Prospect Info: 2023-24 Ducks Prospects

[Static]

… you’re not gonna like what I have to say.

Deadline passed I assume

 

[Kalv]

Well, there is an NHL deadline. Myatovic for Kakko?

 

[tomd]

Well, there is an NHL deadline. Myatovic for Kakko?

I'll give Myatovic a pass for now given his father's death, his injury, and the fact that his team is terrible but my goodness he is having a horrible, terrible, awful season. Wouldn't be surprised if he plays as an overager in the WHL next year.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

In the past few games, it feels the times Hvidston scores is on the PP, PK (sh goal), OT, or at the of the game to seal the game. Curious if he's taken more of a defensive role now at ES. His scoring has gone down some since Geekie moved into 1C over Hvidston. Can't blame the staff for doing it either b/c Geekie is over 1.60 ppg rate

Hvidston	Splits
Year	GP	G	A	Pts	+/-		Pts/GP
Total	43​	24​	25​	49​	8​		1.14​
Pre-Geekie	26​	16​	16​	32​	4​		1.23​
W/ Geekie	17​	8​	9​	17​	4​		1.00​

 

[Static]

 

[JAHV]

'23/24 - Cutter Gauthier GP 31 G 29
'22/23 - Adam Fantilli GP 36 G 30
'21/22 - Ethen Frank GP 39 G 26
'20/21 - Cole Caulfield GP 31 G 30
'19/20 - John Leonard GP 33 G 27
'18/19 - Diego Cuglietta GP 38 G 25
'17/18 - Adam Gaudette GP 38 G 30
'16/17 - Zack Aston - Reese GP 38 G 31
'15/16 - Kyle Connor GP 38 G 35
'14/15 - Jimmy Vesey GP 37 G 32
'13/14 - Jonny Gaudreau GP 40 G 36

Cutter's current pace compared to the goal scoring leader from each of the previous ten NCAA seasons.

Over the past 30 seasons going back to 1994-95, the highest goal total is shared by a few different guys at 38 goals.

What an interesting list. Some offensive studs (Gaudreau, Connor, Caulfield), some guys who turned into bottom 6 role players (Vesey, ZAR), and some non-prospects. I sure hope Gauthier is the former.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

What an interesting list. Some offensive studs (Gaudreau, Connor, Caulfield), some guys who turned into bottom 6 role players (Vesey, ZAR), and some non-prospects. I sure hope Gauthier is the former.

I should have included their age and year of college as it does add a fair bit of context.

Gauthier 19, Sophomore
Fantilli 18, Freshmen
Frank 23, Senior (5th year)
Caufield 19, Sophomore
Leonard 21, Junior
Cuglietta 23, Senior
Gaudette 21, Junior
Aston- Reese 22, Senior
Connor 19, Freshmen
Vesey 22, Senior

Really only leaves Connor and Caufield as close comparables, and that's great company.

 

[forever1922]

I'll give Myatovic a pass for now given his father's death, his injury, and the fact that his team is terrible but my goodness he is having a horrible, terrible, awful season. Wouldn't be surprised if he plays as an overager in the WHL next year.

As you rightly pointed out, this season has nothing to do with Myatovic's ability. Unfortunately it still means he misses most of the year's hockey or what little he plays it comes with major distractions and he now has a lot of ground he needs to cover to come back to the NHL prospect picture.

I hope he gets the right support to put him back on the right track and he comes in next summer and starts to impress.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Deadline passed I assume

Canadian junior leagues all have used an early January trade/roster move deadline for as long as I can remember. For any school-aged kids who are being moved, it allows them to get settled at their new school right at the start of the second semester, obviously with the intent of minimizing the impact on their studies.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Myatovic has thirteen games left, wrapping up the season with three games in three nights March 22-24. Give him the last few days of the month at home, and then he can join the Gulls on an ATO for April. Maybe he gets into a handful of their ten games between April 3-22, but either way it may be good for him to wrap up a tough year with some time in a professional environment.

 

[Static]

Myatovic 0+2 tonight.

 

[Static]

Myatovic 0+2 tonight.

One assist now changed to a goal. 1+1.

 

[Rasp]

Wheeler's prospect pool ranking has us at 5. Tiers are 1, 2-3 & 4-15+.

