VOORHEES — Oskar Lindblom hopes his offseason workouts won’t be too uncomfortable.

After Flyers development camp ends next week, he will return to his native Sweden and could either train with established NHLers or his old team.

The one he just left. To sign his first North American contract.

Awkward.

“A little bit, but I train with them all summer,” the left wing said. “I know the guys and know the coaching staff. I think it’s gonna be fine.”

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The 20-year-old has some work to do to earn an NHL spot in the fall, something that’s a rarity for players at the July camp where the emphasis is on learning how to be a pro and on-ice evaluations don’t happen.

Lindblom, a fifth-round pick in 2014, will return from Sweden in mid-August to start making his case for Ron Hextall and the general manager is about ready to listen.

In fact, he thinks Lindblom is a success story of development camp. This year is his fourth and now he may be ready to jump to the highest level.

“We picked Oskar. He goes back to Europe. No one even talks about him,” Hextall said. “What does he do? He just gets better and better and better. There also wasn’t a spotlight on him. Quite frankly I wish all our kids could just go away and nobody talk about them and all of a sudden they show up three years later and, ‘Wow, this kid’s a pretty good player,’ but with social media and everything else nowadays you can’t hide them.

“Oskar went away, no one knew who the hell he was, just a fifth-round pick over there getting better and better and all of a sudden — BANG — he’s the SHL forward of the year.”

It’s not entirely that simple. Some were following Lindblom’s progress as he made his way through Brynäs’ junior program and eventually the men’s club. This past season he had 22 goals. In the whole league, only teammate Kevin Clark had more with 23.

In a couple months Lindblom could be bringing that offense to the NHL where the Flyers could desperately use it. The team finished with 212 goals, tied for 20th of the 30 teams last season. Twenty-five of them belonged to Brayden Schenn, who was traded at the draft to St. Louis.

“I was surprised of course because I just wanted to be a leading guy on our team,” Lindblom said of his big season. “I didn’t think I was going to score that much or do that many points. The longer the season got, I was more confident in my play. It felt good.

“The coaches gave me the opportunity to play power play and play more minutes. The longer the season got, I was better and better. It was a good season for me.”

What Lindblom improved on is what he thinks he still needs to improve on: skating.

His team in Brynäs has no skating coach so Lindblom worked with drills set up for him by Flyers power skating coach Slava Kouznetsov. He spent about 10 minutes a day before practice trying to work on it and he made vast improvement in that area.

“He can obviously still get stronger and still get quicker but he had a real good year last year and he certainly put himself on the map for everybody,” Hextall said. “He’s still got to come in and get it done and prove he’d make us a better team.”

“It’s gonna be a big challenge for me,” Lindblom added. “It’s gonna be tough work to get where I want to be. Hopefully I can improve my skating and be stronger all over. Hopefully I can make the team.”

Last summer he spent some time on the ice with Nicklas Backstrom of the Washington Capitals, Elias Lindholm of the Carolina Hurricanes and Calle Järnkrok of the Nashville Predators. All three have done well in the NHL and Lindblom is hoping he’s next.

He’s played on the smaller ice before — he had seven points in eight games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms two years ago after his Swedish season was over — and now must show he can excel at it.

“It’s a little faster over here so you have to think a little faster and be ready out there,” Lindblom said, “otherwise you’re gonna get hit or not make the play.”

Each player is different. Teammate Felix Sandstrom, one of the Flyers’ goalie prospects, renewed his contract with Brynäs and will stay one more year. Lindblom felt like the time was right for him to make the jump across the seas and, he hopes, to the NHL.

“I just felt like I can play and I can be on this level,” he said. “I just try to push myself every day and be better. Now I’ve signed here and I have to do my best to get there. That’s what I want, to play in the NHL.”

Dave Isaac; 856-486-2479;disaac@gannett.com