The good thing about Jack Berglund is that he has many of the qualities a team wants in a prospect.
He plays an important position and, at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, he prides himself on playing the full length of the rink and has an offensive edge.
The great thing about Berglund is that he knows where he can improve and he wants to get even better.
The 18-year-old centre admitted his skating is his biggest weakness. No teenage prospect is perfect, and Berglund, one of the Flyers' two second-round picks in the 2024 NHL Draft, still lacks the foot speed to be considered a perfect fit.
“There are other avenues to skating, so I'm just trying to get better every day,” he said at the Flyers' development camp two weeks ago. “If I can do that, I think I can be a great player one day.”
“It starts off the ice, you have to work hard off the ice and put in the work you have to do. For me, to be faster on the ice, you need to be quicker and more explosive.”
Berglund was the center selected with the 14th pick and 51st overall in last month's draft, a pick the Flyers received as compensation for not signing 2018 first-round pick Jay O'Brien.
Berglund is a Swedish prospect who likes watching Joel Eriksson Ek of the Wild and Mikko Rantanen of the Avalanche.
“I try to emulate them and be inspired by them,” he said. “I think they’re really smart players, they work hard every day and they’re real role models. [making] Therein lies the difference.”
Berglund also has a dad to lean on: Christian Berglund, who played for the Devils and Panthers in the early 2000s.
His first NHL goal came against John Tortorella's 2001-02 Lightning team. Five days earlier, his second of 86 NHL games came against the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center (then First Union Center). Then-Flyers alternate captain John Leclair was on the ice with the young Berglund at development camp earlier this month.
“He's very supportive,” Berglund said of her father. “It's nice to have him around.”
Coming into the draft, Berglund was ranked 28th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting, up 10 spots from his midterm rating. In the composite rankings, he was ranked as high as 55th by TSN's Craig Button and as low as 131st by EliteProspects.com.
Berglund played in 41 games with Farjestad BK, Sweden's top junior league, last season, earning 34 points (15 goals, 19 assists), and also played in eight games with Sweden's top professional league, the SHL, scoring a goal.
He also played for Sweden at the 2024 IIHF U-18 World Junior Championship, where he recorded five points (two goals, three assists) in seven games to help his country win the bronze medal.
“I worked hard in the offseason before the season,” Berglund said. “I had some great opportunities from the coaching staff and the club in Sweden, and I got to play a lot of games, play in the SHL and play for the national team. I really enjoyed getting those experiences and opportunities. I tried to cherish them and do the best I could.”
The Flyers needed more centers to join the team — they spent three of their first four picks on centers in Las Vegas last month — and the team's rebuild under general manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones has focused on draft picks and development.
“The message from the top brass since Danny and Jonesy took over has been that we want young players,” Flyers assistant director of player development Nick Schultz said two weeks ago. “We've got to get good players in the draft and we've got to develop them. That's a big thing for us. I think the last few years, our scouts have been able to get good players in the draft and we've done a great job of developing them.”
Berglund knows a crucial part of his development relies on his skating.
“Really, it's up to you how good you want to be,” he said. “You're just trying to put in the effort.”
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | Youtube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube
