The Chicago Blackhawks will be without Connor Bedard to start the 2026-27 season, giving an opportunity for some of the team's young stars to claim the No. 1 center spot in his absence. 19-year-old Anton Frondell believes he can take on that role.
A 22-year-old who has never scored more than 15 goals in the NHL, or a teenager who spent most of last season playing left wing in Sweden?
When it comes to identifying top-line center candidates to temporarily replace Connor Bedard while the Chicago Blackhawks' star forward recovers from off-season surgery, the options are anything but ideal — at least, right now they are.
There's Frank Nazar, who had a "breakout" sophomore season with 41 points in 66 games. And then there's Anton Frondell, who provided a glimpse of things to come with nine points in 12 games at the end of the Blackhawks' season.
In other words, it could be a long couple of months as Bedard works his way back into the lineup, hopefully around November. That is, unless at least one of up-and-coming youngsters can mature way ahead of schedule and show what they are capable of.
Nazar, the 13th-overall pick in 2022, would appear to have the inside edge based on his somewhat limited experience. And the fact that he has already been skating with free-agent acquisition Patrick Kane this summer gives him even more familiarity with one of his potential linemates.
“(It’s) been in the back of my mind, like maybe I’ll be playing with this guy, so maybe (we’ll) try to develop some chemistry," Kane told the Daily Herald. "He’s another great player, too, very impressed with him — his work ethic, his speed (and) skill. There’s going to be a lot of those guys that kind of stick out to me, and (it will) be great to have the opportunity to play with a lot of them.”
Of course, it's Frondell who has the bigger upside.
When the Blackhawks selected him with the third-overall pick a year ago, it was with the intention that he and Bedard would one day form a 1-2 punch down the middle. Now that Bedard is out, he'll get a chance at showing whether he can handle a top-six role as a rookie the way that Bedard once did.
Remember, Bedard had 22 goals and 61 points in his Calder Trophy-winning season. While Frondell has limited experience, he did produce at a 20-goal and 61-point pace in his 12 games with the Blackhawks last season.
"What I’ve been trying to focus on right now is trying to get prepared and better," Frondell told The Hockey News' David Alter during last week's NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour in Munich. "If I start as a center or wing, that doesn’t matter because I’m used to playing both. I’m very comfortable playing both.
"Now, Connor is out and it’s one less centerman. It’s up to the coach to play whatever lines and where he wants me to play, but wherever I play or if I get the chance and it goes well, I will just be happy to be on the team and to have a spot to play. That’s what I am going to be fighting for."
Frondell spent last season playing in the SHL with Djurgardens IF, where he scored 20 goals and 28 points in 43 games. He has since been practicing with his former team in Sweden this summer, where he has been working on skills that will help him down the middle, such as face-offs and defending one-on-one. He's also been watching videos of Sidney Crosby, particularly his ability to play the puck off his backhand.
"For me the best way to feel prepared and ready is to have real team skates and practices. So the summer has been a lot of skill practices, shooting and skating, 1-on-1s and technical things," he said. "Then the next day you're trying to put it into a game. So I feel like the last weeks where I have been skating with last year’s team in Djugardens has been helping me get into that game-timing again.
"Their season starts earlier and they’ve already had two exhibition games. So the practices are about competing and small games and five-on-five games. It feels like that is a really good way to get into camp."
It was after Djurgardens IF was eliminated from the playoffs when Frondell joined the Blackhawks at the end of the 2025-26 season. He had five points in his his first five games and scored his first NHL goal on Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck. But the transition from playing in Sweden to pro hockey in North America was anything but smooth.
"It was hard not to be nervous and not to be star-struck, when you met some of the players on our team and when we played some of the players," he said of playing in the NHL. "But the size of the rink, the difference, you really feel it when you step on an NHL-size rink. Like this is tight, this is smaller, the game goes so much faster.
"When you have the puck, you don’t have a lot of time before someone is there trying to take it from you."
The fact that Frondell went from playing wing in Sweden to center in the NHL made the transition even more challenging.
"This year, playing a lot of wing in Djugardens and a quick change in playing center in Chicago was like a hard first game or first period switching so fast," he said. "Even though I got to play nine games, every game I just got more and more used to center again."
When asked if he has a preference, Frondell did not hesitate.
"If I have to choose, I will play center," he said.
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