The 2026 version of Second City Hockey’s Top 25 Under 25 rankings moves on to our Top 10, which will contain a lengthier breakdown of each individual who made it into that group.
Anton Frondell
- Position: Center/Wing
- Age: 19 (May 7, 2007)
- Acquired via: First-round pick (3rd overall) in 2025 NHL Draft
- 2025-26 team: Djurgårdens IF (SHL) | Chicago Blackhawks (NHL)
- 2025-26 SHL stats: 28 points (11 G, 14 A) in 43 regular season games, 2 points (1 G, 1 A) in 3 playoff games
- 2025-26 NHL stats: 9 points (3 G, 6 A) in 12 regular games
- Size: 6-foot-1, 205 pounds
- Contract: Three years, $975,000 AAV (entry-level)
- Rankings: 2 (SCH), 3 (Dave, LBR), 4 (Eric)
- Last T25U25 ranking: No. 6, up three spots
There’s only so much more to be said about Frondell in this moment. Since being drafted by the Hawks at No. 3 last summer, he’s done just about everything to be expected of such a high draft pick. He looked pretty good playing in Sweden during the regular season and playoffs despite being a teenager in a league full of adult men. He looked pretty good during his World Juniors stint with Sweden in the middle of the last hockey season. He looked pretty good during his initial dozen NHL games. Everything about Frondell last season was pretty good, which explains why he’s moved up these rankings and why there’s a healthy dose of optimism regarding his long-term future with Chicago.
And the clip below from Scott Powers of The Athletic during an informal scrimmage on Friday suggests he’s still “pretty good,” too:
Stuck around to watch the Blackhawks’ NHLers scrimmage a bit. Anton Frondell scored this pretty one. pic.twitter.com/BfnOpkR9yG
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) September 11, 2026
What that future will look like remains uncertain, because game film from Sweden is hard to find for the basis of any meaningful projections to the NHL, and making the mistake of reading too far into a rookie’s limited sample of games at the end of an NHL season is a mistake that no one in this fan base needs to make again. So, instead of trying to project what Frondell is going to be next season, let’s discuss what it could mean for this team in the long-term should he develop into a legitimate No. 1 center — because there may be no development beneficial this team than that one.
It should be acknowledged up front that this is not slight towards Connor Bedard, who’s still going to be the superstar here, the offensive dynamo who can rack up triple-digit point totals each season without much difficulty. But No. 1 centers can earn that label through a variety of archetypes, and the specific archetype that Frondell could bring to the 1C slot in Chicago is one that doesn’t really exist anywhere else within the organizational pipeline. Bedard’s probably more in that Stamkos/MacKinnon/McDavid mold, where other skills are impressive but the offensive toolkit is the one that only a handful of players in the league at any given time can produce. Frondell is probably closer to that Toews/Kopitar/Barkov mold, the 1C who’s more of an all-around type, with any hockey cliche applicable: “plays a 200-foot game” or “tough to play against” or “competes in all three zones” and on and on and on, world without end, Amen.
Here’s an excerpt of what LBR wrote about Frondell last June, before the Blackhawks had even drafted him:
That physical edge and how he uses his size (at both ends of the ice) are really what separates Frondell from many of his current draft peers. He’ll throw the occasional big hit but, more importantly, he’s willing to engage physically in other aspects: aggressive on the forecheck, strong along the boards, and excelling at puck protection. These attributes make Frondell a formidable player in his own end as well as above average at generating offense off the cycle.
That article also had this quote from TSN director of scouting Craig Button:
I’m not going to tell you he’s ‘Sasha’ Barkov, but that’s the type of game that Anton plays. He’s just what I would call a complete, two-way player. He can play heavy, he can play skilled, he can play fast, he can play defense, he can play offense. Much like Barkov, Barkov’s never going to be a 100-point player, but he’s an incredibly valuable player.
There isn’t really another prospect like that in Chicago right now. Bedard, Nazar, and Kantserov don’t have the size and/or strength to play that physical of a game, as they lag behind Frondell’s 6-foot-1, 198-pound frame (according to the Blackhawks website). Ryan Greene could match Frondell on defense but not on offense. The potential slotting of Frondell into that 1C role would answer so many questions regarding the Blackhawks long-term puzzle and open up a slew of options elsewhere.
Nazar could slot in at 2C. Bedard could slot in as the 1C-a to Frondell’s 1C-b. Pick either one as the center to compliment Frondell, use the other at wing, tab Kantserov (hopefully) as a top-six winger and the other two players rounding out the top two forward lines may not matter for the next decade because of how good that initial quartet will be. And with Frondell able to handle some of the defensive burden along with another defense-oriented trio further down the lineup, that’ll allow Bedard and Nazar and Kantserov to focus more on the offensive side of things, where their obvious skills can flourish. Suddenly, the Blackhawks forward group looks as well-armed and productive as it has in about a decade, doesn’t it?
If Frondell ends up as more of a winger than a center, he’ll still be an incredibly valuable piece here, because true top-six forwards remain an incredibly rare commodity in the NHL. But a true 1C is an even more rare beast, and Frondell’s realization of his lofty potential would give Chicago one of the league’s most prized possessions: a line that can be utilized in any zone, at any time and with any score on the board, because they can be counted on for responsibility in their own end and production at the other, thanks to the guy in the middle who can steer it all.
For all these reasons, it could be argued that Frondell may be the player worth keeping the closest eye on this season: because the shortest path towards between where the Hawks are now and where the Hawks want to be rests within the development of the 2025 No. 3 overall pick.
2026 Blackhawks Top 25 Under 25 list (so far):
No 4: Roman Kantserov
No. 5: Wyatt Kaiser
No. 6: Sam Rinzel
No. 7: Artyom Levshunov
No. 8: Nick Lardis
No. 9: Oliver Moore
No. 10: Kevin Korchinski
Nos. 11-15: Greene, Nestrasil, Villeneuve, Commesso, Vanacker
Nos. 16-20: Boisvert, Behm, Roobroeck, West, Mustard
Nos. 21-25: Del Mastro, Gajan, Spellacy, Slaggert, Alalauri
Honorable Mention: Samuel Savoie