The Kids Are Out There Part 3- 2020 NHL Entry Draft

Note: This original article has been updated as of 20th of April 2022

This is part three of a multi-part series exploring the Ducks four most recent NHL entry drafts to give an overall view of how far away certain prospects are and when we might expect to see them with the Gulls/Ducks.

Part 1 featuring the 2018 draft is here.

Part 2 featuring the 2019 draft is here.

This entry looks at the 2020 draft, or the “Pandemic Draft”. Perhaps the most interesting and intriguing draft in history given the obstacles and adversity that teams faced in scouting their potential selections. Leagues all over the globe either faced shortened seasons or none at all in the lead up to this draft causing a lot of headaches for scouting departments and leading most to base their selections based off of previous seasons or much much smaller sample sizes. Never the less, the Ducks were in the lottery having finished fifth to last in the league at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 season and (as is the norm) fell back from that position to sixth overall. Their rivals up the freeway moved up from fourth into the second overall selection while the controversial outlier New York Rangers lucked into the first overall pick. Despite Anaheim being unlucky with the balls once again, initial findings from this draft are showing they did very well with their selections – at least through the first few rounds.

2020 – NHL Entry Draft

At the time of his selection it would be safe to say that much of Duck fandom were somewhat skeptical. After all, this draft was noted to be heavy on talented forwards – something the Ducks sorely needed – so why were they taking a defensemen with their highest selection? Needless to say Drysdale has proved his selection is looking like a very smart one for the Ducks. Seeing NHL time in his first post-draft season while also looking like a number one defender on the Gulls at just 18 years old. His first taste of the NHL was a little bit of baptism in fire and his underlying numbers suffered for it but this year you could tell he was learning from mistakes while still developing – earning top pairing minutes alongside the now departed stalwart Hampus Lindholm. He hit some road-bumps this year and it won’t be as plain sailing for the next couple of years to come as the Ducks hit the rebuild from the bottom up but there is hope in the strong relationship that he and Trevor Zegras have developed as the Ducks next franchise cornerstones.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Already Arrived

Selected using the first round pick acquired from Boston in the Ondrej Kase trade, Perreault is already proving to be a massive steal from the late first round. As a consequence of the OHL league shutdown Perreault was able to start his pro career early, joining the Gulls last season and putting up 17 points in 27 games. This season he was part of a small group of players able to play in the AHL again and initially exploded out of the gates, scoring highlight reel goals in consecutive weeks and placing himself among the AHL’s elite forwards. At the midway mark of the season he and Brayden Tracey were battling for the Gulls scoring lead but as the season wore on and physical grind took its toll both he and Tracey had their strong play disrupted by injuries and poor team play stretches. Back to back late season injuries have really put a damper on what was looking to be a well-ahead of schedule breakout year for the young Perreault but he is back in the line-up now for the Playoff drive and hopefully will return to form on a reunited top-line once BO Groulx returns from injury. He is the one player I have likely written the most about this season in my post game notes as one that stands out game to game either for his brilliance or petulance. Having received one NHL game audition I would like to see how he fares on a longer stint to see whether it is the sub-par AHL officiating that brings this negative element of his game out, or if it is a more underlying deeper problem. It goes without saying that you can pretty much guarantee he will see more NHL games next season – perhaps on the wing of Trevor Zegras.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Already Arrived

Taken one selection after the Kings nabbed the high-on-my-wishlist Helge Grans, Colangelo is one recent selection I often forget about too easily. That is not said as a slight or meant as any form of negative criticism, my memory just always seems to blank on him. At the time of his selection I wrote that he provided much-needed depth on the right side and was the second straight selection for the Ducks in that most dire area of need. Regarded as an all-rounder power forward he capped off his final USHL campaign with 58 points in 44 games, third overall in the league.

Colangelo turned around a so-so pandemic shortened freshman year (3 assists in 8 games) with a barn-storming 27 points in 29 games sophomore campaign for the Northeastern Huskies this year, good for second on the team in scoring. He also finished 54th overall in the NCAA in points per game and second by Ducks draft picks in the college system (newly signed Josh Lopina finished 42nd with an even 27 points in 27 games).

I haven’t seen enough of him to say what kind of style or comparable he reminds me of but I did briefly tune in to a couple of the Huskies games and managed to catch a few highlights of his goals – from what I did see I got the sense he is a no-nonsense forward, not afraid to use his size to get to the dirty areas or a scoring position. The very early comparisons to Blake Wheeler or a less dynamic Auston Matthews still seem quite lofty but given his strong results this past season – he is definitely one to watch.

The general rule with College kids is they stay in school at least until their Junior year so we likely won’t be seeing him on the Gulls until at least 2023 but it is likely he takes on a more prominent role with the Huskies next season and hopefully spend some more time on a line with 2022 mid-to-late-first-round ranked prospect Jack Hughes (not that one, a different one).