1. Gauthier
2. Zellweger
3. Luneau
4. Gaucher
5. Clara
6. Clang
7. Pastujov
8. Terrance
9. Perreault
10. Colangelo
11. Hinds
12. Myatovic
13. Helleson
14. Nesterenko
15. Tracey

He has left out a lot of good players such as Sidorov, Pitre, Warren, Dionicio, Hvidston, Moore & King.

2024 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 5 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks' pool remains one of the better in the league thanks to the addition of Cutter Gauthier and nine 2023 draft picks.

theathletic.com

 

[AngelDuck]

It is pretty impressive to be in the top 5 still after graduating/trading Drysdale/Carlsson/McTavish/Mintyukov/Zegras the last 3 seasons

Wheeler's prospect pool ranking has us at 5. Tiers are 1, 2-3 & 4-15+.

1. Gauthier
2. Zellweger
3. Luneau
4. Gaucher
5. Clara
6. Clang
7. Pastujov
8. Terrance
9. Perreault
10. Colangelo
11. Hinds
12. Myatovic
13. Helleson
14. Nesterenko
15. Tracey

He has left out a lot of good players such as Sidorov, Pitre, Warren, Dionicio, Hvidston, Moore & King.

2024 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 5 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks' pool remains one of the better in the league thanks to the addition of Cutter Gauthier and nine 2023 draft picks.

theathletic.com

A decent list but there’s no way I’m putting Pastujov that high above Nesterenko and Terrance

 

[Gliff]

Wheeler's prospect pool ranking has us at 5. Tiers are 1, 2-3 & 4-15+.

1. Gauthier
2. Zellweger
3. Luneau
4. Gaucher
5. Clara
6. Clang
7. Pastujov
8. Terrance
9. Perreault
10. Colangelo
11. Hinds
12. Myatovic
13. Helleson
14. Nesterenko
15. Tracey

He has left out a lot of good players such as Sidorov, Pitre, Warren, Dionicio, Hvidston, Moore & King.

2024 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 5 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks' pool remains one of the better in the league thanks to the addition of Cutter Gauthier and nine 2023 draft picks.

theathletic.com

Actually a pretty accurate summary of the pool, although I think the next 5 guys are in the same tier as 4-15. The Ducks depth is what is amazing about their prospect pool right now.

 

[Kalv]

To me this feels optimistic. I think outside top 3 it's a longshot for those guys. There must be better pools out there but I'm not gery up to date with other teams situations

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Wheeler's prospect pool ranking has us at 5. Tiers are 1, 2-3 & 4-15+.

1. Gauthier
2. Zellweger
3. Luneau
4. Gaucher
5. Clara
6. Clang
7. Pastujov
8. Terrance
9. Perreault
10. Colangelo
11. Hinds
12. Myatovic
13. Helleson
14. Nesterenko
15. Tracey

He has left out a lot of good players such as Sidorov, Pitre, Warren, Dionicio, Hvidston, Moore & King.

2024 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 5 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks' pool remains one of the better in the league thanks to the addition of Cutter Gauthier and nine 2023 draft picks.

theathletic.com

I think it’s a solid order…. Suchnek prob jumps into top 10 when he’s signed. Maybe I’d have colangelo a lil higher

 

[Arthuros]

Gaucher at 4 is kinda interesting. Feels a bit heavy towards upside potential vs. realistically achievable. Same with Pasta at 7.

 

[forever1922]

Yeah, Pastujov should not be that high. I think the recent picks are undervalued here, probably by design.

Pitre, Sidorov and Dionicio should come in somewhere around Myatovic and Terrance. Good thing we have a lot of guys with varying skills. Someone has to break out, right?

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Gaucher at 4 is kinda interesting. Feels a bit heavy towards upside potential vs. realistically achievable. Same with Pasta at 7.

I’d actually consider swapping pasta and gaucher…. Pasta has a lot of potential upside, prob more so than anyone in our system after top 3.

Gaucher is a weird one, he’s always popular amongst writers/scouts…. But to me his upside isn’t really much… best case scenario is a bottom 6 role player…. Which is needed but not really anything special

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Button has Dionicio as a top 50 prospect league wide and Wheeler doesn't have him top 15 in our pool... That's polarizing defined

 

[eaterfan]

Yeah, Pastujov should not be that high. I think the recent picks are undervalued here, probably by design.

Pitre, Sidorov and Dionicio should come in somewhere around Myatovic and Terrance. Good thing we have a lot of guys with varying skills. Someone has to break out, right?

