C Leo Carlsson (2023, 2nd, ANA)

[FiveTacos]

Yes, we can all feel good that we got a great player. I'm not worried at all about whether my team got the best one of the bunch, because they're all so good. That's a pretty big departure from your typical HF slapfights over who drafted the best guy.

Chicago fans are grateful they won the lotto. Anaheim fans got a guy who may be an NHL ready 1C sooner than initially expected. And CBJ fans got a guy they thought they missed out on when they dropped a spot. In some ways they all got more than what they anticipated.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

During pre-season, Ducks' head coach Cronin was running AM practices before PM games. Anaheim played 8 games in two weeks, with Carlsson playing in five contests, iirc. First week of pre-season, Carlsson participated in 2 out of the 4 games. The second week of pre-season, Carlsson played in three consecutive games before getting injured during practice a day before the last pre-season game. In Carlsson's last pre-season game played, he logged 21:30 TOI.

Ducks 2022-23	Pre-season
Pre-season
Date	Team	Carlsson	time
Week 1
24-Sep​	LAK	yes	n/a
26-Sep​	SJ	no
27-Sep​	SJ	yes	17:59​
29-Sep​	LAK	no
Week 2
1-Oct​	Ari	yes	n/a
3-Oct​	LAK	yes	17:34​
5-Oct​	Ari	yes	21:30​
6-Oct​	injured	in practice
7-Oct​	Ari	no

Muscle fatigue probably set in during the Oct 6 practice, after playing over 21 minutes the previous night. Carlsson has the IQ of a superstar, but the body of still developing 18-year old who had a huge growth spurt over two seasons ago. Also, he was playing wing lower in the lineup in the SHL, as some have cited to be around 14 minutes a game last year.

Carlsson's injury scare, where he said he lost feelings in his legs, is probably what prompted Verbeek to come up with a way to keep Carlsson at the NHL level and work on his strength and stamina, rather than sending him down to the AHL. Physically, Carlsson isn't an everyday player right now and the Ducks want to avoid Carlsson getting injured again because the kid will go 100% all the time, regardless if his body hurts b/c he wants to make the team.

With this two month strength & conditioning program (think NCAA, two games per week with 4 to 5 days off), Carlsson can go all out for those two games and the Ducks' org can say "whoa" to the young stud for his safety.

During pre-season, HC Cronin denoted how Carlsson didn't look good at the start of pre-season. Only when Carlsson was paired with more talented players did Carlsson's game take off. This is why Carlsson is paired with Anaheim's top offensive talents in Zegras and Terry. They are so offensively dangerous is the reason why Carlsson earns around 20 minutes per game.

I'm very surprised at the amount of Duck fans who forgot Carlsson's injury. It was at practice! If it were in game, the opposing defender would have pushed Carlsson down while he was falling and could have really done even more damage to Carlsson. One way to deter Carlsson's progression is to have him injure his leg for an underdetermined amount of time. This year, fellow 2023 Ducks draftee, 2nd round pick Nico Myatovic has an LBI for an undetermined amount of time, which could be weeks or months.

Why tempt a more terrible outcome, especially when you got a preview of it and escaped with only missing two weeks?

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

During pre-season, Ducks' head coach Cronin was running AM practices before PM games. Anaheim played 8 games in two weeks, with Carlsson playing in five contests, iirc. First week of pre-season, Carlsson participated in 2 out of the 4 games. The second week of pre-season, Carlsson played in three consecutive games before getting injured during practice a day before the last pre-season game. In Carlsson's last pre-season game played, he logged 21:30 TOI.

Ducks 2022-23	Pre-season
Pre-season
Date	Team	Carlsson	time
Week 1
24-Sep​	LAK	yes	n/a
26-Sep​	SJ	no
27-Sep​	SJ	yes	17:59​
29-Sep​	LAK	no
Week 2
1-Oct​	Ari	yes	n/a
3-Oct​	LAK	yes	17:34​
5-Oct​	Ari	yes	21:30​
6-Oct​	injured	in practice
7-Oct​	Ari	no

Muscle fatigue probably set in during the Oct 6 practice, after playing over 21 minutes the previous night. Carlsson has the IQ of a superstar, but the body of still developing 18-year old who had a huge growth spurt over two seasons ago. Also, he was playing wing lower in the lineup in the SHL, as some have cited to be around 14 minutes a game last year.

