Color of Hockey: Westergard has high hopes heading into NHL Draft

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Max Westergard, a forward for Frolunda of the Swedish Hockey League and for Finland at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Championship. Westergard is ranked No. 30 on NHL Central Scouting's final rankings of International skaters for the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles June 27-28.

Max Westergard grew up in Finland watching the NHL and fantasizing about about playing in the League.

“I always dream about it,” he said. “When I got to the national team for the first time, Under-16, I was thinking a little but more that I really, really want to do the work to get there someday.”

The 17-year-old forward for Frolunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League and Finland at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Championship is closing in on that dream. Westergard is No. 30 on NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings of International Skaters for the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles June 27-28. The first round will be held June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), with rounds 2-7 on June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1).

“I’m excited and a little bit nervous also,” Westergard said of the draft. “It’s going to be fun to see how it’s going to go.”

The native of Tampere, Finland, said he’ll be watching the draft from Europe, but he’ll have company on another continent also anxiously waiting to hear his named called in Los Angeles: Members of the Kenya Ice Lions.

Westergard’s mother, Veronica Westergard, is from the East Africa nation, and he practiced with the Ice Lions, Kenya's national team, at their rink at the Panari Hotel in Nairobi during a family visit in 2018.

“It was fun, but it's all so different there,” Westergard said. “But it was a really, really fun experience.”

Like Westergard, Kenya has hockey dreams, and has made progress toward achieving them since his visit. The country gained associate membership into International Ice Hockey Federation on Sept. 26, and joined Algeria, South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia as its only members on the African continent

“We have youth skaters with us who are 10 or 11 years old, and they have hopes and dreams of playing hockey on the big stage,” Ice Lions first vice president Ali Kilanga said. “Max being drafted, that will be pure motivation -- a greater reason to dream big and work hard to achieve their goals in hockey. All along we believed that something good will come out of hockey. The kids we have on the ice and the next generation will have someone to look up to. It will mean a lot.”

Westergard finished third in goals (19) and fourth in points (50) in 41 games for Frolunda’s Under-20 junior team this season. He was scoreless in four games with Frolunda’s team in the SHL but had three points (one goal, two assists) in 11 playoff games.

He was co-leader for Finland with six points (two goals, four assists) in five games at the Under-18 Worlds held April 23-May 3 in Frisco and Allen, Texas. Finland finished fifth in the 14-nation tournament.

Westergard hopes to become the next player of Kenyan heritage to reach the NHL, joining retired defenseman Johnny Oduya, who won the Stanley Cup twice with the Chicago Blackhawks (2013, 2015), a silver medal with Sweden at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and played in 850 regular-season and 106 playoff games for seven NHL teams from 2006-17.

J-P Vuorinen, director of NHL European Scouting, said Westergard’s combination of speed, skating power and hockey intelligence could eventually make him a good NHL checking forward who could also contribute goals. Westergard (5-foot-10, 158 pounds) was No. 66 in NHL Central Scouting’s midterm rankings but his stock rose as the season went progressed.

“We always knew that Max was a good hockey player but when the season started, he was on the Under-18 junior national team for Finland and the Hlinka-Gretzky tournament was bad for that team,” Vuorinen said of the eight-nation tournament in which Finland went 0-2-1. “After that, we saw that he was really productive on the Under-20 team. Everything popped up when he got the position to play on the senior team in Sweden, especially in the playoff games, where he did well. Everybody started to speak about him.

“The most important thing is he showed that even though he’s not a size guy, he can play with the men. His speed and skills, the entire tool set is working in the men’s level.”

Westergard began playing hockey at 5, inspired by his father, Jan-Erik Westergard, who played for a local team. As his skills progressed, Max and his family looked beyond Tampere to continue his development and pursuit of his NHL dream. He joined Lukko Rauma, about 80 miles from Tampere, in 2021-22 and made Finland’s Under-16 national team in 2022-23.

“The two years in Rauma were super good,” his father said. “I believe that Rauma is the best place at the moment in Finland for developing players.”

Westergard’s play caught the attention of Frolunda, an organization whose alumni includes NHL alumni Daniel Alfredsson, Frederik Andersen, Rasmus Dahlin, Lars Eller, Erik Karlsson, Henrik Lundqvist and Alexander Steen. Max joined Frolunda’s Under-18 team in 2023-24

“It was a very, very, very difficult decision to go to Sweden, but they say that Frolunda is the best in in Europe,” said Jan-Erik Westergard, who is Finnish-Swedish. “They convinced Max, and we saw that this is the next step that we need to do. When it’s a more international environment you will learn a language and learn a little bit more how things work in other countries. Of course, Sweden is a neighbor, but it is a foreign country and it’s still an international environment where you establish everything from scratch.”

Westergard will return to Frolunda next season after he signed a rookie contract in April with the aim of playing fulltime in the SHL.

“My goal is to try to get a place on that team,” he said. “Then I’m looking forward to signing an NHL contract one day.”