Anaheim Ducks: When Will the 2021 NHL Draft Matter?
The Anaheim Ducks aren’t exactly in the greatest position right now, and General Manager Bob Murray is tasked with completing this rebuild that hasn’t shown much progress. Will the 2021 NHL Draft be remembered as a changing point for the Ducks?
Although it isn’t the most pleasant to admit, the Anaheim Ducks went from winning the Pacific Division five years in a row to finishing towards the bottom of the league for three straight seasons. Finishing 30th in the 2020-21 season, they drafted 3rd overall in the recent 2021 NHL Entry Draft. However, the current downside of being the 2nd worst team in the league is much more noticeable than the upside of a draft pick that might not play for another season or two.
Despite some good draft performances by Murray and co. over the past three seasons, a lot of the picks that were impressive have yet to play a single game in Anaheim: Jacob Perreault, Brayden Tracey, Jackson LaCombe, Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Henry Thrun, the list goes on.
Sure, not all prospects are anywhere near ready to play at an NHL level, but a lot of these prospects came from drafts that were two or three years ago now. Only two of those prospects are still playing at a college level as well, the rest are already in the AHL. To see some kind of progress towards a potential NHL stint would be nice, but Murray insists on building teams that he knows will tank.
Even with a lot of potentially team-changing prospects not up with the NHL club, the 2021 NHL Draft could have made a big difference for the franchise without those players. The Ducks snagged the 3rd pick, and Murray made a risky pick to get center Mason McTavish, a player that wasn’t projected to be picked much higher than the 9th pick. Defenseman Olen Zellweger might also make a difference quicker than most Anaheim Ducks prospects, but that is yet to be seen.
The main question remains to be whether the 2021 NHL Draft will make a quicker difference than the drafts of the past. Although “When will this draft matter?” seems like a strange question, the picks won’t make a difference, or “matter” as players in a sense, until they finally make it and start contributing to the Anaheim Ducks as a team.
In order to get a better grasp of whether these prospects will help make a quick turnaround for the Ducks or not, let’s give a bit of analysis to each of them and see where they are now and where they might be in a year.
Over the past two drafts, the Anaheim Ducks had two first-rounders to use, but with their highest pick position since 2005 and nothing to really trade for another high pick, they were left with just one option. With the 3rd pick, the Ducks chose Mason McTavish, a Swedish/Canadian 18-year-old center. It was a rather surprising pick considering that McTavish wasn’t considered higher than a 9th overall selection, but Bob Murray seemed to have a lot of faith in the young prospect.
McTavish’s most complete and overall impressive season came back in 2019-20 with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL. He scored 29 goals with 13 assists in 57 games for a total of 42 points on the season. Most recently, McTavish scored 5 goals with 6 assists in 7 games for 11 points for Team Canada’s U18 team in 2020-21.
Overall, he has the scoring touch that the Anaheim Ducks so desperately need as the worst offensive team in the NHL last year, and he has another hard shot to behold, but it is more likely that Jacob Perreault or Brayden Tracey come up to the Ducks and make a difference before McTavish is ready to start showing off his scoring prowess.
He has a lot of promise, but considering that he is just now 18, the Ducks might need to wait another season to see much from McTavish. Wouldn’t want his debut to be as disastrously bad as Jamie Drysdale’s.
Up next, the Anaheim Ducks used their 2nd round pick to select Olen Zellweger, a Canadian 17-year-old defenseman. If Mason McTavish isn’t ready at age 18, Zellweger definitely won’t be playing up in Anaheim for at least two years, but he does look really great for the future. He is a defenseman that stays out of the penalty box and takes up space on the ice to save some pain and effort for the goalie, it is exactly the kind of pick you want as a GM.
He doesn’t show up much on a score sheet, but he is capable of assisting plays, and he can add on another 10 assists to a team. For just a second-round pick, Zellweger gives Ducks fans a lot to be excited about if he manages to get to Anaheim within a two or three-year time span. For the certain future though, Zellweger has a contract with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL in 2021-22.
The Anaheim Ducks had three picks over the span of rounds 3 and 4, two of those coming in the 3rd. They selected 18-year-old left-winger Sasha Pastujov and 18-year-old defenseman Tyson Hinds in the 3rd round, and 20-year-old center Josh Lopina in the 4th.
