In the history of the Calgary Flames franchise, they have a lot of success drafting players out of the Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League. But when they veer out of those two circuits, they tend to have the most success when they select out of Sweden.

One of the more exciting Swedish prospects in this year’s draft class, one that could really help fill a bunch of the gaps in the Flames’ system, was actually born in Australia and then raised in Sweden. Let’s learn a bit about forward Jakob Ihs-Wozniak.

Scouting report

Ihs-Wozniak is a February 2007 birthday and was born in Adelaide, Australia. Here’s FC Hockey’s Aaron Vickers getting the lowdown from Ihs-Wozniak about his unique background at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup:

“My dad’s born in Australia, born and raised there, but my mom was from Sweden,” Ihs Wozniak told FCHockey. “She was kind of on a school trip to Australia in Adelaide, where I come from. She went to the golf course with her brother and they met in the pro shop there.

“They lived in Australia and after that we moved to Sweden.”

Perhaps surprisingly, it was father Adam and not mother Anna that introduced Ihs Wozniak to ice hockey, despite dad not being overly versed in the sport.

He’s a right shot forward who can play centre and the wing. He’s listed at 6’3″ and 185 pounds. He came up through Swedish hockey and played the last several seasons with the Lulea HF organization.

We’ll get into this a bit later, but Ihs-Wozniak had a pretty typical Swedish draft year, in that he bounced around a ton. He played primarily as a top two centre for Lulea’s junior team in the J20 Nationell, but he also appeared for their under-18 in the playoffs and their SHL team both in the regular season and playoffs. He also represented Sweden’s national junior team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, the World Junior A Challenge, and the Under-18 Worlds. The youngster played a ton of hockey.

He also won a lot of team hardware. Lulea lost in the under-18 finals but won the SHL playoffs, and Sweden’s national junior teams won medals at all three tournaments Ihs-Wozniak played in.

Back in March, Dobber Prospects’ Ethan Lindley had this rundown of Ihs-Wozniak as part of their mid-term rankings:

Ihs-Wozniak has the skill to both finish and set up plays when he has the time and space to do so. However, he doesn’t play with enough pace to consistently create those opportunities for himself and often needs help from his quicker linemates to transition the puck. Although when he’s in the offensive zone he’s a menace with his smarts, puck protection ability, and talent.

In his May draft rankings, Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis had this assessment:

Ihs-Wozniak struggled out of the gate this year, but he ended the season as one of Sweden’s top young players. He closed with a great showing at the U-18s, which scouts were thrilled to see after a quiet Hlinka Gretzky Cup. That helped him get back into the first-round conversation like many expected. Ihs Wozniak is streaky, but the goal-scoring instincts are definitely there. He just needs to figure out how to be more consistent if he’s going to excel at the next level.

Ihs-Wozniak wasn’t consistent this season, but he put up pretty solid numbers everywhere he played. And the fact that he’s a right shot forward that can play centre (and win draws) likely makes him a pretty exciting player for a lot of NHL clubs late in the first round (and especially if he spills into the second).

The numbers

Before we get into the stats, let’s walk through Ihs-Wozniak’s season: He went to the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton in August. Then he started his J20 Nationell season, with occasional stop-overs for a game or two in the SHL in the fall. In December, he visited Camrose for the World Junior A Challenge. Then it was back to Sweden, where he dressed for a stretch of six games with Lulea’s SHL team before going back to junior.

March began a really busy stretch to close out Ihs-Wozniak’s draft season:

• He played the last two SHL games of the regular season (Mar. 8 & 11)
• He played the first round of the J2o playoffs, a three-game loss (Mar. 19-22)
• He played two games in the SHL playoffs while waiting for the next round of the J18 playoffs (Mar. 24 & 26)
• He joined Lulea’s J18 team for the remainder of the playoffs (Mar. 27-Apr. 13)
• Then he headed to Texas for the Under-18 Worlds (Apr. 23-May 3)

He played primarily in the J20 Nationell this season, where he had 23 goals and 34 assists for 57 points over 40 games. He was eighth in the entire league in points, and led all players in his age group in goals and points. He took the second-most face-offs of any Lulea forwards, and he won around 60% of his draws across the various segments of J20 competition this season.

He also played 13 games for Lulea’s SHL team – though he only took shifts in nine games – and posted a goal and an assist during the season.

Availability and fit

Ihs-Wozniak is a player that shows up occasionally in the late first round on public draft rankings. Over at The Athletic, he’s 25th in Scott Wheeler’s recent rankings and 32nd on Corey Pronman’s. Most other rankings have him more in the early second round mix. He would be considered a bit of a reach at 18th overall, but he would probably be considered fair value at 31st or 32nd overall with the Florida first-round pick.

In terms of fit: he’s a right shot forward, a centre, someone that wins a lot of face-offs, and a Swedish forward that has put up offensive numbers in some strong leagues. He’s among a handful of interesting players that would be very much in keeping with the Flames needs at this year’s draft, as well as a lot of their historical draft tendencies. He would definitely look and feel like a Flames pick based on everything we think we know about him.