The Newest Ducklings: Defenseman Keaton Thompson
By Sean
This is the third part of the series on the newest members of the Anaheim Ducks, the 2013 draftees. I’m going to start with their last pick and go from there. The previous part was on American winger Grant Besse. So, next up is American defenseman Keaton Thompson.
via hockeysfuture.com
The Anaheim Ducks selected defenseman Keaton Thompson from the United States National Team Development Program (USHL) in the third round (87th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. The 17-year-old is from Devils Lake, North Dakota and is listed at 6’1″-187 lbs. Ducks General Manager Bob Murray continued his trend of selecting american-born defenseman from the USNTDP with this selection of Thompson. Keaton appeared in the U18 World Junior Championship for USA and helped the team win a silver medal this past year. However, Keaton didn’t have exactly a good tournament finishing -2 with only 1 assist. He played in a total of 67 games this year and scored 4 goals and registered 18 assists for 22 points. However, in his 26 game USHL season, he only tallied 8 points and was a -2. He does not have a flashy game. He is a smaller stay-at-home defenseman and a solid skater. Next year, he will be attending the University of North Dakota and that’s a fairly good program.
via usantdp.com
Age: 17
Position: Defenseman
Shoots: Left
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 187 lbs.
Scouting Report:
"“There was a dropoff after the second round as far as our evaluation of players, but there are a number of guys on staff who had real passion for Keaton. He’s a very slick, mobile, puck-moving defenseman. He’s also one of the youngest players in this draft. Age-wise he made the draft by one day. So he’s still physically immature, even at 6-1, 187. You can see there is room for added muscle mass. He had a very good start this season and played well into mid-February. He had a bit of a setback with his confidence down the stretch in April, but we think it’s a little blip in his season and he’s going to a very good program at North Dakota.”– Martin Madden, Director of Amateur Scouting, Anaheim Ducks“Thompson plays a low-flash, low-risk style game. He is an incredibly solid skater and does the little things right as a smaller stay-at-home defenseman a la Rob Scuderi. Probably the best thing going for Keaton Thompson is he will get a chance to be under the tutelage of a defenseman with similar stature in former Anaheim Duck player turned assistant coach Scott Niedermayer.”– HockeysFuture.com"
Next up is winger Nick Sorensen.
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