As the calendar gets closer to August, a new NHL season is quickly approaching. The Anaheim Ducks are hoping for better fortune, as a 27-50-5 record last season extended their franchise-long playoff drought to six years. The Ducks have had a fair amount of roster turmoil in recent seasons as a rebuilding team, but a lot of this was done in the name of clearing space for a new generation of talent. Last season saw the NHL debuts of Leo Carlsson, Pavel Mintyukov, Tristan Luneau, Olen Zellweger, Cutter Gauthier, and Sam Colangelo, and this season could bring even more new names into the fold.
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Either directly out of training camp or because of a midseason injury, several of Anaheim’s prospects will have opportunities to make their NHL debuts this season. Unlike Anaheim’s top 10 prospect list from earlier in July that used Calder Trophy eligibility as a guide, this list only includes players who have never suited up for an NHL game. This omits a few Ducks’ prospects who have had small stints in recent years, including Gauthier (one NHL game played), Colangelo (three games played), and Drew Helleson (three games played.)
Nathan Gaucher
Despite not having the highest upside, Nathan Gaucher is one of the more NHL-ready prospects in Anaheim’s system. The 6-foot-3 power forward brought his dependable two-way game to his first professional season with the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League, and he likely has a future on one of Anaheim’s depth lines. A year ago, his biggest hurdle to the NHL roster was the depth of “near-ready” forward prospects, like Brayden Tracey, Jacob Perreault, and Benoit-Olivier Groulx who would be more likely to receive the call-up. Now that all three players are no longer on the roster, Gaucher has a clearer path to the NHL.
Anaheim’s projected lineup doesn’t leave much room for Gaucher to make the roster out of camp. He’d likely have to jump one of Jansen Harkins or Brett Leason — two players inked to new contracts this offseason. Leason has some scoring upside, but his lack of physical play last year would sometimes lead to playing a less gifted, but more physical Ross Johnston in his place. Johnston is still on the roster and will likely be used as depth replacement, but I can also see a scenario where Gaucher gets the call in the event of an injury.
Sasha Pastujov
As deep as Anaheim’s prospect pool is, only a few players remain in the system with top-six upside who aren’t already in the NHL. A lower-body injury took away most of Sasha Pastujov’s first professional season in San Diego. Still, he managed to bounce back with 13 points in the final 19 games of the regular season. With promising scoring upside and a skating hitch that could hinder his effectiveness in the NHL, Pastujov is a true boom-or-bust prospect.
Pastujov was a third-round pick (66th overall) in the 2021 NHL Draft, and Anaheim’s third pick behind Mason McTavish (3rd) and Olen Zelleger (34th) that year. With both players picked ahead of him primed for massive roles on the NHL club, it’s fair to ask when, or if, these responsibilities are hoisted onto Pastujov. However, the Ducks don’t appear to be in a rush to call up underprepared top-six talent. They had horrible injury luck to the top half of their lineup in 2023-24 — Trevor Zegras (51 games missed), McTavish (18 games), Alex Killorn (19 games), and Leo Carlsson (27 games) all had significant chunks of the season taken from them; however, the team didn’t dip into the prospect pool to fill the gaps. As unexciting as it sounds, moving Ryan Strome from the third line to one of the top two lines was the more sensible decision a year ago, but that will change with time.
With only two years left on his entry-level contract (ELC), the Ducks want to see what Pastujov can do at the NHL level sooner rather than later. While I doubt he makes the opening night roster, a good training camp likely puts him on the shortlist of potential call-ups this season.
Noah Warren
A year ago, I suggested that Tristan Luneau could make the team out of camp as an entry-level slide candidate. Even though he hadn’t signed his ELC at the time, Anaheim was paper-thin on the right side of their defense and I thought it afforded the team a unique chance to look at the young blue-liner with minimal risk before sending him back to juniors. I had no idea the Ducks would like him so much that he made the team out of camp, and he would have played more than the 10 games needed to nullify an ELC slide if not for a knee infection taking away his season. Additionally, how Anaheim felt about Luneau had to have been a final green light on the Jamie Drysdale trade.
Entering camp this year, the Ducks find themselves in a similar situation. Instead of Drysdale and Radko Gudas being the only two right-shot defenders like a season ago, it’s now Luneau and Gudas. That opens the door for someone like Noah Warren to earn a look on the bottom pair with a good training camp.
Warren is unique compared to the defensive prospects who have climbed to the top of Anaheim’s system. He’s a true defensive defenseman, and his 6-foot-5 frame is a nightmare to play against at the Canadian Hockey League level. There’s not much offense to his game — 20 points in 47 games in 2022-23 is his highest scoring rate in the regular season, but eight assists in 14 playoff games in 2023-24 is an encouraging uptick. While the offense is unlikely to manifest, Anaheim doesn’t need him to be a point producer. The roster is constructed so he’d likely be paired with someone more suited to carry the puck through the neutral zone and drive offense. His right-hand shot would be a natural fit opposite Mintyukov, Zellweger, or Jackson LaCombe.
What About Beckett Sennecke?
Leo Carlsson’s draft year was exciting but deviated from how most prospects develop. The NHL isn’t a developmental league, and a typical front office and coaching staff are much more comfortable letting their prospects get their seasoning amongst their peers at the lower levels. Carlsson had experience playing professionally in Sweden, so it was a reasonable jump to the NHL with a game management plan in place. Beckett Sennecke, this year’s top pick for Anaheim, doesn’t have this professional experience, and he’ll likely need another season in the Ontario Hockey League before suiting up for the Ducks.
Sennecke is a project, and his post-draft season for the Oshawa Generals will be important to pay attention to. A lot has been made about his growth spurt and its contribution to his climbing up draft boards, but he’s still only been 6-foot-2 for about a year. While the skill translation from small winger to power forward has been encouraging, he still needs to learn how to play a complete game at his size before appearing in a full-grown league like the NHL.
That isn’t to say it’s impossible that Sennecke will make his NHL debut next season, however, it is unlikely. I don’t see any way he makes the team out of camp, but there’s a chance he finds his way onto the roster late in the season. If Oshawa doesn’t go on a deep Memorial Cup run, his junior season will end before Anaheim’s regular season concludes. The more likely scenario in this case is that he reports to San Diego, but he could get the call to go to Anaheim if the organization thinks he’s ready. This isn’t a decision that has to be made for another eight months, and Oshawa and Anaheim’s regular seasons will determine the direction the club takes with Sennecke.
