For 28 young players on CHL clubs, it was a great weekend, as they were chosen in the NHL Entry Draft. Sweden turned out to be the biggest producer of talent, including a couple of first-round picks from other countries. One club was particularly productive.

by Derek O'Brien

This weekend's NHL Entry Draft showed that there's plenty of young hockey talent in Europe, and that several CHL clubs produce a lot of it. In all, 28 players were chosen from 11 different CHL clubs, with Frölunda Gothenburg far-and-away out-producing the rest.

As projected, there were three CHL wingers taken in the first round: Kevin Fiala of HV71 Jönköping, Jakub Vrána of Linköping HC and Kasperi Kapanen of KalPa Kuopio.

Fiala was the first one taken, 11th overall by the Nashville Predators. For Fiala, an Uzwil, Switzerland native who turns 18 in July, it was an eventful 2013/14 season. He played a total of 47 games representing his native Switzerland at a variety of international events, including the U18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup and World Championships at the U18, U20 and senior men's levels. That was in addition to his season with HV71, which he split between the junior team and the SHL, where he produced 11 points in 17 games playing among pro hockey players.

“It was an easy decision to move to Sweden and play there,” Fiala said in a press release issued by the Predators. “I thought I could improve my game and I have improved there in my two years. Everyone believed in me and I played on the A-team right after the Under-20 World Championship.”

Vrána, taken two places later at 13th by the Washington Capitals, is another young player who moved to Sweden to further his development, and he also had a busy season, split between Linköping and the Czech national U18 and U20 teams. This past spring, he helped the Czechs achieve their first-ever silver medal at the U18 World Championship. Kapanen, taken 22nd by the Pittsburgh Penguins, is a homegrown KalPa product, the club his father Sami owns and has been long associated with. The father-and-son duo played together on the club last year.

Five CHLers were taken in the second round from five different teams: defenceman Marcus Pettersson from Skellefteå AIK, goaltender Vítek Vaněček from Bílí Tygři Liberec, defenceman Andreas Englund of Djurgården Stockholm, defenceman Julius Bergman of Frölunda Gothenburg, and right winger Noah Rod of Genève-Servette. The choice of Bergman at number 46 by the San Jose Sharks was just the tip of the iceberg for Frölunda; of the 20 CHLers taken in rounds three to seven, seven were from the Gothenburg club.

As evidenced by the choices of Fiala and Vrána, Sweden has gained a reputation as the place for young European hockey players to go for development. But why did Frölunda produce so many more picks than everyone else? Perhaps the answer is in their Frölunda Academy, a player development program that trained all eight of those drafted from the club this past weekend.

"It's obviously great fun for us in the association, and of course huge honour for all the players," said Mikael Ström, the Academy's Head of Youth Development, in an interview with Joachim Aronsson on the club's website. "It's proof that we are doing something really good, which of course contributes positively to our new recruitment."

After the eight players taken from Frölunda, five were taken from Skellefteå, three each from Djurgården and Linköping, and two each from HV71 and KalPa. Below is a list of all 28 players chosen from CHL clubs.