Potential Undrafted Free Agents

San Diego, California. Where has the time gone? It is somehow already September and the Anaheim Ducks are heading to San Jose to take part in the 2022 Rookie Faceoff in less than a week with a large contingent of San Diego Gulls on board.. There they will play the Sharks, Coyotes and Golden Knights from Friday the 16th of September through to Monday the 19th. Much like years past one can assume they will send a team consisting of a majority of their more recent draft picks with a spattering of some already blooded by the pro game. Excitement for most comes in the form of seeing the usual suspects as well as a first look at the recently selected draft selections in a Anaheim Ducks uniform but for me the most intriguing are always those asked to attend and play as a tryout. The “space fillers”. Last years camp and tournament saw a large number of these players due to the Anaheim Ducks drafting so many players bound for College and some of them ended up seeing consistent time with the San Diego Gulls last year in the form of Vincent Marleau and Nathan Larose. Who will we see this season? I honestly have no idea but if I could try to predict? If I could take a look at who has attended in the past and how they were possibly connected? Let’s see what we can come up with.

Current connections:

This one is harder to predict this year – what with Bouchard and his staff being let go after just the one season with the San Diego Gulls. Normally I’d take a look over the Acadie Bathurst roster and pick some names but somehow I don”t think we will be seeing any Bathurst players this year. What of Somner? He will likely still have strong San Jose ties – maybe a Jack McGrew or Zach Gallant, or even Mark Alt or Jayden Halbgewachs. But I am getting way off track here – those names are more likely to be PTOs come the start of the season. This is the rookie camp – players are usually 20 or younger. So given I don’t know much about where Somner would have Junior connections let’s move on to the next category.

Scouted teams:

We have seen examples of this with the Ducks in the form of Max Golod (who spent some time last year with the San Diego Gulls) signing a deal after he by association was scouted as a team mate of Jamie Drysdale. True it doesn’t happen all that often but you have to admit it is convenient if you were to discover a diamond in the rough because he played on the same team as an eventual draft selection. Following the Ducks current draft selections and the teams they play for there are always certain names that catch your attention. For me last year that was the team-mate of Sean Tschigerl on the Calgary Hitmen – Riley Fiddler-Schultz. He has been passed over in two drafts now and last year lead the Hitmen in scoring with 69 (NICE) points in 65 games. He is also the son of Vernon Fiddler so he does have some NHL pedigree. He is set to go back to the Hitmen for one last over-age season but I think he would be someone worth giving a look. Or how about Logan Morrison? He lead the Hamilton Bulldogs in scoring with 100 points in 60 games and finished sixth overall in the OHL. Or similarly Avery Hayes (79 points in 66 games) – who at 19 might be too young for this years squad but could still attend camp and the tournament much like Miguel Tourigny did last year. He and the aforementioned Morrison were team-mates and saw plenty of ice with Mason McTavish last season once he joined the Bulldogs via trade.

Moving on from the OHL but staying on the East Coast the Ducks have an almost unhealthy infatuation with the Q and there are a few names at the top of last years league scoring that do not appear to have team commitments as yet – Josh Lawrence is one of them. The right shooting forward finished sixth overall in scoring with 101 points in 68 games as 19/20 year old.

On the defensive side of things Kale McCallum exploded for 69 points in 68 games after having just 24 points in his previous 80 games. The 20 year old 5’11” left shooting defender finished third in scoring from the blue line in the Q.

As for this years Ducks selections and their possible team-mates – Pavel Mintyukov looked all the much better because he was on a bad team and boy was he ever. He lead the team in scoring as a defender and was the only one remotely close to being a point per game. That said – Id keep an eye on Calem Mangone for the 2023 draft. The Ducks did well to snap up both Tristan Luneau and Noah Warren on the Olympiques as most of the other stat leaders on the team were either in their final year of Junior or already existing draft selections; only Cole Cormier maybe stands out as a 20 year old undersized forward possibly worth giving a shot (59 points in 67 games) and possibly Olivier Boutin – the 19 year old left shot defenceman only had 36 points in 62 games but his numbers have been following an upward trajectory. One of last years third round selections – Tyson Hinds Sherbrooke Phoenix saw their leading scorer Josh Roy selected by the Canadiens in the fifth round after going undrafted the year before. Their second leading scorer Xavier Parent looks to be linked to the Utica Comets/New Jersey Devils but as yet their third leading scorer Julien Anctil does not appear to have a commitment for this season. The 21 year old 6’1″ right shooting center had 68 points in 67 games.

Finally heading West – although Conor Hvidston was selected by the Ducks as their seventh leading scorer, the other names (and the numbers attached to them) that are not already draft selections of other NHL teams do not really stand out to me on his Swift Current Broncos. Among the WHL – the Ducks took the second leading scorer in his final year of draft eligibility in Ben King but there are still some intriguing scorers near the top of the list not yet linked to a professional outfit. Kyle Crnkovic finished the year with 94 points in 68 games as a 19/20 year old – he looks to have been passed over due to his size (5’7″ – 165lbs) but he could be worth a look. He has been an over point per game player in the notoriously lower scoring of the CHL leagues (at least compared to the Q) for the past three seasons. The left shooting winger is expected to join the Seattle Thunderbirds this season after spending the last four with the Saskatoon Blades.

How about Olen Zelweggers powerhouse Everett Silvertips? Captain Jackson Berezowski had 79 points in 62 games – good for 15th overall in the WHL. The 20 year old 5’9″ right shooting forward finished second on the team in scoring behind Alex Swetlikoff who appears to have signed with Henderson. Meanwhile Connor McClennon was on Gage Alexanders Winnipeg Ice the last three seasons and has been an over point per game player in each one. He finished the year with 81 points in 62 games – 12th in the league.

Finally I can’t leave the WHL without doing a quick glance at the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Ducks were reported to have heavy scouting presence at their games last season – leading to speculation that they were potentially targeting Kevin Korchinski with their tenth overall selection. They missed out on Korchinski as the Blackhawks traded up to get him and the top eight of the Thunderbirds scoring are all recent or previous draft selection but perhaps Jeremy Hanzel is worth a look. The 19 year old 6’1″left shooting defender had 33 points in 63 games and is described has having a great first pass. Also shout out to Eric Van Impe – son of former Mighty Duck Darren Van Impe and keep an eye on Jarome Iginlas son Tij Iginla for the 2024 draft – kid had 1 point in 3 games as a 16 year old on the Thunderbirds last season. But sticking with the WHL…

Recent international showing

Finally – given the Ducks went out and signed the Slovakian winger Pavel Regenda (who is expected to be with the San Diego Gulls this season) seemingly based off of his play at the World Championships and previously the Olympics. Following that same trend and looking at players on a team that surprised on the world stage recently – the Czechia U20 team turned some heads at the most recent World Juniors most thanks in part due to their goaltender Tomas Suchanek as well as some strong play from undrafted players such as Michal Gut (who also played alongside Olen Zellweger on the Silvertips last season) and Adam Mechura who is set to join Suchanek on the Tri City Americans this season in the W. I am not entirely sure why Gut did not get selected at least as a late round pick in this most recent draft but Mechura and Suchanek are at least worth keeping an eye on and if the Ducks are willing to bring over Europeans based on proven International play – the Czechia World Juniors team is a good place to start.

Conclusion

I realize I was just a tiny bit late in posting this and the Ducks have just today posted the Rookie tournament rosters – but I had to get this up anyway. Ill work on who the ACTUAL invites are now. Needless to say I missed on every single one of these.