Prospect Info: With the 107th overall pick in the 2022 draft, the Ducks select Ben King

[Ducks DVM]

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[MMC]

Welcome to Anaheim Ben King!

 

[WhatTheDuck]

The Ducks are Ben King on this kid becoming a good one

 

[ADHB]

The Ducks are Ben King on this kid becoming a good one

And in return, he has told the organization to just “stand by me.”

 

[JabbaJabba]

The Ducks are Ben King on this kid becoming a good one

The first pick I am not that excited about. Seems like he has a lot of areas to improve.

 

[Static]

Has to really improve his skating to be a player, but Madden must think we can do that. Huge production in the WHL as an over-ager. I said it in the draft thread, but he's pretty much older pastujov.

 

[bsu]

Meh.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Possible he's in San Diego next year so might be another body for them.

 

[bsu]

 

[Terry Yake]

unimpressive

i'm sure he'll be a staple in SD for a while

 

[Static]

There is a lot of organizational value to having great AHL players as well. If anything he can be one of their top guys.

 

[Static]

There is a lot of organizational value to having great AHL players as well. If anything he can be one of their top guys.

To further this, we saw what it's like to not have any organizational depth as well. While he might not become a regular, having competent players with skill to pop in and out of the lineup is a sign of a well run franchise. We haven't had that for years.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Has to really improve his skating to be a player, but Madden must think we can do that. Huge production in the WHL as an over-ager. I said it in the draft thread, but he's pretty much older pastujov.

Is it really Madden though? B/c it doesn't feel like a Madden draft. Look at our 2021 draft class and compare it to this one. This draft feels awkward.

King was drafted for his size at 6'3 and 201 lbs and that he can come over to the AHL right away. According to his THW profile, King isn't consistently physical, which means that size isn't being put to good use, can't skate, and lacks creativity. I'm not impressed with a 20 year old dominating juniors. That said, he's good net front presence to score.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

There is a lot of organizational value to having great AHL players as well. If anything he can be one of their top guys.

I don't mind having a Ben King, but not in the 4th round. There probably was a chance he'd go undrafted. Our best player in San Diego last year was an undrafted F Alex Limoges.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Is it really Madden though? B/c it doesn't feel like a Madden draft. Look at our 2021 draft class and compare it to this one. This draft feels awkward.

King was drafted for his size at 6'3 and 201 lbs and that he can come over to the AHL right away. According to his THW profile, King isn't consistently physical, which means that size isn't being put to good use, can't skate, and lacks creativity. I'm not impressed with a 20 year old dominating juniors. That said, he's good net front presence to score.

In what way? They've always coveted big, mobile defensemen, I don't see much change at all.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

In what way? They've always coveted big, mobile defensemen, I don't see much change at all.

Yeah, you're not actually comparing last year's draft class with this year's draft class. We're in the Ben King thread, btw, to where you're missing the big picture for comparison.

We went back to a more balanced approach with our Rds 1 - 3 starting from 2019. The previous three seasons were forward heavy as we drafted only two defensemen in that time - and one of them transitioned to forward in Hunter Drew. (Mahura, rd 3 and Drew, Rd 6) In this draft, we swung for mostly defense in our first four picks in the top-53.

That balance approach made it predictable that a DFD would be selected in the 2nd round after picking an OFD in the first with Minty. The choices were Chesley and Warren. Selecting D Luneau is a head scratcher and made even more awkward by selecting King in the 4th.

As for drafting defensemen, under Murray, he didn't have a preference for size. It was talent first. Murray & Madden coveted talent first with defensemen. We had drafted Vatanen, Drysdale, and Zellweger under M&M.

The priority for this draft was size. It's Verbeek's imprint. Not saying it's terrible, but it's not the same.

 

[Static]

I don't mind having a Ben King, but not in the 4th round. There probably was a chance he'd go undrafted. Our best player in San Diego last year was an undrafted F Alex Limoges.

Teams have a good feeling on draft eligible prospect value league-wide. If we took him here it is likely other teams had their eyes on him as well.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Yeah, you're not actually comparing last year's draft class with this year's draft class. We're in the Ben King thread, btw, to where you're missing the big picture for comparison.

We went back to a more balanced approach with our Rds 1 - 3 starting from 2019. The previous three seasons were forward heavy as we drafted only two defensemen in that time - and one of them transitioned to forward in Hunter Drew. (Mahura, rd 3 and Drew, Rd 6) In this draft, we swung for mostly defense in our first four picks in the top-53.

That balance approach made it predictable that a DFD would be selected in the 2nd round after picking an OFD in the first with Minty. The choices were Chesley and Warren. Selecting D Luneau is a head scratcher and made even more awkward by selecting King in the 4th.

As for drafting defensemen, under Murray, he didn't have a preference for size. It was talent first. Murray & Madden coveted talent first with defensemen. We had drafted Vatanen, Drysdale, and Zellweger under M&M.

The priority for this draft was size. It's Verbeek's imprint. Not saying it's terrible, but it's not the same.

Well if Martin Madden had only been around a year then I'd only look at last year. The comment about this being the Ben King thread is even dumber when you're trying to only compare it to what they did last year. Double overager who's a big, right shooting center goes around pick 100 and you're sitting here being like "wow this is nothing like last year at all". Seriously. In this thread? My god man, pay attention.

They go by BPA, just like every other team, just like everyone on here claims to want until they see it actually happen. There's nothing about this year that's atypical from other years outside a Russian going high.

 

[Static]

31. Ben King, C, Red Deer-WHL
A name off the beaten trail to wrap up this piece is a player who scored 50 goals and 100 points in the WHL. King also has good size and plays the middle. When I watched him this season I liked the skill, the offensive sense and his ability to score from range. But he’s a third year eligible who doesn’t skate well and I don’t love his play away from the puck. Historically those types don’t translate to the pros so he didn’t even end up on my list, but I admit I liked him in instances and I could see him being a sleeper candidate.

Pronman rated king as the 31st highest upside in the draft, which seems shocking.

 

[mightyquack]

Reading a bit more about King and looking up stats, I don't think King is quite as bad a pick as being stated. He's played on some pretty bad teams. It's pretty wild he won more WHL games this season (45) just gone then his previous 3 seasons combined (37). Granted covid obivously impacted 20/21.

18/19 Swift Current (11-51-6)
19/20 Swift Current (3-10-3) and Red Deer (19-23-4)*
20/21 Red Deer (4-15-4)
21/22 Red Deer (45-19-4)

* Only played 16 games with Swift Current before being traded. Swift Current finished with a record of 10-48-5 and Red Deer finished with a record of 24-33-6.

King has pretty much always been among the top scorers of the team he's been on every season.
18/19 Swift Current - 4th in scoring (5 points off 1st with 20 games less played)
19/20 Red Deer - 3rd in scoring (13 points off 1st with 17 games less played)
20/21 Red Deer - 1st in scoring (2nd had 7 less points having played 2 games more)
21/22 Red Reed - 2nd in scoring (7 points off 1st with the same amount of games played).

Now I'm not saying King is going to be a surefire NHLer, but he has shown offensive production improvement every season in the WHL and at least decent scoring with some bad teams. Obivously his skating has to be worked on, but there might be some potential there, especially with the frame he has. Don't see anything wrong with having a punt on someone like that in the 4th round really.