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Nic Kerdiles Passes Away At 29

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The hockey world mourns the loss of a family member today, as the Anaheim Ducks have announced the passing of former NHLer Nic Kerdiles.

Kerdiles’ former coach Dallas Eakins paid tribute to his former player on social media today, writing:

I am absolutely heartbroken to see this news. Nic was an amazing kid who always put others first. He constantly had a positive effect and influence on his teammates, friends and family’s lives. May his kind soul rest in peace.

Kerdiles was a 2012 second-round pick of the Ducks and made history as the first player from Orange County to suit up for the team. A star for two seasons at the University of Wisconsin, Kerdiles went on to play four full seasons in the AHL with the Ducks’ affiliates, earning seven total NHL games.

Alongside his club career, Kerdiles also had the honor of representing his country at the 2014 IIHF Men’s World Junior Championships, where he starred for Team USA with seven points in just five games.

Throughout his career, he had a record of performing in the clutch, highlighted by his point-per-game playoff run with the San Diego Gulls in 2016-17 and his WCHA Tournament MVP award in his days at Wisconsin.

A beloved teammate to many, Kerdiles will be dearly missed. Everyone at PHR extends our condolences to the Kerdiles family.

Konnor Smith Out For A Few Weeks

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  • Amongst the longer-term injury news from the day, the Anaheim Ducks have announced via a press release that prospect Konnor Smith will miss between two-four weeks due to a fractured hand, an injury he sustained during the Rookie Faceoff tournament. Smith was the Ducks’ fourth-round pick of the 2023 NHL Draft, recently playing for the Peterborough Petes of the OHL, scoring three goals and 12 assists in 65 games last year.

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Mason McTavish Is Day-To-Day With Injury

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The Anaheim Ducks have announced that center Mason McTavish is day-to-day with an injury. Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune tweeted that Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek told reporters that McTavish tweaked something at yesterday’s practice while he was reaching for a puck. Verbeek remained optimistic that the injury was of the minor variety adding that he believed it was a muscle spasm that likely needed a day or two of rest before the 20-year-old could get back on the ice.

The Ducks are already missing several key young pieces at training camp who are without contracts for next year and can ill afford to miss McTavish for any length of time. Although the Ducks aren’t expected to be a contender this season the club is hoping that their young players like McTavish can take a big step forward and develop into frontline NHL players.

McTavish was the Ducks’ third overall pick in the 2021 NHL entry draft and had a good rookie season last year posting 17 goals and 26 assists in 80 games. Despite his decent numbers, McTavish ran out of gas for the last stretch of the season posting just a goal and an assist in the final 12 games of the regular season. He also suffered an injury on April 11th that effectively ended his season. A strong training camp will go a long way to getting McTavish some of his confidence back that he seemed to lose towards the end of last year.

If Verbeek’s assessment is correct it shouldn’t be an issue for the young McTavish to be well-prepared for the Ducks regular-season opener on October 14th against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Ducks Remain Far Apart In Negotiations With Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale

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The hopes of eleventh-hour deals to get a couple of Anaheim Ducks’ future mainstays on the ice for training camp Thursday are quickly dwindling. They are not close to new deals for either franchise center Trevor Zegras or young defender Jamie Drysdale, despite camp opening in less than 48 hours, TSN’s Pierre LeBrun said Tuesday night on Insider Trading.

As echoed by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman tonight, this is quite a puzzling saga that few expected when the summer began. The Ducks have the most projected cap space of anyone in the league by a significant margin, per CapFriendly. Their $16.64MM in flexibility is nearly $4MM more than the Chicago Blackhawks, who have the second-most with $12.86MM. To put that into context – 24 of the NHL’s 32 teams have less cap space than the gap between Anaheim and Chicago.

Ducks assistant general manager Jeff Solomon is known in NHL circles as one of the tougher negotiators in the league, and it could be that Drysdale and Zegras’s camps are truly asking for more than the Ducks feel they’re worth. With short-term deals likely for both in a window where the team won’t be fully exiting their rebuild, however, the team arguably has more to lose by creating off-ice animosity than opting for a perceived overpay on the two contracts.

