Prospect Info: 2023 Ducks Prospect Rankings #11

[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 eleventh poll I am voting for Drew Helleson.

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

2023 Ducks Prospect Rankings:

1. C - Leo Carlsson (2023 draftee)
2. D - Pavel Mintyukov (no change)
3. D - Olen Zellweger (no change)
4. G - Lukas Dostal (no change)
5. D - Tristan Luneau (+9)
6. D - Jackson LaCombe (+4)
7. D - Tyson Hinds (+13)
8. C - Nathan Gaucher (-1)
9. RW - Sasha Pastujov (no change)
10. LW - Nico Myatovic (2023 draftee)

Our graduates and departures are:

Mason McTavish
Urho Vaakanainen
Henry Thrun
Simon Benoit
Axel Andersson
Sean Tschigerl
Hunter Drew
Thimo Nickl
Olle Eriksson Ek
Bryce Kindopp
Max Golod
Ethan Bowen​

Click to read more...

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Nesterenko!

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Was between perreault and helleson…. Went Perreault…. But mostly just wishful thinking he can still be a top 6 guy

 

[Duck Off]

Helleson, again

 

[Rasp]

Hvidston has shown a lot of improvement which puts him over everyone else left

 

[cheesymc]

Beevis’ future Butthead (Helleson) in the lead over Perreault?

I’d pick Hvid, Moore, and Nester over Butthead… probably Clara and Warren too…

 

[GunnarStahl]

Oh boy, Warren > Hvidston > Helleson > Moore > Nesterenko? Even then it feels wild leaving so many good prospects outside of the top 15.

 

[Kalv]

This is my 4th Hvidston vote.
From Defend the Nest

 

[GermanRocket7]

Going Hvidston again here. He's criminally underrated and I'm pretty sure he'll have an NHL career of 500+ games down the road, which is probably more than 99% of fifth-round picks can say.

 

[Kalv]

Going Hvidston again here. He's criminally underrated and I'm pretty sure he'll have an NHL career of 500+ games down the road, which is probably more than 99% of fifth-round picks can say.

I remember having a similar feeling about Terry after his D+1. Hvidston does not have as high of a ceiling but they have a lot of similarities and I think Hvid can definitely become a solid Mid-6 wing. Still a long road ahead but everything's there.

 

[Gliff]

Really surprised Myatovic went before Hvidston. They play in the same league and Hvidston was better in pretty much every way. Only 3 months age gap.

 

[Arthuros]

Considering the first few pages of Myatovic's draft page were confusion and doubt...

Well, anyway. Hvidston. Again.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Really surprised Myatovic went before Hvidston. They play in the same league and Hvidston was better in pretty much every way. Only 3 months age gap.

Myatovic has some factors that Hvidston didn't:

• What people know about Myatovic
  • A 2nd round pick this year
  • A 30-goal scorer
  • Asst GM calling Myatovic an "elite support player" for top-6 line
  • His team won the WHL championship

• What most people know about Hvidston:
  • A 5th round pick from 2022

If people don't do deep dives, it's easy to see how Myatovic goes before Hvidston, especially looking at where each prospect was drafted.

Spoiler: Comparing Hvidston with Myatovic surface dive

Hvidston	vs	Myatovic
Player	Age	Season	League	Games	G	A	Pts	PPG		+/-
Hvidston	16	D-1	SMAAHL	7​	6​	6​	12​	1.71​		n/a
	17	D+0	WHL	58​	13​	19​	32​	0.55​		-5​
	18	D+1	WHL	59​	21​	44​	65​	1.10​		15​
Myatovic	17	D-1	WHL	67​	4​	24​	28​	0.42​		11​
	18	D+0	WHL	68​	30​	30​	60​	0.88​		43​

From NHL.com:

To be eligible, players must be 18 years old by Sept. 15 and under 20 years old by Dec. 31 in the draft year.​

Hvidston is a Sept 11th birth. If Hvidston was born five days later, then he would be in the 2023 draft instead of the 2022 draft. I added the age in the column to make it easier to compare between the two so that, in the words of Bonnie Raitt, "Let's give 'em something to talk about".

 

[GermanRocket7]

I would like to add that Hvidston's Swift Current Broncos were a pretty meh team this year and Hvidston had to do the heavy lifting against other teams' top lines as well, facing off against (amongst others) Connor Bedard multiple times in the season and actually scoring some nice goals while doing so. Myatovic, on the other hand, played on a very stacked team.

I assume it's safe to say that Hvidston would have been a late first or at least early second round pick this year, if he had been born a few days later. He definitely would have been in the range of Myatovic, probably earlier than him.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

After Hvidston I don't know who I'm voting for next lol.

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

Moore again. Might be a minute before he's selected.

Warren seems to be getting very little love in these polls. He's gonna rocket up this list if he can ever stay healthy for a full season.

 

[FiveHoleTickler]

Moore again. Might be a minute before he's selected.

Warren seems to be getting very little love in these polls. He's gonna rocket up this list if he can ever stay healthy for a full season.

Warren would've been my choice here if not for all the injures. Just really makes it difficult to imagine how he turns out at this point.

 

[Arthuros]

Helleson > Nesterenko > Warren > Regenda > Perreault > Tracey > Moore, methinks.

 

[Hey234]

Warren would've been my choice here if not for all the injures. Just really makes it difficult to imagine how he turns out at this point.

Warren has some of the highest upside and would be my choice if not for the injuries. If he stays healthy, he could break top 10 in rankings.

Of who's left though, only Helleson, Nesterenko, and Regenda have some NHL experience and the first two didn't look too out of place. Nesterenko and Regenda are hard to read for upside and why I rank them a bit lower than Helleson. Helleson could possibly be an NHL defenseman as soon as next season. He might be a top 4 one day or only be a 6/7 but the likelihood of being an actual player should push someone higher.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Warren would've been my choice here if not for all the injures. Just really makes it difficult to imagine how he turns out at this point.

I was high on RD Andersson, but him being made out of glass for the past two seasons had the org lose favor in him so much that he's longer with the org. Andersson was better at defense than Helleson. Sometimes the best ability is availability. So Warren drops in this year's ranking, imo. Good thing Warren is a long term project.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Moore again. Might be a minute before he's selected.

Warren seems to be getting very little love in these polls. He's gonna rocket up this list if he can ever stay healthy for a full season.

I like Moore's potential. His speed was on display at the Dev camp at 6'3. Also, he earned being a captain for his team next year. Moore's defense seemed to be close to Thrun, but his offense is still steps behind. Not bad for a sophomore at college. Next year, he'll be a top pairing D.