The Ducks will soon be losing a promising prospect as GM Pat Verbeek confirmed to Lisa Dillman of the Orange County Register that defenseman Henry Thrun will not sign with the team and instead intends to go to free agency this summer.
The 21-year-old was a fourth-round pick by Anaheim back in 2019 (101st overall) and has vastly outperformed his draft stock since then. He’s averaging a point per game so far this season with Harvard and has 77 points in 90 games in his three years at the NCAA level, numbers that are well above average for a defender.
Anaheim has a very strong defensive pipeline with youngster Jamie Drysdale already in the NHL along with 2021 second-round pick Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, who went 10th overall last summer, Drew Helleson, acquired from Colorado in the Josh Manson trade last season, and Jackson LaCombe, who recently indicated that he will sign once his college season ends. Accordingly, it appears Thrun feels his best path to try to earn a spot in the NHL will be somewhere else.
He’s not the first Harvard player that has gone this route or at least threatened to do so. Jimmy Vesey and Alex Kerfoot ultimately tested the market while Adam Fox and John Marino were eventually traded and signed with their new team (although it took two trades for Fox to do so). It’s possible that Verbeek, now knowing he won’t be able to sign Thrun, will look to trade his rights elsewhere in the hopes of at least salvaging some sort of return while the acquiring team would hope to convince Thrun to sign, allowing them to add a quality prospect for a below-market return.
Kasperi Kapanen, Ty Smith and a 2nd and a 4th to the Ducks for Thrun and Adam Henrique (50% retained). Who says no?
No
Pittsburgh. However, it would be interesting to see how Kapanen meshed with Zegras, McTavish, Strome, etc.
I think the Pens would do this deal.
Now, they might be able to find a better one, but if this was all they could line up, I think they’d pull the trigger on it.
Trade Thrun to Buffalo for Michigan G Erik Portillo. Ducks could use another goalie in their system behind Gibson and Sabres need defense prospects.
Hes not signing with the Ducks because he wants to step directly into the NHL and play. Not too many teams could/would accommodate that. And im not sure Buffalo would either
If he can’t beat out Jacob Bryson or Cale Klague as the 6th starting d-man, then he isn’t playing in the NHL. Also, he doesn’t necessarily expect to play in the NHL right away. He would likely play a few games at the end of the season, but he wants to see an opportunity to get to the NHL sooner than later. As the article stated, the Ducks have 4 young dmen ahead of him on the depth chart. Buffalo doesn’t have that issue.
Glad to hear you decided to stay in Boston Henry! You will love wearing the spoked B!
I can’t imagine he’d be chomping at the bit to sign in Buffalo and play on the left side behind Power and Dahlin for the next 12 years.
He’s not signing with Buffalo, and Buff’s not trading for him without knowing he’ll sign