Anton Axelsson Biography

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Biography: Anton Axelsson

 

The Victory Hockey League has been home to many families over the years. Whether it be the Staffords of the S20s, or the Reinharts of the S70s and S80s, or the multitude of parent-child duos that have graced the league (usually in quick succession after each other), surnames have a tendency of sticking around in the league. But as the VHL reaches the end of its first century, one family appears to be re-entering the league for the first time in over 30 seasons, as 18-year-old Swedish forward Anton Axelsson officially declared for the S100 Entry Draft and entered the VHLM waiver system on Monday.

 

The move was not a surprise, especially not to those in Sweden. The Axelsson family has built deep roots in the Swedish hockey scene thanks to multiple VHL careers, and so any young player with the surname will get attention. But the noise around Anton has been different. It started when he began putting in incredible performances in youth tournaments around the country. Nobody would know who he was going in, then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Anton would show up, getting a hat-trick or an assist on all of his teammates’ goals, skating through opposing teams as if they weren’t there, controlling entire games as if it were nothing. And then he would disappear, quicker than he appeared, and all that the other players, coaches, and scouts could talk about was that short kid from Västerås who skated circles around everyone. 

 

“We were all shocked,” recalls veteran scout Lucas Janssen, an expert in Swedish hockey who has worked for organizations in the VHL and VHLM. “Normally going into these occasions you know who some of the top talents are going to be. But nobody knew who this kid was. I’d ask around and nobody had any idea, and nobody with his team was willing to talk. In hindsight, it’s pretty clear that his family had been very careful to limit the attention he got.” Everyone who knew him only referred to him by his first name, which preserved the mystery at first, but it didn’t take long for word to get out. And then everything blew up. Anton started making his way through the youth ranks at Västerås IK, continuing his high performances with the junior teams, even making a few appearances in the HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second tier of professional hockey. “The hype around him was insane, and to be honest it still is,” Janssen says. “We know much more about him as a player, we know he’s not perfect, but any time he comes up in conversation all anyone can say is ‘He might be the next Theo.’”

 

It didn’t help all of this, of course, that Anton is actually the grandson of Theo. Theo Axelsson is the best-known member of the family, a VHL Hall of Famer who was one vote away from getting in on his first ballot, a three-time Boulet Trophy winner, and a back-to-back champion with the Helsinki Titans who scored the title-winning overtime goal in Game 7 of the Continental Cup Finals in S55. In truth, Anton and Theo have different playing styles. Theo was much more of a power forward in his day, a dominating physical presence, while Anton seems to avoid physical contact when possible. That’s not even mentioning the fact that they don’t even play the same position - Anton spent time as both a defenseman and a forward before eventually settling as a center when he got older, while Theo only ever played on the wing. But the title of ‘next Theo’ seems to be independent of playing style or position. It’s the likelihood of being a top pick in the draft, the destiny of becoming a VHL superstar like his grandfather.

 

Theo Axelsson's VHL success has cast a long shadow

 

Naturally, nobody seems to be asking for Anton’s permission in all of this. The young talent has remained very quiet, avoiding publicity whenever possible, shielded, as Janssen found out, by a family that has gone through this ordeal multiple times before. Reports - because reports and rumors are all we have on Anton off the ice - suggest that his family are very carefully monitoring and advising him on his career, but are keen to let him be his own person and have tried to avoid comparisons to his relatives whenever possible. Anton is even represented by the same agency as Theo, as part of an effort to keep the circle close and only work with people that are known and well-trusted.

 

At first glance, this seems like smart guidance, if a little overprotective, and the kind of thing that is seen in athletic families across many different sports. But there seems to be a bit more under the surface. The most recent of the Axelsson family to play in the VHL was Otto in Season 64. Theo would retire following S57, and S64 draft prospect Bo, a first cousin of Theo and second cousin of Otto, would only ever play in the VHLM. There have been rumors making their way across the water for roughly 30 seasons at this point, whispers of another Axelsson relative to declare for the VHL Draft, but until Anton’s recent emergence, there’s been nothing even close to being as concrete as this. 