The thing about guys with 10% chances of hitting their ceiling and you have 12 of them, you figure someone has to. Those are just random numbers on the percentages, but with so many guys of that caliber, I'm sure a couple will at least be solid NHL contributors for a good team.

Hopefully, the guys already on the roster step up and all the Ducks need are cheap controlled options on the bottom lines and pairings. That will allow the Ducks to resign as many of the top end guys they develop as possible.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be great to have a bunch of tier one guys, but having a lot of options for depth is a luxury the Ducks can afford if the high end prospects they've recently graduated continue to grow as players.

 

[eaterfan]

Wheeler's prospect pool ranking has us at 5. Tiers are 1, 2-3 & 4-15+.

1. Gauthier
2. Zellweger
3. Luneau
4. Gaucher
5. Clara
6. Clang
7. Pastujov
8. Terrance
9. Perreault
10. Colangelo
11. Hinds
12. Myatovic
13. Helleson
14. Nesterenko
15. Tracey

He has left out a lot of good players such as Sidorov, Pitre, Warren, Dionicio, Hvidston, Moore & King.

2024 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 5 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks' pool remains one of the better in the league thanks to the addition of Cutter Gauthier and nine 2023 draft picks.

theathletic.com

It's funny that he draws the tiers there when literally the first sentence in his write up of Clara, the number 5 prospect is, "This is where ranking the Ducks’ prospects gets tricky, because the gap between No. 5 and No. 15 is smaller than it is for most teams in this range."

After reading the article I thought the tiers would be 1/2-4/5-15, or maybe 1/2,3/4/5-15. He spends a decent amount of time saying basically anyone after pick 5 is pretty level, but includes 4 on the same tier. Not a big deal, but just interesting. But it sounds like really prospects 5-20 for the Ducks are all pretty much in the same tier.

 

[Mortal Wombat]

We have three very good prospects (one great), but outside of them it's pretty much a bunch of maybes. The good news is it's a big bunch of maybes, so hopefully a couple of them pan out. On top of that, we're going to add another top prospect in this year's draft. And then there are the young guys already on the team.

So the future looks bright but boy am I getting tired of waiting for the team to turn things around.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Wheeler's prospect pool ranking has us at 5. Tiers are 1, 2-3 & 4-15+.

1. Gauthier
2. Zellweger
3. Luneau
4. Gaucher
5. Clara
6. Clang
7. Pastujov
8. Terrance
9. Perreault
10. Colangelo
11. Hinds
12. Myatovic
13. Helleson
14. Nesterenko
15. Tracey

He has left out a lot of good players such as Sidorov, Pitre, Warren, Dionicio, Hvidston, Moore & King.

2024 NHL prospect pool rankings: No. 5 Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks' pool remains one of the better in the league thanks to the addition of Cutter Gauthier and nine 2023 draft picks.

theathletic.com

That ranking's wack after #3. Wheeler's write up on Gaucher is mostly pre-AHL and his AHL debut has been okay, I guess. Colangelo and Hinds aren't getting the love with the production they're doing now; feels like Wheeler dings them a bit with their pre-draft status.

Talking about dinging a prospect with their pre-draft status...
Player A
2021-22: 67 games, 4g + 24a = 28 pts, + 11
2022-23: 68 games, 30g + 30a = 60 pts, +43

Player B
2021-22: 58 games, 13g + 19a = 32 pts, -5
2022-23: 59 games, 21g + 44a = 65 pts, +15

One of these players was drafted in the 5th round and the other at the top of the 2nd round. Both are known for their defense first.

Spoiler: Player A and B reveal

Player A = Myatovic, 2023 rd 2 (33 overall)
Player B = Hvidston, 2022 rd 5 (139th overall)

Hvidston has shown progress great for the past three seasons in the CHL. He's only three months older than Myatovic, but his early Sept b-day pushed him into an earlier draft from Myatovic. Wheeler is giving Myatovic a pass, citing he's on a rebuild team, but Hvidston was on a bad team in his D+0 and D+1 seasons. Hvidston was a 1.23 ppg rate before his team acquired Conor Geekie, moving Hvidston to 2C from 1C and down to a 1.00 ppg rate this season.

Still, I'll give Wheeler props for keeping tabs on all of these prospects for all of the teams. He really needs a small team to keep better track and avoid biases.