The Kids Are Out There – 2018 NHL Entry Draft

Note: This article has now been updated as of February 2022.

I’ve been fielding some questions on twitter on who is coming in for this season in terms of new prospects to the AHL. To be honest it’s a pretty sparse class of debutantes this season – the 2019 draft saw the Ducks take four College committed prospects and the average amount of time that a player spends at College is three years. This is the first part of a series of articles covering the Ducks past four drafts – starting with the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

I get that it can be very hard and confusing to keep track of all the players selected in the draft year on year as well as knowing which league has what arrangement with the NHL/AHL so that you can see these kids plays and see them play now, so I am going to break it down draft by draft dating back to 2018 and give an update on where each selection is now and how far away they are.

2018 – NHL Entry Draft

We saw Lundestrom spend some stints with the Gulls but essentially he made the jump to the NHL right after his draft. His scouting report never really pinned him as amounting to much more than a two way forward with potential top six upside. This past year saw him spend the entire season with the Ducks – contributing 9 points in 41 games and next year the Ducks are hoping he continues to develop “ahead of schedule” as Eakins put it and perhaps set new career highs on the scoresheet.

Update: This 2021-2022 season has been a breakout party for Lundestrom who has 20 points in 48 games as of February 2022. He has already surpassed his career totals for goals, assists and points while cementing himself as a reliable third line-center. Dallas Eakins has been deploying him almost exclusively in a shutdown center role which the on-ice analytics do not always agree with but this is no fault of Lundestrom, more a game situations coaching decision. With all of that said, Lundestrom has more than met expectations set for him with his first round selection and should factor in the Ducks long-term plans as a reliable defensive center at the very least.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Already Arrived

For further proof of how well Lundestrom has done since his draft year, BO Groulx – taken the round after him in the same draft – only made his AHL debut last season. The son of Syracuse Crunch Coach Benoit Groulx, he made a big splash in his first pro season, looking like he had been a part of the Gulls fixture for a lot longer than just one season as he comfortably settled in an established himself in an important role on the squad. He looked the most NHL ready of all the prospects not named Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale last season and I would not be surprised if he was a very late cut from training camp this upcoming season.

Update: It has been an up and down year for Groulx. As predicted above, he made the Ducks out of training camp but struggled with translating his game to the NHL pace of play while also being saddled with some less than offensively gifted line-mates on the fourth line. After languishing and becoming a consistent healthy scratch he was sent back to San Diego, putting together three points in 18 games during his time with the Ducks. Then injuries and COVID breakout’s saw him bounce back and forth between Anaheim and San Diego without allowing him time to settle in any one place. Only a consistent span of action with the Gulls over the last two weeks have allowed us to see the BO Groulx of old and his numbers are responding – he has five points in his last seven games to take his season total to ten through 19 outings. With Lundestrom seemingly locking up the third line center spot long-term Groulx will need to focus more on his already well-honed defensive game to show the Ducks that he is the reliable and effective fourth line center that they have been missing since Nate Thompson. Ofcourse he has some stiff competition from Sam Carrick – who has emerged to take the role this season and doesn’t appear to be giving it up anytime soon.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Already Arrived

Selected with New Jerseys third round pick acquired in the Vatanen/Henrique deal, it looks as though McLaughlin is going back for his final year of College (confirmed by Eric Stephens here) which – as someone pointed out to me on Twitter – is probably a good thing given his Elite Prospects profile has him at 170lbs. I am not worried about him pulling a Justin Schultz and jumping ship in the offseason via the oft lamented NCAA/NHL loophole although this article details how close he is to his family and step-brother Jake Bischoff being a Golden Knight might complicate things…That minor concern aside – McLaughlin enters his final year at College with 25 goals. 47 assists and 72 points in 103 games over his three year schooling thus far. Roughly 0.7 points per game and translating to 19 points over an 82 game NHL season according to Dobbers NHLe Calculator. His initial draft profiles compared him to Anze Kopitar in style – playing a tenacious fore-checking game whilst also being a force on the defensive side of the puck. The closest comparable I can think of that went the College route is possibly Blake Wheeler. Another Blake, and another Golden Gopher – although Wheeler did not stay for his final year. Wheeler had 42 goals, 54 assists and 96 points in 127 games over three seasons at the University of Minnesota – 0.76 points per game. McLauglin was never projected to be a top six forward but if he can use his final year to bulk up and sure up the scoring consistency in his game – he should burst onto the scene in San Diego at the end of this final NCAA season.