 

The fact that entrance into the VHL system has skipped a generation of Axelssons does not seem to be by coincidence. Anton’s father and Theo’s only son is Theo Axelsson, Jr., often referred to as T.J., who was once considered a top prospect in Sweden but ultimately retired from the game at twenty. “A few of T.J.’s cousins played some low-level hockey, but many more of that generation of the family were uninterested in the sport,” says Janssen, who is one of the few outsiders that has become close to the family in recent years. “They were uncomfortable with only being known as a hockey family. They didn’t like the pressure to be involved in the sport. Even those who did love hockey, they didn’t like that people only knew them as Axelssons and not individuals. Theo Jr. took a lot of care to not push Anton or his siblings towards the sport. He didn’t even want to name any of his kids Theo, because he felt that name put him under a lot of pressure.”

 

Theo Jr., for his part, seems to have made peace with the sport. He took a break from hockey, moving to Umeå in Northeast Sweden and starting a family, before returning as a coach and eventually working as an assistant with the Vasteras Iron Eagles in the VHLE. It would ultimately be through this newfound career that guidance for the younger Axelsson came. “Even if he loved the sport, T.J. wasn’t sure about letting his son play hockey at first,” Janssen explains. “But once he could tell Anton was not only highly skilled, but also determined to play hockey, he and the other former hockey players of the family decided to team up to guide Anton forward.” These connections didn’t just mean advice from family members - the younger Axelsson would also often accompany his father to practices, getting the opportunity to meet and observe professional hockey players. Former players describe a young Anton as quiet but also intensely curious, to the point where they often wouldn’t even know that the boy was at practice until he popped up with a very detailed, specific question about technique or in-game decision making. Many joked that he was destined for a future in coaching rather than playing. One former Iron Eagles player recalled being completely unaware of how good Anton, playing for Västerås IK’s U16 team at the time, was until seeing him skate onto the ice after a practice: “Just by chance, I see this kid skating around and doing stickhandling drills, and I think to myself, ‘oh shit, he’s pretty good.’ I didn’t even realize he was Coach Axelsson’s kid at first. I had no clue. He never even mentioned what team he played for. A few years later, now I’m hearing him in draft conversations.”

 

Anton has made his mark playing for Västerås IK in Sweden

 

Regardless of how quiet everything seems to be around the person himself, the hype around Anton Axelsson the hockey player has officially gone international. It doesn’t even matter how young he is, or how few appearances he may have made at a professional level. People recognize the name, and they can recognize the talent. Video of a goal recently scored by Axelsson in a HockeyAllsvenskan game against Djurgårdens has garnered online attention from many fans, and it’s hard not to see why - he receives the puck on the breakaway, dekes one opponent, then goes through his legs to score, gliding gracefully the whole time, making it all look as smooth and as natural as if it were a routine empty-net goal. That kind of talent is impressive enough to forget that this was only his third professional goal, and that he’s only eighteen and has played in 20 games for the professional team at Västerås. Scouting websites have already been placing him on their S100 top prospect lists for a while now, the early mock drafts have him going in the first or second round, and every article, podcast, video, or post about him is expressing excitement at the prospect of another Axelsson finally, truly, inevitably making his mark on the VHL. If his family is trying to keep a lid on all the hype surrounding this kid, they’re not doing a great job. Or maybe it was just an impossible task to begin with.

 

This all takes us back to the beginning: the inevitability. The recent news of Axelsson entering the draft, accompanied by the media response and coverage, accompanied by the radio silence from the player and his family. From the way people often talk about young prospects, especially ones with a recognizable family name, this was always going to happen, this small step on the road to superstardom. But for this family, even ten years ago, it was hard to imagine another Axelsson making their way to the VHL. And even if you look at the big picture and see the likelihood that this player, this talent, regardless of family name would of course be moving to the VHLM and declaring for the draft, the next part of the story is filled with uncertainties. The Axelssons’ protective circle wasn’t designed to shelter him for his entire career, only to make sure things don’t happen too soon. One can only be so private as a professional athlete. Who’s to say Anton would adjust well to life in North America? Or that he’ll develop into a VHL-level player? The signs are all good, sure: the agent, the talent, the support system. But at the same time, the mystery surrounding Anton Axelsson makes it impossible to predict just where he’ll end up when all this is said and done. Soon, he’ll play his first VHLM game, and the mystery will eventually disappear, and we’ll all learn just who Anton Axelsson is, just like we do with every other prospect. But for now, everyone is going to have to wait just a little bit longer. Only time will tell.

 

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