Victor Eklund refused to take no for an answer in badgering his Tier 2 Swedish league coach Robert Kimby to have him play on the same line as long-time friend Anton Frondell last season.

“Yeah, I think I told him 10 times,” Eklund recalled at the NHL pre-draft combine in Buffalo earlier this month. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don’t know.’”

And then, one day after the Christmas break the two got their wish in eventually helping Djurgarden win a championship, and propel the pair to the top of central scouting’s rankings of international skaters.

Frondell, a center, is ranked first and a candidate to be selected as high as No. 2 by San Jose at the NHL draft in Los Angeles on Friday. He’s a powerful playmaking skater who had 11 goals and 25 points in 29 games last season, second among league players 18 or younger.

Eklund prides himself as a pesky winger, and regarded as a top-10 selection after finishing ahead of Frondell with 19 goals and 31 points in 42 games last year.

“I just knew from the beginning that if we got the opportunity, we’d take it and be the best line,” said Eklund, whose older brother, William, was a 2021 first-round pick (No. 7), and completed his second full season with San Jose. “The coach probably got sick of me asking.”

The two have known each other since playing on competing teams as 10-year-olds in Stockholm. And they’ve been teammates since 2021. “I remember he actually made a move on me, like the puck between my legs,” Eklund said. “He says he doesn’t remember it, but I do.”

Sitting next to Eklund, Frondell responded with a smile, saying: “I actually do remember that move.”