Eklunds and Viggo Bjorck (Jets) — have been practicing with Djurgardens, whose first exhibition game is Thursday. The NHL-bound kids won’t play in any games, but they will go through an entire training camp before NHL camps begin in September.

“For us, it’s perfect,” Frondell said. “When everything starts, we’ll already have a feeling for team practice. [We’ll have] been going into battles and all that stuff.”

Bjorck, at the NHL draft combine in June, described Frondell as a “more calm version of Victor,” and he is certainly low-strung and lighthearted for being such a competitive, driven person.

He’s not fazed by much, including the lofty expectations for his official NHL rookie season: he’s tied for fourth in preseason Calder Trophy odds, per FanDuel.

Perhaps Frondell’s affinity for tennis contributes to that zen mindset. Tennis allows him to escape the hockey bubble, get outdoors and appreciate the simplicity when it’s “just you and the racket,” as he described last summer.

Both his dad, Henrik, and his older sister, Alva, played tennis competitively, and they still spend several hours each week dueling on a clay court near their summer house.

“It’s just a fun thing to do and think about something else,” Frondell said Friday. “And at the same time, getting some training [with] hand-eye [coordination] and footwork.”

When the idea of soon becoming teammates with Patrick Kane pops into Frondell’s head, though, some excitement does penetrate his easygoing attitude.

“Growing up, you watch every highlight of him, every YouTube video you could find, and now I have the chance to sit in the same room as him,” he said. “It’s pretty cool and nothing I thought I would ever do.”

Kane has mentioned Frank Nazar as a possible linemate during Bedard’s absence, and Kane and Nazar’s chemistry from skating together this summer could be a point in Nazar’s favor.

But Frondell’s attentiveness to defense — even if his defensive execution and analytics didn’t quite match his effort this spring — as well as his deadly shot and ability to protect the puck and hold off opponents could make sense next to Kane, too.

The Hawks will have time, albeit not a lot, to experiment with these combinations during camp. Frondell hopes to leap into that process with as little rust as possible.