Prospect Info: 2022 Ducks Prospect Rankings #4

[MMC]

It's time for our annual Ducks prospect rankings. Each poll will run for 48 hours except in the case of a clear landslide. I will go to the top 25 and include a final poll where you can pick 5 honorable mentions. Please tell me who you want me to add in the replies. In the fourth poll, I am voting for Lukas Dostal.

As always the list will define prospects as hockeysfuture does: NHL Prospect Criteria - Hockey's Future.

2022 Ducks Prospect Rankings

1. C - Mason McTavish (+2)
2. D - Pavel Mintyukov (2022 draftee)
3. D - Olen Zellweger (+3)

Our graduates and departures are:

Trevor Zegras
Jamie Drysdale
Alexander Volkov
Josh Mahura
Brendan Guhle
Jack Badini
Roman Durny​

Click to read more...

 

[Goose of Reason]

Dostal again

 

[Arthuros]

Dostal now.

 

[bsu]

Dostal then Perreault then Vaaks

 

[WhatTheDuck]

 

[AngelDuck]

I voted for Perreault here. I believe in him, but it’s going to take a couple more seasons.

 

[GunnarStahl]

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Dostal again

Yeah, I had Zellweger above Mintyukov and Dostal above them both.

 

[GreatBear]

I think there was a pretty clear top four this year. People obviously disagreed as to the order, but there were very few votes for anyone other than these four. I voted for Dostal as #2, then as #3, so it was clear that I would vote for him for #4. Now it will get far more interesting after the top four.

 

[bsu]

I think there was a pretty clear top four this year. People obviously disagreed as to the order, but there were very few votes for anyone other than these four. I voted for Dostal as #2, then as #3, so it was clear that I would vote for him for #4. Now it will get far more interesting after the top four.

Perreault will win easily next then it will get interesting.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Dostal, as I said could have gone 1-3 and been acceptable result

Perreault will win easily next then it will get interesting.

Ya perreault is pretty easily our 5th…. After that it’ll be a lot of personal preferences and judging on a lot more potential

 

[Arthuros]

I always find it interesting once we're past the blue-chips and into the mix of prospects who aren't ready for the show but could be brilliant (Perreault, Tracey, Thrun) and prospects who are almost definitely going to get some NHL time now but don't have a high ceiling (Vaakanainen, Benoit).

IMO after this one I would go Vaakanainen -> Perreault -> Benoit -> Thrun -> LaCombe -> Tracey.

I'm not sold on Perreault just yet, and I think Vaakanainen might be undersold a bit. Vaak looked competent in a middle pairing role at the NHL level - that's quite a step ahead of Benoit and another step ahead of everyone else in the pack. We would hope that guys like Warren and Moore can turn out at least as good as Vaak, and we have no guarantee that Thrun, LaCombe, Andersson or Helleson will pan out at the NHL level either.

 

[bsu]

I always find it interesting once we're past the blue-chips and into the mix of prospects who aren't ready for the show but could be brilliant (Perreault, Tracey, Thrun) and prospects who are almost definitely going to get some NHL time now but don't have a high ceiling (Vaakanainen, Benoit).

IMO after this one I would go Vaakanainen -> Perreault -> Benoit -> Thrun -> LaCombe -> Tracey.

I'm not sold on Perreault just yet, and I think Vaakanainen might be undersold a bit. Vaak looked competent in a middle pairing role at the NHL level - that's quite a step ahead of Benoit and another step ahead of everyone else in the pack. We would hope that guys like Warren and Moore can turn out at least as good as Vaak, and we have no guarantee that Thrun, LaCombe, Andersson or Helleson will pan out at the NHL level either.

Yeah Vaaks and Perreault are going to be close for me.

 

[Leonardo87]

Went with Dostal, pretty obvious. Lol

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Perreault will win easily next then it will get interesting.

Gonna throw a primer for a few prospects to muddle up Perreault being 5th overall this year.