Estimated Date of Arrival:

2023

Taken after absolutely destroying the USHS Prep High School League, his 46 points in 28 games were taken with the added addendum that they were accumulated against lesser competition. Anaheim had never drafted from a High School league at this level of selection before so at the time of his selection Moore was regarded as a project pick – much like Jackson LaCombe a year prior. Since the draft he has spent one year in the USHL with the Chicago Steel – accumulating 24 points in 45 games in a year that the league saw a sudden influx of College players unable to compete in the shutdown NCAA. Last year he finished 97th overall in league scoring, tied for 14th among defenders and 9th on the Steel. This season in his Freshman year at Harvard he finished with 15 points in 35 games and was named to the Team USA World Junior preliminary roster. Moore has shown great development so far and in an added benefit for the Ducks has been paired with 2019 pick Henry Thrun and it looks to spend next season paired with the AHCA second team All-American. Given this was only his freshman year we likely wont be seeing him until 2024.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

2024

I have gotten into trouble on Twitter before for not really seeing Nickl in the Ducks immediate depth chart plans but if you look at his numbers over the two years could you blame me? Selected in the fourth round using the pick acquired from Philadelphia to rent Derek Grant for the 2019-2020 playoffs, Nickl was touted as one of the better import defenders in the Q and in the offense-first style that the league is known for he thrived – putting up 39 points in 58 games. One pre-draft piece on him lauded his ability to play both a good offensive and defensive game but also cautioned his sometimes suspect decision making ability as well as noting he needed to fill out his lanky 6’3″ frame. While last year should have been one to remember it was one he would likely want to forget as he missed out on representing Austria at the World Juniors due to testing positive for Covid19, speaking of which – it is also the reason he was unable to return to play for the Voltigeurs this season. With Canada’s borders closed he was forced to find playing time in Europe, finding a home with AIK where he finished the season with 10 points in 38 games. The article I linked above reads very similar to what I have seen of recent 2021 selection Tyson Hinds so again, it feels like the Ducks are following a pattern or blue print for the type of Defenders they are taking each year. Nickl was selected as an over-ager so can either stay in Europe next year, attempt to come back to the CHL as an overager or sign an entry level deal and start his professional career in North America, likely with the Gulls or Tulsa. At this point – I am really not sure how he fits into the Ducks now extremely deep defensive pool.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

Next Year Maybe?

Given the honor of being the first Russian born skater to be selected by the Ducks since 2001 (Shout out to Igor Bobkov selected in 2009) Galimov was already 21 at the time of his selection, making him a late-blooming double over-ager. He had won rookie of the year in the KHL that year and has followed that up with a 16 points in 41 game campaign last season while currently having a slightly better – albeit injury plagued – 22 points in 47 game follow up campaign this year. At the time of his selection he had two years left on his KHL deal and has since extended that by another year so if we are ever going to see him on this side of the ocean it won’t be until at least the 2024-2025 season. At this point Galimov feels like a distant dream – one that pops up on your twitter feed every now and then with a slick highlight reel goal that has quickly earned him the nickname “Gifimov” among Duck fans. Will we ever see him suit up for the Ducks or Gulls? It is hard to say. Washington – the current premier destination for Russian born players – patiently waited three years for Evgeni Kuznetzov to come across after drafting him in 2010. Either way, given the offensive prowess and skill he has shown in the KHL, Galimov could be worth waiting for.

Update: Given the whole Putin being genocidal maniac situation – maybe we see him sooner? Who knows.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

2024

Taking another over-ager with their next selection the Ducks took two-way Swedish Center Albin Sundsvik in the sixth round. The Ducks aren’t hurting for Centers and could afford to take a flyer on a player that at the time read like a reincarnated Sammy Pahlsson. With Isac Lundestrom already showing signs of developing into a very good two-way pivot and Jack Badini Josh Lopina developing in a similar role with the Gulls there isn’t really any hurry for Sundsvik to come across. Since the draft he has seen career highs in goals, assists and points in the SHL finishing with 14 points in 45 games while also representing Sweden in the Under 20s last year. This season he took a step back, finishing with just 9 points in 47 games. It is looking likely he stays in Europe a least for the foreseeable future.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

2023

With their last selection in the 2020 draft the Ducks took Ethan Bowen from the BCHL, a league that is not normally known for producing eventual NHL players but has had its moments. At the time of his selection Bowen was committed to attending the University of North Dakota starting this season but because the pandemic wiped out a lot of the NCAA schedule last season, Colleges have granted committed players an extra year of eligibility – as well as allowing current players to extend their tenure in order to get more development time and graduate. Essentially there wasn’t enough room on the North Dakota squad so Bowen opted to stay another year in his home town of Chilliwack. In a year broken up by various injury concerns Bowen managed to finish with a respectable 43 points in 39 games. During the year he announced he would be attending the University of Vermont – a program playing out of the NCAA Division 1 that has reached the Frozen Four just twice in its existence, most recently in 2009. It has produced 18 NHL players including some big names in the 90s (Marty St. Louis, Tim Thomas and John LeClair) but the only recent name of note is Viktor Stalberg and their roster last season contained no NHL draft selections. Here is hoping Bowen takes the opportunity and has a big year to further show how vastly under the radar the BCHL is – Josh Manson is an example of how under scouted the league is.

Estimated Date of Arrival:

2025

Conclusion

My notes at the time of this draft were full of optimism but already the 2021 draft is looking like one of the best the Ducks have had in a long time. I dont think it is controversial to say that 2021 draft will far outshine this 2020 draft with what looks like 3-4 high quality NHL players selected. That said, as I stated at the very start – this was the Pandemic draft – one that offered obstacles in assessment and it will be very interesting to see just how many hits and misses there will be across the league. Jamie Drysdale and Jacob Perreault are already proving to be very good selections and the high-scoring defensemen selection of Ian Moore follows the very same recipe of Jackson LaCombe the year before.

Now completely two years removed from this draft and it is becoming clearer that the Ducks atypically hit with their higher selections but signs are starting to show that they missed with each lower selection there-after. The cut-off seems to be Ian Moore – who has been a pleasant surprise and worth the risk at his project-picketed selection. Nickl is a maybe at this point but everybody after that is either uncommitted to North America (Galimov), not meeting expectations or flat out regressing. Only Bowen might still be one to watch for – the real test will be how he fares in the NCAA.