BUFFALO -- Hardly a day goes by when Sweden-born teammates Victor Eklund and Anton Frondell aren't seen together on or off the ice.
It even happened during the testing phase at the 2025 NHL Scouting Combine presented by Fanatics at LECOM Harborcenter on Saturday.
"We asked to do the testing together as a pair," Frondell said, "because we love to compete against each other and felt like if we go together, it would probably give us both our high scores. We were competing."
Frondell (6-1, 204), an 18-year-old center, is projected to be chosen among the top five in the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft to be held at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 27-28. He and Eklund (5-11, 169), an 18-year-old forward, were linemates with Djurgarden of Sweden's second division for much of this season and formed great chemistry.
"It's just great ... it's like pushing a weight off your shoulders to have someone with you that sits in the same boat as you," Eklund said. "It meant everything to be going through the testing with him because we're best friends. We even hang out together off the ice."
Eklund got the best of Frondell in total pullups (11-9), but the latter did exceptionally well on the bike tests. He lasted 14:00 in the VO2 Max bike test on Friday, which measures endurance. Frondell held an advantage in peak power output (16.8) on the Wingate cycle ergometer bike to measure the explosiveness of a skater.
"I did more pullups than him but he definitely did better on the bikes and we kept changing whoever went first so that we had some kind of carrot to look for," Eklund said. "It felt like he screamed for an hour on the Wingate ... that was a tough one."