Sasha Pastujov is a very interesting pick for a 4th rounder if you consider how impressive he has looked on offense. He scored 30 goals with 35 assists in 41 games for 65 points in the U.S. Development Program, and then right after scored 10 goals with 16 assists in 18 games for 26 points in the U.S. Hockey League.
He’ll be playing for the University of Notre Dame this season, but it will be worth it to really keep an eye on his development with his offensive production currently booming. He is most likely not even close to scratching the AHL, but it would be very interesting to see what he can do in higher levels of play.
Tyson Hinds is another solid defenseman that won’t be ready for NHL play within the next year or two, but he still shows a lot of promise. It is a wonderful sight to see how deep the defensive pool of prospects for the Ducks is getting, and Hinds is another solid d-man that stays out of the penalty box and makes life difficult for the opposing offense.
Last season, Hinds finished with 6 goals and 9 assists in 23 games, and that was his best offensive production in that short of a span of time in his career. 15 points in 23 games was a great sample size of the improvement he has made to his game, and although it isn’t certain where he plays next season, it will be important to see if he can keep adding on more offense to his already great defensive game. He would make a big difference for the Anaheim Ducks if he can play a very productive two-way game.
Josh Lopina is the oldest player of the selected bunch, and his last season in the NCAA was impressive. 9 goals and 14 assists in 29 games for a total of 23 points isn’t bad at all, and he has had some great products in the past before that. In the year before, he finished with 35 points in 44 games in the U.S. Hockey League, so the promise is there.
He is up there in age, and could potentially be ready for a test stint in the AHL. It would be a surprise to see Murray actually take that chance on a player he just drafted, but considering that Lopina isn’t yet slated to play anywhere this upcoming season, it is a possibility.
In rounds 5 and 6, the Anaheim Ducks had another three picks thanks to their two selections in the 5th. With those picks, they selected 18-year-old left-winger Sean Tschigerl, 19-year-old goaltender Gage Alexander, and 18-year-old forward Kyle Kukkonen.
Sean Tschigerl seems to have some upside, but it does make sense that he was a 5th round pick. He had some really impressive stints on some prep teams, and at one point put up 47 points in just 28 games, and his last season in the WHL showed some nice promise with 21 points in 21 games. Still, he won’t be ready for the AHL or the NHL for many years, so there isn’t much to look forward to just yet. He has yet to decide where he will be playing this upcoming season.
Just as Tschigerl won’t be ready for a long time, Gage Alexander also won’t be in the AHL or NHL for many years. It was nice to see the Ducks take a goalie, and a very promising one at that, but there are a lot of prospects that will be playing for that backup spot behind John Gibson for a while. Still, Alexander went 6-3-0 last season in 9 games with a .917 win percentage and looks like a nice goalie for the San Diego Gulls in a few years. He is committed to playing for the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL next season.
Kyle Kukkonen is a very promising playmaker that has put up some nice assisting numbers in the past, but he’s a while out from seeing ice time with the Ducks organization as a sixth-round pick. His last stint in the North American Hockey League saw him put up 16 points in 19 games, and he put up a humungous 74 points in 23 games in a high school league just before that. However, it is clear that the jump from league to league will take some more getting used to for Kukkonen. With all the great playmakers the Anaheim Ducks already have, it’ll still be nice to add another one to the depth pool.
In closing, the 2021 NHL Draft will most likely not be the turning point for the Anaheim Ducks that the fans might have wanted it to be. With Bob Murray’s hesitance to give prospects more play in the NHL and assigning AHL stints that last far too long, it would be a surprise to see that 3rd overall pick in Mason McTavish pay off this upcoming season.
The Ducks do have some promise with all of the depth they have, but it is clear that their offense will still be one of the worst in the league and the defense is still in dire need of an overhaul. It inspires hope to think about McTavish, Olen Zellweger, and Josh Lopina making their debuts hopefully within the span of two years, but for Sasha Pastujov, Tyson Hinds, Sean Tschigerl, Gage Alexander, and Kyle Kukkonen, it is hard to see them making it far in the Anaheim Ducks organization while they are still needed.
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Here’s to hoping that the Anaheim Ducks at least start to hit some kind of stride defensively next season, it is clear that the offense has a ways to go before getting the help it needs. Maybe the 2022 NHL Draft will contain a player that makes a truly quick impact, the Ducks just have to play like they did last season to pick them.