Ducks sign Lucas Pettersson to three-year entry-level contract

The Anaheim Ducks have secured one of their top prospects, signing center Lucas Pettersson to a three-year entry-level contract on Friday afternoon. 

The 19-year-old will spend the upcoming 2025-26 season with Brynäs IF of the Swedish Hockey League, continuing to play in the league where he has skated since the 2023-24 season. 

Last season, he split the campaign between MoDo hockey of the SHL, MoDo Jr. and Ostersunds in the second-division HockeyAllsvenskan, scoring just one assist in 29 top-division SHL games. 

In the junior league, he scored four goals and eight points in eight games, while he netted nine goals and 19 points in 26 second-tier games with Ostersunds. 

However, his MoDo squad will not be in the SHL next season as they drop down to the HockeyAllsvenskan after losing the best-of-seven relegation series against HV71. 

Selected 35th overall by the Ducks in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft, Pettersson has international experience in addition to his standout club seasons, winning a bronze medal with Sweden at the 2024 IIHF U18 World Championship after scoring three goals and eight points, including netting the game-winning goal in the bronze medal game. 

He also represented the Tre Kronor at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, where he scored two goals and four points in four games.

The 2025-26 season will be the third that he spends in the SHL, and first with Brynäs IF, having made his top-tier debut in 2023-24, playing five times for MoDo, despite spending most of that season as an assistant captain with Modo Jr., where he scored 27 goals and 57 points in 44 games. 

Brynäs IF finished atop in the SHL standings in 2024-25, before losing in the playoff final to Lulea HF. Meanwhile, the Ducks missed the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, finishing sixth in the Pacific Division, despite seeing improvement from another young Swedish center in Leo Carlsson, who scored 20 goals and 45 points in his second NHL campaign.