This is long. You've been warned. Also, feel free to add in more info to these prospects or other prospects.

Here's Defend the Nest's end of season review: link. John Broadbent, the writer for Defend the Nest, has been tracking the Gulls for a couple of years or more now. There are four prospects we can focus on in RW Perreault, LW Tracey, RD Andersson, and RD Helleson. Broadbent graded Perreault and Tracey at an A-. While Andersson earned a B+ and Helleson received B grade. Potentially, Tracey might look better if basing it on the two-year AHL productions with Perreault.

Tracey (AHL)

2020-21: 12 games, 0g + 0a = 0 pts (0.00 ppg)​

2021-22: 55 games, 11g + 20a = 31 pts (0.56 ppg)​

Perreault (AHL)

2020-21: 27 games, 3g + 14a = 17 pts (0.63 ppg)​

2021-22: 55 games, 14g + 23a = 37 pts (0.67 ppg)​

Perreault finished 4th in scoring and Tracey 7th. At one point during the season, Tracey led the Gulls in scoring. Is there more upside with Tracey going into next season after seeing that huge production jump?

=== College Boys ===

RW Colangelo

2020-21: 8 games, 0g + 3a = 3 pts (0.38 ppg)​

2021-22: 29 games, 12g + 15a = 27 pts (0.93 ppg) Finished 2nd in team scoring.​

Thrun

2020-21: 0 games, 0g + 0a = 0 pts (0.00 ppg) Harvard did not open up to play.​

2021-22: 35 games, 7g + 25a = 32 pts (0.91 ppg) Finished 3rd in team scoring.​

LaCombe

2019-20: 37 games, 3g + 10a = 13 pts (0.35 ppg), -1​

2020-21: 27 games, 4g + 17a = 21 pts (0.78 ppg), +19​

2021-22: 39 games, 3g + 27a = 30 pts (0.77 ppg), +23 ... Finished 4th in team scoring.​

For reference with LaCombe, Faber scored 2g + 12a for 14 points in 32 games (0.44 ppg) and +8 last year. Faber was the Big-10 defenseman of the year last year. I used three seasons for LaCombe because he's a converted D-man coming from high school level. His development has been great! Seeing LaCombe skate so effortlessly and great hand-eye coordination at the Dev camp in the figure-8 drill has me hyped! There is a lingering problem with LaCombe that his high scoring production doesn't show up until halfway through the season.

Thrun has been great with his scoring. He lead the Crimson in scoring for a long minute during this past season. Although he got in over 20 USHL games, the level of play isn't NCAA level during the COVID shutdown for the Ivy league. Thrun wanted to get an extra 30+ NCAA games before going pro, which he missed out on his sophomore year.

Colangelo started off the season injured and was injured two seasons ago, but he's been tearing it up when healthy. His upside is looking great, but it is also a small sample.

That's the common theme with the Ducks all throughout the system, very productive when healthy. Andersson, Perreault, and Tracey all got dinged up at the AHL level.

=== CHL === (not named McTavish or Zellweger)

Pastujov

2021-22: 65 games, 34g + 42a = 76 pts (1.17 ppg), -12 ... Finished 1st in team scoring.​

Sasha had a tremendous rookie season in the CHL (OHL). He lead the team in goal scoring, assists, and negative plus/minus rating. Playing at the WJC-20's, his talent is still developing and doesn't rate highly right now and probably not vying for 5th overall in the prospect pool.

Pasta loves to shoot, though! Another prospect who gets a lot of shots off (not named McTavish or Zellweger) is Perreault.

 

[DavidBL]

Yeah Vaaks and Perreault are going to be close for me.

I think Helleson slides in there somewhere too.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Yeah Vaaks and Perreault are going to be close for me.

I've zoned out on Vaaks. I love his gap control, but that's the only good thing I can remember from him with us last season. Yes, he's better than Mahura, but maybe Benoit has crept up to be Vaaks equal. Still, none of the three should be in the NHL. A majority of our incoming crop of defensemen probably rank higher than Vaaks.