Carlsson's injury scare, where he said he lost feelings in his legs, is probably what prompted Verbeek to come up with a way to keep Carlsson at the NHL level and work on his strength and stamina, rather than sending him down to the AHL. Physically, Carlsson isn't an everyday player right now and the Ducks want to avoid Carlsson getting injured again because the kid will go 100% all the time, regardless if his body hurts b/c he wants to make the team.

With this two month strength & conditioning program (think NCAA, two games per week with 4 to 5 days off), Carlsson can go all out for those two games and the Ducks' org can say "whoa" to the young stud for his safety.

During pre-season, HC Cronin denoted how Carlsson didn't look good at the start of pre-season. Only when Carlsson was paired with more talented players did Carlsson's game take off. This is why Carlsson is paired with Anaheim's top offensive talents in Zegras and Terry. They are so offensively dangerous is the reason why Carlsson earns around 20 minutes per game.

I'm very surprised at the amount of Duck fans who forgot Carlsson's injury. It was at practice! If it were in game, the opposing defender would have pushed Carlsson down while he was falling and could have really done even more damage to Carlsson. One way to deter Carlsson's progression is to have him injure his leg for an underdetermined amount of time. This year, fellow 2023 Ducks draftee, 2nd round pick Nico Myatovic has an LBI for an undetermined amount of time, which could be weeks or months.

Why tempt a more terrible outcome, especially when you got a preview of it and escaped with only missing two weeks?

Because winning cures all ills and Carlsson in the lineup leads to wins!

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Because winning cures all ills and Carlsson in the lineup leads to wins!

Except when the shiny new toy is broken, no development happens for months or the season, and we're back to questioning how much did the year off affect the young prospect? There's no winning if Carlsson is not on the ice and he has lost the greatest ability called availability.

With Carlsson: 1-2-0 (2 pts)
Without Carlsson: 2-2-0 (4 pts)

Guess the team can with without Carlsson, but the fun factor goes down a bit.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

This draft was not a conventional one. It has some reminiscent of 2015 with McDavid and Eichel. Eichel would have been a 1st overall in like 90% of NHL draft just like Carlsson and Fantilli are both 1st overall in like 90% of most draft.

It was so amazing how little draft day trades of 1st round picks happened. Everyone team wanted to keep their ticket and no one wanted to surrender one. That told me how special that 1st round in 2023 is.

 

[hockeyprospects9]

He playing today?

 

[Kalv]

He playing today?

We won't know until before the game but I really hope so. That starting time is perfect for us Europeans.
Technically, he should as this would be his 2nd game this week which is Pats plan

 

[Pavels Dog]

How did this guy fall to #2?

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

How did this guy fall to #2?

Anaheim took a lot of crap for the pick, that’s for sure

 

[Kalv]

Anaheim took a lot of crap for the pick, that’s for sure

Now the same people are probably questioning Pat's plan

How did this guy fall to #2?

There was some dude ahead of him in the rankings. They probably picked him because his first name was just like McDavid's

 

[FiveTacos]

Anaheim took a lot of crap for the pick, that’s for sure

Any time you split from consensus you risk criticism. But I've always believed that you forge your own path in the draft, otherwise why bother with a scouting department/budget at all? Just go off a draft preview for a few bucks a year.

 

[Peasy]

Anyone claiming the ducks made an egregious error at the time of the draft picking Carlsson clearly didn't look that far into Carlsson/Fantili/Michkov. Would be hard for me to criticize anyone picking any of those 3 at 2 at the time of the draft. They are all very similar caliber prospects each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Obviously one will become the best of the bunch, but I really don't think you can make a terrible mistake taking any of those 3 at 2. They will all be special talents in the NHL.

 

[HanSolo]

Yes, we can all feel good that we got a great player. I'm not worried at all about whether my team got the best one of the bunch, because they're all so good. That's a pretty big departure from your typical HF slapfights over who drafted the best guy.

I think the other side of it is under the current lottery system, only Anaheim could have felt confident that they'd get at least one of these three guys. Starting from Chicago and Columbus, their fans had to mentally be prepared to possibly pick fourth and take Michkov if their team was so inclined. But even Anaheim fans had to be prepared for the possibility of taking whoever was left of this top 3. Because the draft was so stacked I think a fair number of fans are still looking at the guys they didn't get favorably or at least without disdain. One of these guys among the group of Bedard, Carlsson, Fantilli, Smith, Michkov was going to be consolation for a miserable season.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Any time you split from consensus you risk criticism. But I've always believed that you forge your own path in the draft, otherwise why bother with a scouting department/budget at all? Just go off a draft preview for a few bucks a year.

