The Calgary Hitmen have acquired the WHL playing rights to centre Theo Stockselius from the Seattle Thunderbirds, the clubs announced Friday afternoon.

Stockselius, 18, is currently playing in the Djurgårdens IF system in his native Sweden. The 6’3″, 196-pound centre has appeared in five games with the Djurgårdens U20 junior team this season, collecting seven assists.

The Flames selected Stockselius in the second round (No. 54 overall) of the 2025 NHL Draft. Shortly thereafter, Seattle picked Stockselius with the No. 83 overall selection in the CHL Import Draft, locking down his junior playing rights for if and when he decides to make the jump to North America (likely in the 2026-27 season).

The Hitmen and Flames are both entities under the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, which also owns the Stampeders, Wranglers, and Roughnecks. The Flames have a long track record of drafting players and then bringing them in-house to play junior with the Hitmen — most recently with Axel Hurtig — and now they’ve taken a big step toward doing the same with Stockselius.

The Hitmen already have their full allotment of three import players for the 2025-26 season (Hurtig, Andrei Molgachev, and Teodor Vapenik) and it’s very unlikely that they’d pull Stockselius out of the Djurgårdens system less than a month into the year, but it’s entirely possible that he comes over for 2026-27. He’d also be eligible to play for the Hitmen in 2027-28 as an over-age player, similar to Hurtig this season.

Owing to the uncertainty around when Stockselius might come to Calgary, the Hitmen only gave up one guaranteed pick in the trade to go along with the three conditional ones. But if Stockselius does join the Hitmen next season, the Thunderbirds will be compensated quite well for him; Calgary has agreed to part with their own 2027 first-round pick, as well as a 2026 fourth-rounder and a 2029 fifth-rounder, on a conditional basis.

The Flames have not yet signed Stockselius to an entry-level contract — they typically hold off on signing second-rounders until midway through their first post-draft season, at the earliest — and they currently control his signing rights through June 1, 2029, according to PuckPedia.

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