Vaaks, imo, looks to be Larsson 3.0. Larsson 2.0 was Guhle. I hope I'm wrong, but Vaaks didn't look great with Drysdale. Vaaks did improve with Shatty, though still not great.

 

[bsu]

I've zoned out on Vaaks. I love his gap control, but that's the only good thing I can remember from him with us last season. Yes, he's better than Mahura, but maybe Benoit has crept up to be Vaaks equal. Still, none of the three should be in the NHL. A majority of our incoming crop of defensemen probably rank higher than Vaaks.

Vaaks, imo, looks to be Larsson 3.0. Larsson 2.0 was Guhle. I hope I'm wrong, but Vaaks didn't look great with Drysdale. Vaaks did improve with Shatty, though still not great.

Not even close to Larsson or Guhle.

 

[Kalv]

Dude was dominating a mans league when he was 19.

AINEC

 

[DavidBL]

Not even close to Larsson or Guhle.

Yeah, I have to agree with BSU. Vaaks looks much more comfortable at the NHL level then the other 2 ever did. Imo he's still above Benoit but I could see them split time if we added a Veteran LD with physicality though I'd tend to think Vaaks gets the majority of the starts.

 

[bsu]

Yeah, I have to agree with BSU. Vaaks looks much more comfortable at the NHL level then the other 2 ever did. Imo he's still above Benoit but I could see them split time if we added a Veteran LD with physicality though I'd tend to think Vaaks gets the majority of the starts.

On top of that usually when a team trades a player they bad mouth them naturally (look at some of the Lindholm comments on here lol). Boston fans were coming in here non-stop saying when he's healthy he's a super solid #4 with upside for more.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Not even close to Larsson or Guhle.

Hopefully. Guhle looked great too for a spell until he got rocked and injured. I know Vaaks has had a concussion issue before. He had one in Oct 2018 and got rocked hard in early Feb 2022. He had a very good stretched in the NHL before being leveled in Feb 2022. He played only two NHL games after returning from his injury (2-17 and 2-19). His next NHL game was 3-29 as a Duck.

Here's his possession stats with Anaheim:

CF% = 39.4, FF% = 39.5, OZ starts = 54.1%. and E+/- (exp goal diff) = -4.8.​

Stats are much worse looking than that eye-test.

Maybe having a whole summer off will help him and his confidence.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

On top of that usually when a team trades a player they bad mouth them naturally (look at some of the Lindholm comments on here lol). Boston fans were coming in here non-stop saying when he's healthy he's a super solid #4 with upside for more.

Vaaks was only looking good for a small stretch of games in 2022 before he got rocked in early Feb. I believe it was only 13 games.



2022 was the first time he notched over 9 NHL games played, his D+5 season. Maybe Vaaks has some super fans to stand behind him being "a super solid #4 with upside for more"?

I didn't see that super solid #4 last year with us and he was healthy. I love his gap control, but that's all I got. If he needs a better team around him to produce better on the ice, then he's not a solid #4.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Hopefully. Guhle looked great too for a spell until he got rocked and injured. I know Vaaks has had a concussion issue before. He had one in Oct 2018 and got rocked hard in early Feb 2022. He had a very good stretched in the NHL before being leveled in Feb 2022. He played only two NHL games after returning from his injury (2-17 and 2-19). His next NHL game was 3-29 as a Duck.

Here's his possession stats with Anaheim:

CF% = 39.4, FF% = 39.5, OZ starts = 54.1%. and E+/- (exp goal diff) = -4.8.​

Stats are much worse looking than that eye-test.

Maybe having a whole summer off will help him and his confidence.

I didn't notice a lack of confidence. I thought he looked fine.

 

[ADHB]

I don't remember Guhle ever looking good at any point unless it was just for a random shift here and there.