The Philadelphia Flyers’ 2023-24 season isn’t even over until next week but they are already signing players for next season.
Announced by the team on Monday afternoon, they have signed 25-year-old forward Oscar Eklind to a one-year, entry-level contract that will start next season.
Eklind is a sizeable winger, standing at 6-foot-4 and 220 lbs., and most recently played for the Lulea HF out of the Swedish Hockey League and certainly had a breakout year.
After years of developing through the second-tier Allsvenskan and two full seasons in the SHL, Eklind just finished a campaign where he scored 17 goals and 28 points in 48 games for his team. Previously, his career high was just 16 points in the SHL, but his offense exploded into having a fairly solid year.
His 17 goals were the most of any player on Lulea, and earned him the 11th spot in the goal-scoring leaderboard in the entire SHL.
Why would the Flyers sign an undrafted almost-26-year-old winger who just had a career year overseas? Well this is just simple depth. They clearly value size and Eklind has a lot of it. He has dropped some guys with vicious hits, but has also scored from different areas of the ice. This dude looks massive.
It will all depend on Eklind performs in training camp, if he makes the final roster — and it depends how many available spots are at forward considering they might end up trading a couple this summer — but the dude has a toolkit that is at the very least, intriguing.
If Eklind does not make the team, due to his age, he will have to go through the waiver wire to be sent down to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms. So that adds a whole new interesting wrinkle. We will just have to see if this dude is what the Flyers want him to be this fall.
