Outside of a select few individuals, player development rarely goes in a harmoniously upward curve in professional hockey. In most cases, development entails hours of hard work, shuttling between previously unknown cities, and some frustration along the way. The Anaheim Ducks’ Jacob Larsson is no stranger to that difficult reality.

The first selection for Anaheim in the 2015 draft at 27th overall, Larsson was billed early on as a smooth-skating, puck-moving defenseman, very much in the mold of fellow Duck — and Swede — Hampus Lindholm. Larsson did little to abate the buzz surrounding him early on, as he participated in the World Juniors for Sweden in 2015, then made the Ducks out of training camp the following year. He showed off those tools in a brief North American stint before going bac