NEW YORK (AP) — Anton Frondell was playing in the Swedish hockey league playoffs on Saturday and got the call shortly after his team was eliminated that the Chicago Blackhawks want their top prospect to come to North America.
Not eventually. Now.
“I was shocked,” the 18-year-old forward said. “Everything has been going really fast.”
That includes being thrust into the action, making his NHL debut on Tuesday at the New York Islanders on Chicago's top line alongside Connor Bedard and as part of the first power-play unit. Nine months after he was taken with the third pick in the draft, Frondell is getting a big role right away.
“It’s great," said Bedard, who is the face of the franchise. "Just throw him in there and give him the minutes, power play and just have him in the same role he was playing in all year.”
Coach Jeff Blashill wants Frondell, who turns 19 in May, to “capitalize on the confidence he has coming into the league.” That's the thought process behind seeing how Frondell handles hockey in the deep end.
“If I didn’t think he could handle the spots that I’m putting him in, I wouldn’t do it right away because you don’t want to set somebody up for struggles,” Blashill said. “I think he can handle it, and I think he’s prepared at this moment to walk in and be successful in those spots.”
Frondell's first game in the league came against someone he got to know throughout the pre-draft process: now-Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer, who was taken with the first pick and has since shown why.
Schaefer has been a revelation. He is the runaway front-runner to win the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and the biggest reason New York is in the playoff race.
“It’s really fun to watch what he does,” Bedard said of Schaefer. “For someone to step in like that and do what he’s doing, it’s incredible. ... He’s among elite company of players in the league.”
Bedard and San Jose's Macklin Celebrini, taken with the top pick in 2023 and '24, are already in that company. Michael Misa, who the Sharks drafted between Schaefer and Frondell, is already more than 30 games into his rookie year serving as a complement to Celebrini and co-star Will Smith.
Frondell did not get the full training camp leadup to his debut, though he has a unique advantage from playing in the top league in Sweden, similar to what Auston Matthews did at age 17 in Switzerland a decade ago before Toronto picked him No. 1 in 2016.
“Playing pro hockey, playing men, it’s good — competing, battling,” Frondell said. “Everyone was stronger, I felt like, and it was experienced players who know how to battle in the corners. They know how to use their body. So, sometimes I felt like I got run over a couple times and tried to learn from it. It’s a hard game, hockey. You need to battle, and I like to do that.”
Sacha Boisvert, the 18th pick in 2024, is close to following Frondell's tracks into the league. Blashill said Boisvert “will for sure play on this trip.”
The Blackhawks visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night, the Rangers on Friday night and the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night. Because they're out of contention, they can afford to slide Boisvert and Frondell into the lineup, along with other young players seen as part of the organization's future.
“I think part of this is figuring out what we have as we go through it, and then you kind of tweak your, not style, per se, but how you set up your lineup as you go,” Blashill said. "Right now let’s see what each guy kind of brings to the table.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
FILE - FILE - Anton Frondell, middle, stands with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, right, and former hockey player Jeremy Roenick after being drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks No. 3 overall at the NHL hockey draft Friday, June 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes,File)
FILE - Matthew Schaefer, No. 1 by the New York Islanders, middle, stands between Michael Misa, No. 2 by the San Jose Sharks, left, and Anton Frondell, No. 3 by the Chicago Blackhawks, during the NHL hockey draft Friday, June 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, FIle)
Chicago Blackhawks' Anton Frondell, of Sweden, takes part in a morning skate Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., before making his NHL hockey debut later in the day aginast the New York Islander. (AP Photo/Stephen Whyno)
HONOLULU (AP) — Crews on Tuesday began evaluating damage from a surprise downpour that sent floodwaters raging through a neighborhood near downtown Honolulu — the latest bout in a series of storms and flooding that have pummeled the state over the past two weeks.
Residents along Oahu's North Shore, famous for its big wave surfing, were cleaning up from the worst flooding to hit Hawaii in two decades when a storm Monday unleashed several inches of rain on the southern part of the island. Reddish-brown torrents gushed along roads in the Manoa Valley, a few miles east of downtown Honolulu, sweeping away parked cars and swamping much of the neighborhood.
“I was shocked to see how much flash flooding there was in my area,” said resident Andrew Phomsouvanh, who recorded video of streets transformed into a confluence of rapids. “The water just keeps coming.”
Natalie Aczon had gone to the drugstore to pick up some medication for her mother on Monday. By the time she left the store some 15 minutes later, water was roaring down the street next to the shopping center.
“People came running out from Longs and one of the guys actually said, ‘That’s my white car.’ And it had elevated,” she said.
The ferocity of Monday's downpour even took National Weather Service meteorologists aback. They knew that lingering instability from a powerful winter storm system called a “Kona low” could yield more rain, but their models aren't good at predicting how much moisture can remain in such systems, said forecaster Cole Evans.
“When you think it's over it's not quite over,” he said Tuesday.
The downpour, which dumped 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) of rain per hour, was highly localized: One rain gauge in the upper part of the valley recorded 6 inches (15 centimeters), while the airport a few miles away got just one-hundredth of an inch (less than a millimeter).
Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi called it a “classic rain bomb,” and he said that earlier in the day, the skies were sunny.
“We had no warning,” he said Tuesday as he toured the damage.
The Kona low was moving off to the east, Evans said, and it should not pose further risk of bursts like Monday's burst. Flood watches were in effect for parts of Maui and the Big Island.
There were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries, but authorities said hundreds of homes on Oahu's North Shore had been damaged by last week's flooding, which came as heavy rains fell on soil already saturated by downpours from a winter storm a week earlier.
More than 230 people had to be rescued. The water pushed houses off their foundations, floated cars out of parking spots and left walls, floor and counters covered with thick, reddish volcanic mud.
Evacuation orders covered 5,500 people north of Honolulu, and some residents fled on surfboards as water reached waist or chest high.
Farms around the state reported more than $9.4 million worth of damage as of Monday, according to a survey conducted by Agriculture Stewardship Hawaii, the Hawaii Farm Bureau and other organizations.
Even before Monday, Gov. Josh Green said the cost of the storm could top $1 billion, including damage to airports, schools, roads, homes and a Maui hospital in Kula. He called it the state’s most serious since flooding since 2004, when floods in Manoa inundated homes and a University of Hawaii library.
Green's office said Tuesday he had submitted a major disaster declaration request to the Trump administration.
Molly Pierce, a spokesperson for the Oahu Emergency Management Agency, said that in addition to volunteers and public workers who have been cleaning up, a contract company had arrived to begin collecting, sorting and removing large piles of debris.
She called the storm system “extremely unusual” but that officials were cautiously optimistic Tuesday that the rains are finally ending.
“Most of us have not seen something that just keeps going like this,” Pierce said. “We feel like we keep getting punched down. But we'll keep getting back up.”
The intensity and frequency of heavy rains in Hawaii have increased amid human-caused global warming, experts say.
Johnson reported from Seattle. Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
Excavators place debris onto trucks at a roundabout turned debris triage point by residents after the flood in Waialua, Hawaii Monday, March 23, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
