BUFFALO, N.Y. — Alexander Command sees a lot of parallels between himself, the city of Philadelphia, the Flyers, and their fans.
“I’ve heard that it’s where the communities, like the people, are pretty hard-working. They do right by themselves, take no [stuff], kind of like me,” the Swede said with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.
Called one of the most competitive players in this draft class by Elite Prospects, the just-under 6-foot-1, 187-pound center commands — pun slightly intended — attention whether he has the puck on his stick or not.
A confident player with a big personality, the recently turned 18-year-old is a self-described hard-working two-way center with a high hockey IQ and compete level who is not afraid to get to the dirty areas. Although other pivots in the draft class are not projected to play the position at the NHL level, no one doubts that Command will play down the middle in the middle-six.
And yes, the Flyers, who met with Command at the NHL scouting combine — he said they mentioned how much they liked how he plays the game — have drafted eight centers — not including Denver Barkey, who played some center this past season — in the last three drafts.
But Flyers general manager Danny Brière has said repeatedly he doesn’t think you can have too many centers in the system.
The only problem for the Flyers, a team he feels a close connection with, is that middle-six centers seldom linger on draft day. And with the consensus that every team has him high on their list, the chances of Command being there at 21 don’t look promising.
Preparatory commands
Christian and Joanna Command first got Alexander on skates at the age of 3 or 4 in the northern Stockholm suburb of Danderyd, Sweden. They brought him to a public ice rink not far from their home because “they thought it was common knowledge to learn how to skate on ice,” Alexander told The Inquirer at the scouting combine.
“I found it very fun, but when I started playing hockey, I loved it even more.”
It didn’t hurt that his friends were also playing in a municipality that has produced four NHL players, with Edmonton Oilers center Mattias Janmark and retired goalie Jonas Gustavsson having played the most.
At first, Command was a small, skilled player who relied on his skating. But as his NHL dreams began to percolate, he was getting a little anxious about whether he was going to hit the imaginary bar that teams set when it comes to height.
That worry didn’t last too long because in the past two years, he hit a growth spurt. He added almost eight inches and more than 48 pounds right as he was moving two hours west of home to play hockey in Örebro.
“I was like, all the other guys that are moving [to play hockey] are like 10 centimeters [approximately 4 inches] taller. How am I going to manage? But once it came [and I got bigger], I was really happy,” he said, noting he was still the same player but was able to use his body more to his advantage and that, with the growth spurt, he still needs to work on his skating.
“I never went to the gym and ate so much food as I did in that period of time when I started noticing that I can build muscle.”
Command worked out with his uncle Christophe, who has been a personal trainer for 20 years, and as he grew, he started adding weight training. “It was a big difference,” he said, “and I think it’s from there that I gained so much muscle, because I trained the right way, ate all the right stuff, had my good night’s sleep every day, and had my mom’s home-cooked meals.”
He likes his mom’s stuvade makaroner, a recipe that calls for macaroni boiled in milk before it is eaten with sausage and ketchup, and the tacos she makes with chicken and mango. He used to struggle to finish two tacos, but in the last few years he’ll easily chow down on three.
Commands of execution
All the work has built an inner belief that Command can succeed as he continues to take steps in his career. It shines through with his big personality, which is a little uncommon in reserved Sweden, and has given him the mentality that he can compete no matter who he is facing.
It’s why Karl Kling, his coach for Örebro’s U20 squad, which plays in Nationell, Sweden’s top junior league, called his biggest strength his mindset.
“He always wants to go to the next level, so he’s always like hunting that next thing in his career, or in his game,” Kling told The Inquirer during a recent phone interview.
“It’s his mentality, because a lot of kids can shoot and pass a puck, but he’s very competitive, and he believes in himself. So, I think it’s his biggest strength.”
This past season, Command led his junior team with 44 points (17 goals, 27 assists) and 61 penalty minutes despite playing in 30 of the team’s 36 regular-season games. Kling said he was among the league’s best in the faceoff circle, that he plays with an edge and is intense, and that he was one of his most important players on the power play. Command added he likes to get under his opponent’s skin.
The then-17-year-old added another 13 points in 14 playoff games before the Vipers lost in the semifinals to Flyers prospect Max Westergård and Frölunda; they’d lose in the final.
During the season, Command, who says his comp is Patrice Bergeron, a former Boston Bruins center and six-time Selke Trophy winner, as the NHL’s top defensive forward, earned a six-game promotion to Örebro’s SHL squad in Sweden’s top league. He did not register a point.
However, he scored a bunch when he helped Sweden win gold at the Under-18 Men’s World Championship, notching seven points in seven games — the same numbers for another gold medalist, Jett Luchanko, in his draft year — while centering the top line.
“I think people were impressed by how he played at the U18s, in part because he had these two really skilled one-way wingers on his line, and he kind of had to do all the hard work — that would be [Elton] Hermansson and [Marcus] Nordmark, who are highly ranked players in this year’s draft,“ The Athletic’s senior NHL prospects writer Corey Pronman told The Inquirer in Western New York.
“That line had a lot of success, in part due to how Command played at both ends of the ice.”
In May, Command signed a two-year extension with Örebro that will carry him through 2027-28. The expectation is that he will play in the SHL, but Kling would welcome him back to the U20 team if he needs more ice time to work on finding a balance with his game.
Or maybe the next stop is the NHL? And could that be in orange and black?
“I’ve gotten to know their organization good, and we stand for the same things,” he said.
He added with a smile: “My cockiness and maybe a bit of my personality I think fits the Flyers organization and the people.”
