Axel Hurtig lays the hurt on his opponents.
The left-shot defenceman started his career with Swedish Hockey League Rögle BK’s junior team in 2021-22, picking up two assists in 16 games. Hurtig’s draft season was in 2022-23, where he scored two goals and eight points in 34 games. With the Calgary Flames’ final pick in the 2023 draft, they selected him in the seventh round. In 2023-24, Hurtig scored three goals and 11 points in 27 games. That same season, he got a look in the SHL, playing seven games where he was a minus one.
Heading into the season, Hurtig was an honourable mention on our pre-season prospect ranking. Moreover, he decided to head to North America, as the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen selected him 33rd overall in the import draft.
In his first season in North America, Hurtig has four goals and 13 points in 44 games, along with 25 penalty minutes and an impressive +33. The 19-year-old also represented Team Sweden in the 2025 World Junior Classic, mainly filling in as a seventh defenceman as Sweden fell in one of the most exciting shootouts I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. Below is what Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis had to say about his game at the tournament.
Hurtig primarily lined up as Sweden’s seventh defender and had an overall quiet showing. The big, physical blueliner did a solid job of pushing opponents to the perimeter and laying the body, but I thought he struggled with the pace at points as the tournament wore on. Nothing special, but Hurtig played his role.
Last season, the Hitmen missed the WHL’s post-season thanks to a 28-31-7 record, missing by just two points. Well, they’re back with a vengeance this season, as they have a 37-15-5 record with 79 points, the second-most in the conference behind Andrew Basha’s Medicine Hat Tigers. They’ve already clinched their post-season berth, meaning Hurtig will play some more meaningful games this spring.
Unfortunately, Hurtig is currently on the shelf and hasn’t played since Feb. 14 because of his lower-body injury with no timetable as of yet. When healthy, he usually finds himself on the bottom pairing where his physical play and defensive abilities shine.
The Flames have a lot of defence prospects, like a lot. In the Canadian Hockey League, they have Zayne Parekh, Henry Mews, Eric Jamieson, Étienne Morin, and Hurtig. In the American Hockey League, they have a bunch more, like Hunter Brzustewicz, Ilya Solovyov, Joni Jurmo, Yan Kuznetsov, Jérémie Poirier, and Artem Grushnikov, all except Solovyov are 23 or younger.
That means that Hurtig has a lot of competition and being a seventh-round pick who profiles as a bottom-pairing, physical, penalty-killing defenceman, he’ll need a lot of time to develop. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he plays an overage season in the WHL, either for the Hitmen or another team before heading to the ECHL as the Flames’ logjam of defencemen clears itself out.
Still, he’ll be an intriguing prospect to watch in the coming season.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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