Update: McLaughlin has had a great senior year and was a point per game player for the first half of it. He has since dropped back the scoring pace slightly, currently second on the Golden Gophers with 25 points in 28 games but as mentioned by Scott Wheeler here, he has worked on correcting the one main knock on his game – of creating his own offense and has been in the thick of things all season for the University of Minnesota. I for one am very excited about what he can bring to the Gulls once he signs at the conclusion of this season.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

End Of This Season

Quietly making waves in Europe ever since his draft year, after a semi rough start in his home Czech league system – Dostal grabbed an opportunity with Ilves in Finland and never looked back. The Dostal show finally made its way to North America and he made his debut with the Gulls this past pandemic season. I’ll try not repeat all that I said here – but in summary, he started with a hiss and a roar, stringing together five straight wins before going ice cold and losing the net to Eriksson Ek. Discovering his game again in the final stretch he saved the best until last as he put on an inhuman performance in what would be the Gulls final game of the season, doing all that he could to keep his team in the postseason. With Ryan Miller retired and Anthony Stolarz promoted to full time backup for the Ducks, Dostal is now the undisputed number one for the Gulls and next to for a call up should Gibson or Stolarz go down with injury.

Update: As the Ducks third string goaltender Dostal has – as predicted – spent time between Anaheim and San Diego this season. Most importantly he made his NHL debut and earned a win in a 33 save effort that proved to be the most by a Ducks goaltender in their debut. Much like Groulx – bouncing between the two squads has not been the best for his development but he appears to have settled in San Diego once again, helping the Gulls break a six game losing streak while turning aside all shots faced in relief of Eriksson Ek when he was pulled the night after. Size and stopping shots through traffic will always be a weakness for him at the upper levels but he also proved that he is a guaranteed win in the shoot-out. Here is hoping he is able to further settle in with the Gulls and take them on a post-season run.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Already Arrived

Perbix and McLaughlin are high school friends – having both grown up in Elk River, Minnesota, so it is kind of neat they were taken in the same draft (although it isn’t the first time the Ducks have done that). Perbix is described as a very hard working forward with a “pass first” tendency which is reflected in the majority of his points being assists. His vision on ice lends well to his play-making ability but consistency is an on-going issue and reports read that he seems to look to force the play too often. He was a late birthday for the 2018 draft and is thus a year younger than his other Ducks draft selections as well as a year behind McLaughlin at College. Entering his Junior year he is considered to be relied upon as an experienced scoring forward for the Gophers squad.

Update: As of February 2022 Perbix has 9 points in 27 games for the Golden Gophers, on pace to surpass his previous years totals but not really good enough to earn him an entry level deal at this point. If we do see him on the Gulls, it will likely be at the conclusion of his Senior year next season and on a PTO/AHL deal.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

End Of Next Year

Selected as an over-ager in the fifth round, Durny has not had the best of starts to his professional career. A victim of the Ducks lack of an ECHL affiliate meant he bounced around before eventually getting consistent playing time with the unaffiliated Norfolk Admirals in 2019-2020, ending the year with a horrific 3-10-0-0 record, 4.02GAA and .881 SV% . After signing an entry level deal he started and ended last season with the Ducks new official ECHL affiliate – Tulsa Oilers – going 14-7-4 with a 2.31 GAA and .916 SV%, setting ECHL career highs in all categories. He finished 13th overall in Save Percentage and 7th in Goals Against Average for the league. This season he will look to regain the number one net from veteran Devin Williams in Tulsa while also hoping to see some time in San Diego should Dostal be recalled.

