Calgary Flames prospect Axel Hurtig has left his Swedish club team, Rögle BK

A seventh-round selection by the Flames in the 2023 NHL Draft (208th overall), Hurtig is a product of Högås, Sweden who’s listed at 6’4″ and 205 pounds. He spent his draft year between Rögle’s under-18 and under-20 teams, as well as representing his country at the World Junior A Challenge and the Under-18 World Championships – Sweden medalled at both events.

Hurtig’s off-season involved shoulder surgery, which delayed the start of his hockey season in 2023-24. He was selected by the Calgary Hitmen in the CHL’s Import Draft, but the decision was made for him to stay in Sweden for the 2023-24 campaign – recovering from a big medical procedure probably seemed challenging enough for an 18-year-old without adding moving across the world to the mix.

Hurtig spent 2023-24 split between three levels of hockey. He was a top pairing defender for Rögle’s junior team, posting 11 points in 27 games after his return from injury (plus three playoff games). He also dressed for seven SHL games for Rögle, usually as their seventh defender, which meant he sat on the bench and barely played but got to soak up the atmosphere. He was loaned to Kristianstads IK of the third-tier HockeyEttan, where he played four games in the regular season and nine more in the playoffs.

Here’s what Flames director of amateur scouting Tod Button said about Hurtig on the draft floor in Nashville last June:

“Axel Hurtig, he’s a guy, he was probably the eighth or ninth defenceman on the Swedish under-18 team. And then through injuries and being able to play a little bit more, as the year went on we started to pay more attention to him and we liked him a little more, and by the 18s he was playing full-time in the top four. He’s a bit of a project, but he’s got a great demeanour. He’s a physical defenceman but he’s really strong in his own end and now we need to get him to branch out and add to his skillset. We got four years on him now because he’s a European, so we’re happy about getting a bit of a project there. But he’s got a really, really solid defensive base and physical base that he can build off of.”

The Hitmen hold Hurtig’s North American junior rights, and they still have his import slot available for next season. It’ll be interesting to see if Hurtig heads to another Europe team, or if he’s playing closer to Calgary for the 2024-25 season.