Defenceman to hone skills with Calgary Hitmen, who open WHL season this weekend, including the home opener Sunday
It’s a tall order for Axel Hurtig to fit seamlessly into the highest level of hockey in North America after just a handful of weeks on the continent.
But tall is right in his wheelhouse.
“I’m a big man, so it’s going to take some time to put the muscle on my body,” said Hurtig, who currently stands in at a lanky 6-foot-5, 208 lb. “But I’m just trying to get there as fast as I can.
“And working with the staff they have at the Flames? It’s a really good staff, so trying to work with them as much as I can during the season.”
That will be easier for him compared to many of the NHL team’s prospects since the 2023 seventh-round draft-choice is honing his skills just down the hallway from the Flames at the Saddledome.
Hurtig is one of the new faces on the revamped Calgary Hitmen, who open their season this weekend in the Western Hockey League.
“I think it’s going to be good for me to have the eyes on me in the building,” said Hurtig, of his close proximity to the big-league club. “It’s going to make me perform better, I feel like. And then being around the Flames staff all the time, getting to know them and working with their development staff is going to be really good from me to learn from.”
The defensive-minded rearguard says he’s already learned a lot during his short time in Calgary.
He joined the Flames for camp after skating in August with his home country at the 2024 World Junior Summer Showcase, a stepping stone to join Sweden for the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“It was a great experience being around so good players all the time, seeing how they prepare and how they do things, playing in a higher tempo,” said Hurtig, of his initial Flames adventure. “That’s really good for me, working on my foot speed. You’re transitioning faster, you’ve got to get to pucks faster … like everything has to go a little bit faster.
“You’ve got to be smarter. So I’ve just learned you’ve got to focus on the details. You can’t forget anything. And if you don’t, you get scored on. So it’s just being focused all the time, coming in prepared, taking care of your body … all the small things.
“It was my first NHL camp, so maybe it was a little bit of a shock the first few days that the tempo was higher. But I learned from it.
“It’s working on my foot speed and my edges and working in the gym on my legs, so then I get faster.”
He’ll do that now with the Hitmen, who start — under new coach Paul McFarland — the 2024-25 WHL campaign Saturday versus the host Edmonton Oil Kings (2 p.m.) and follow with the home opener Sunday against the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the Saddledome (2 p.m.).
“Axel has got a great personality, first and foremost,” McFarland said. “He’s really fit in well with our group in a short time period. He’s a big, long defenceman that has a great stick defensively, and I think he really understands what he is as a player. And I think he’s going to be a guy that, over time here, is going to be someone that plays against top competition for us, being a great penalty killer and someone that’s really hard to play against.
“Because of his length — of how long he is — I think he’s going to be someone that’s going to be difficult for skilled players to play against.”
The Hitmen and their new head coach certainly hope so.
It’s been a few years since McFarland has coached in the junior ranks. And his only three seasons as a bench boss in the Canadian Hockey League came from 2014-17 with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs, with whom he racked up an impressive 111-71-0 record, including a 46-17 mark in 2015-16.
Since then, he’s been an assistant coach in the NHL — two campaigns with the Florida Panthers, one with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the last three with the Seattle Kraken.
“Coaching is still coaching,” said the 38-year-old native of Richmond Hill, Ont. “And obviously, there’s different elements of junior hockey that you don’t deal with at the NHL level, such as school. But I think at the end of the day, it’s really getting to know your players, connecting with each and every one of them, knowing that they’re all different and then trying to help them get better. And that’s really what it’s about for me .
“We want to be the best team — the best version of ourselves — we can collectively, but it’s going to come down to individuals improving and learning and continuing to work on a daily basis.”
Collectively, McFarland wants his Hitmen to be a hard-working squad “that has the puck as much as possible” in trying to improve on what has been a struggle for much of the last decade.
Under former coach Steve Hamilton, the Calgary crew missed the playoffs two of the last four full seasons, and just before that, the Hitmen fell shy of the post-season in both 2016-17 and ’17-18.
“Nobody seems to give this group much respect,” said McFarland, who is flanked by a handful of assistants, including newcomers Dave Liffiton (bench) and Hitmen alumni Ben Wilson (bench) and Dakota Krebs (video) and returnee Theodore Zubot (goaltending). “So within the four walls of our dressing room, we’re going to have to go out there and earn our own respect. And I really like the mix of our group, both with youth and some of the more veteran players that we have.
“But until we go out there and show it, talk is really cheap. So I don’t really worry too much about expectations or what our expectations would be from the inside or the outside. It’s just really focusing on the day-to-day process and us trying to get better each and every day.”
With Hurtig hopefully a big reason for such improvement from a 28-31, no-playoff 2023-24 season.
“I want to be the best defensive team and on the team — that’s my expectations of myself,” added Hurtig. “I want to be a solid d-man that the coaches can put me in situations where I can defend the best players, play PK, do the right things the right way and try to teach the young d-corps that we have what it takes to play good defence at a higher level.
“And I feel like we’re going to be a really good, hard working team this year. We’re going to play hard and move pucks fast. I feel like if we do that right, we’re going to have a good season.”
ICE CHIPS
D Carter Yakemchuk, the seventh overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, remains at pro camp with the Ottawa Senators … Hitmen GM Garry Davidson has made three trades in the last week, acquiring: 20-year-old Connor Hvidston for Connor Dale and three draft picks; two draft picks for Aleksey Chichkin and Connor Bear from the Regina Pats; and two draft picks for goaltender Alex Garrett from the Everett Silvertips … New to the Hitmen roster for 2024-25 are: goalie Eric Tu (’08); defencemen Hurtig (’05) and Hunter Aura (’07); and forwards Hvidston (2004-born), Robin Svancar (’07) and Rylan Ng (’08) … They’ll join 18 holdovers in: goalie Ethan Buenaventura (’04); defencemen Yakemchuk (’05); Dax Williams (’05); Brandon Osborne (’06), Fraser Leonard (’06), Reese Hamilton (’07) and Wyatt Pisarczyk (’07); and forwards Carson Wetsch (’04), Maxim Muranov (’04), Oliver Tulk (’05), David Adaszynski (’05), Ethan Moore (’05), Keets Fawcett (’06), Case Valliant (’06), Simon Bowland (’06), Ben Kindel (’07), Brandon Gorzynski (’07) and Sawyer Mayes (’07).