Update: Durny has had a disastrous year. He started the season in Anaheim, rehabbing an injury sustained in training camp, before eventually being sent to Tulsa. He appeared to suffer another injury there after just one game of action and has spent the rest of the season on the shelf. The Gulls made the very rare move of giving an official injury update this last week to state he is out for the rest of the season with a groin injury. The injury could not have come at a worst time for Durny as he would have been given ample opportunity to prove himself with the Gulls this season when both Lukas Dostal and Eriksson Ek were unavailable but the net was instead briefly given to the unsigned Francis Marotte. This is the final year of his ELC and it will be interesting to see whether the Ducks qualify him and keep him in the fold or cut him loose.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Still Developing

It is way too easy to forget that Drew was a sixth round pick. I do remember his selection as a project pick with potential and his story is that of a player that was passed over numerous times before earning his way into NHL Draft selection. The article linked above mentions he played forward at times in Junior and this past season we saw how much it actually benefits his game as he uses his big frame to protect the puck, win board battles on the forecheck and get to the dirty areas in front of the net. Drew went back for one more season as an overager in the Q before joining the Gulls in 2019-2020 with a quick five game stint in Tulsa. With the Pandemic leaving game time up in the air he started last season on loan to HC Banska Bystrica in Slovakia (with Roman Durny) where he totaled 16 points in 20 games and an insane 111 penalty minutes. Once the AHL season got underway he found himself among a very crowded core of defenders and was forced to play at forward to get minutes. Proving to be a force up front with his deceptive release he set career highs in goals, assists and points ending the year with 12 points in 33 games. With the departures of Kanzig and Devane, Drew seemingly fills the team tough-guy role while continuing to hone his new found scoring touch. Whether or not the switch to forward is a permanent career move is an intriguing question that will be answered come training camp.

Update: As training camp rosters were released it was made official that the Ducks had switched Drew to forward. He has since spent the majority of the season on the wing with various different line-mates as well as spending time on the Power Play as the bumper or sometimes net-front presence. When the Ducks and Gulls were hit hard with injuries on their blue-line he was asked to revert back to playing defense briefly but he is now once again among the forwards, along with two other natural defenders in Nik Brouillard and now Kodie Curran. He has a career high 15 points through 35 games this season and is on pace to finish the year as a 30 point plus player while consistently being one of the Gulls more gritty and hard-working forwards. His foot-speed still hurts him but his shot more than makes up for it, if he can be used in the right way he is an effective goal-scorer. Not bad for a sixth round pick.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Already Arrived

Conclusion

It has been over three years since this draft took place so players selected should – on average – be starting to make a push for the NHL roster or be less than a year away. We have seen ahead-of-schedule results from Isac Lundestrom and we can see BO Groulx is likely to challenge for NHL time this year as well as a goalie-of-the-future looks from Lukas Dostal. However – the real question is the arrival of Blake McLaughlin (who many at the time of his selection, lauded the pick as a hidden gem) and when his real impact will be. Perbix was very young for his initial selection but his development hasn’t looked great so far and despite a rough start – Durny seems to have really turned it around, while Drew is a great example of later-round hidden find.

Update: It has now been almost four years since this draft and revisiting this article has shown me two things.

1. This wasn’t one of the Ducks better drafts but results are showing it also by far is no-where near one of their worst. They have some good pieces here and at best come out of it with two good bottom six centers and a starting goaltender for a total of three solid NHL players. Again, it all hinges on how McLaughlin pans out – as of now most pundits have him pegged as a very good AHLer but not quite good enough for the NHL.
2. The disappointing thing is when they missed, they missed hard. Durny and Perbix look like they will go the way of the Deven Siferoffs and Julius Nattinens of Ducks draft selections.