Yep. I think anaheim for better or worse has basically gone off their list and never been persuaded to go a diff route.

I don’t think there was a wrong pick with carlsson/fantilli, but fantilli was the consensus #2


Mctavish wasn’t really a popular pick at 3 and has looked great

Mintyukov wasn’t a consensus pick at 10

Lindholm was a very questionable pick at 6 but turned out fantastic

 

[Gliff]

Imagine if the Ducks had gone Fantilli, Columbus went Smith like they were reported to do, and SJ got Carlsson, yuck.

 

[Nipsey]

Carlsson was always the right pick at 2. Fantilli is a more tools based player where as Carlsson has elite hockey sense, you always want to build your team around the latter.

 

[Mr Rogers]

He playing today?

Yes

 

[wintersej]

Pretty easy to see he will be the Ducks best player for a long time. No problem with them ramping him up in games played. If they are within shot of a playoff spot later in the year, though, they should rip the bandaid.

 

[Taswell]

Hope he's alright after that rough fall into the post.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Anyone claiming the ducks made an egregious error at the time of the draft picking Carlsson clearly didn't look that far into Carlsson/Fantili/Michkov. Would be hard for me to criticize anyone picking any of those 3 at 2 at the time of the draft. They are all very similar caliber prospects each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Obviously one will become the best of the bunch, but I really don't think you can make a terrible mistake taking any of those 3 at 2. They will all be special talents in the NHL.

I think if Michkov becomes as good as some think he will be, it’ll look that way. Michkov could end up the best player in the NHL. I don’t think that’s going to happen for Carlsson or Fantilli. To pass on a player who becomes that, if he does, when it was well known at the time what he could become would be that egregious error.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

I think if Michkov becomes as good as some think he will be, it’ll look that way. Michkov could end up the best player in the NHL. I don’t think that’s going to happen for Carlsson or Fantilli. To pass on a player who becomes that, if he does, when it was well known at the time what he could become would be that egregious error.

Eh, there was 4 clear prizes in the draft Bedard, fantilli, carlsson, michkov.

I doubt well regret passing on Michkov... teams like arizona/sanjose/montreal might.

I feel like columbus anaheim and chicago are more than okay with the guys thye got.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

I actually thought Fantilli had the higher absolute upside (while Carlsson had a higher floor) but I did perceive both to have 100+ point ceilings so I was willing to accept either. It's just absolutely crazy to me how good he already looks.

By way of tracking the growth of the future, the Ducks always have something on offer with Mintyukov and Lacombe but I get the most excited to watch Leo. I can't say that a forward prospect has ever looked this good this quickly for Anaheim.

And I'll admit that part of it is vindicating for me and I'm sure others in getting to the point that we hoped Anaheim would secure the best pick possible. Independent of how stellar the rest of that top 3 could end up, this is shaping up to me an absolute home run of a pick.

No shot at Carlsson whom I like a lot, but Can I assume you weren't watching during Kariya's rookie year?

 

[LuGBuG]

No shot at Carlsson whom I like a lot, but Can I assume you weren't watching during Kariya's rookie year?

While Kariya was a legend, and plays a more electrifying style. He was also 20. I’ll agree that no Ducks prospect has looked this good this fast.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

While Kariya was a legend, and plays a more electrifying style. He was also 20. I’ll agree that no Ducks prospect has looked this good this fast.

I guess it's semantics but I assumed he meant from starting as an NHLer.

It should be noted that Kariya was putting up 100 points in the NCAA in his draft year.

Regardless, this is a derail and even being mentioned in the same breath as Kariya under any circumstances is a tremendously good sign for Carlsson and the Ducks.

 

[HanSolo]

I guess it's semantics but I assumed he meant from starting as an NHLer.

It should be noted that Kariya was putting up 100 points in the NCAA in his draft year.

Regardless, this is a derail and even being mentioned in the same breath as Kariya under any circumstances is a tremendously good sign for Carlsson and the Ducks.

No I was very careful with my words. That said, I didn't watch Kariya's rookie year. I just phrased it that way to ignore the comparison. Also because the point is that he's fit right into an NHL top line immediately.