2025 NHL Draft prospect Victor Eklund compares himself to current Flyers winger

The 2025 NHL Draft is now less than three weeks away as the Scouting Combine takes over the news cycle this week.

The top prospects for this year’s draft are doing pullups, getting wined and dined by teams, and answering questions with varying degrees of seriousness as teams finalize their big boards for Friday, June 27.

For the true draft nerds, there have been plenty of mock drafts, scouting reports, and draft boards posted to dive into. But for those who may not dig as deep until the players are actually selected, it’s still nice to know what a player is all about.

One of the easiest ways to do that is player comparisons.

The top prospects for this year’s draft were asked about their best NHL-comparable players, whether it’s who they model their game after, who they’ve heard themselves compared to, or somewhere in between.

Top prospect Matthew Schafer gave Cale Makar and Miro Heiskanen as two guys he loves to watch, along with the more rugged Chris Tanev.

Michael Misa, who should also be gone before the Flyers have a chance to pick him, named wingers Kirill Kaprizov and Nikita Kucherov.

James Hagens was the consensus No. 1 pick leading up to this last season, but he’s been falling down the board a bit. He’s heard comparisons to Devils center Jack Hughes with his skating and puckhandling.

But it was Viktor Eklund who had the answer that would most intrigue Flyers fans. The Swedish winger is projected to go after the Flyers pick at six, but perhaps he’s trying to win over Danny Briere and Keith Jones to trade up (or down) to grab him.

“I’ll probably say Travis Konecny,” Eklund said. “He plays with a lot of energy, trying to get under the skin of the opponent, and he just plays pretty physical, like I do.”

Konecny has certainly embodied what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer as we come up on the 10-year anniversary of him being drafted. The Flyers also appear to have another gritty winger rising through the ranks in Denver Barkey, who helped his London Knights to the Memorial Cup last weekend.

The Flyers are likely to select a center — or Porter Martone if the big winger is available — at sixth overall, but keep an eye out for Eklund and other players who may slide down the board. Briere won’t be afraid to move up if he sees one of his targets fall.