LeBrun adds that, in a small glimmer of hope, the Ducks and Zegras have both settled on a three-year term. He did say, however, that a “tangible gap” remains between the two sides’ wants on an average annual value. No such specifics were given for Drysdale’s negotiations aside from a deal not being close to fruition, although his agent, David Gagner, is in Anaheim for talks, reports The Sporting Tribune’s Derek Lee.

Neither Drysdale nor Zegras were eligible for arbitration, giving the Ducks most of the leverage in negotiations. That’s especially the case with Drysdale, who was additionally ineligible to sign an offer sheet. It’s fair to wonder if Anaheim is overplaying their hand by letting things drag out this long, though.

While Zegras is already a household name across the league thanks to his incredible puck skills and flashy dekes, the Ducks need him to take a step forward defensively in order to maintain his status as a true number-one center on a championship-caliber team. That’s something they’re hoping to achieve by bringing in first-year NHL head coach Greg Cronin, who Zegras said he had a positive meeting with earlier this summer and shares in Cronin’s philosophy of improving his all-around game. They’re now extremely close to losing valuable time together during camp and getting a pivotal development season for Zegras off to a rocky start. The 22-year-old center has rattled off at least 20 goals and 60 points in his first two full NHL seasons.

Drysdale’s negotiations were always going to be a complex prediction. While an incredibly high-ceiling defender, he registered no points in the first eight games of last season before a torn labrum sidelined him for the remainder of the campaign. The sixth overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, Drysdale notched 32 points in 81 games in his only full NHL season to date in 2021-22 while averaging nearly 20 minutes per game. When he does get a deal done, he’s projected to assume a top-pairing role to the right of Cam Fowler.

It’s worth noting that if Zegras’ absence stretches into the regular season, Anaheim will be down two of its usual four centers. Developing shutdown man Isac Lundeström is sidelined through January after injuring his Achilles tendon during offseason training.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Michael Del Zotto Announces Retirement

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Longtime NHL defenseman Michael Del Zotto announced his retirement via Instagram today, ending a 13-season NHL career.

Del Zotto, 33, was drafted by the New York Rangers with the 20th overall pick out of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals in 2008. He would jump to professional hockey after one more season in juniors, recording 37 points in 80 games in 2009-10 and earning All-Rookie Team honors.

Unfortunately, while Del Zotto would turn into a serviceable NHL defenseman for over a decade, he didn’t develop into the potential bonafide top-pair player he hinted he could be at the beginning of his career. He would only beat his rookie totals once in New York, recording ten goals, 31 assists and 41 points in 77 games in 2011-12 before dropping to a bottom-pairing role in the 2013-14 campaign. Then-Rangers general manager Glen Sather dealt him to the Nashville Predators for shutdown defender Kevin Klein in a one-for-one swap in January of that season.

Things didn’t go much better for Del Zotto in a brief stint with Nashville to close out the season, which saw his ice time continue to decrease as he recorded five points in 25 games and a -4 rating. He was due a qualifying offer of $2.9MM that season with his contract expiring, which the Predators didn’t issue, and he signed a one-year, $1.3MM contract with the Philadelphia Flyers in August 2014. It turned out to be a prudent choice for Del Zotto, who, for a brief time, recaptured his former glory in Philadelphia. He notched 32 points in 64 games during his first season there while averaging nearly 22 minutes per game, but again fizzled out over the following two seasons with the Flyers.

After signing as an unrestricted free agent with the Vancouver Canucks in 2017, Del Zotto would play stints with the Anaheim Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators, and St. Louis Blues in depth roles until the 2021-22 season. While he didn’t appear in any postseason contests, Del Zotto was on the Blues’ roster for their 2019 Stanley Cup championship.

2021-22 was when it became clear Del Zotto’s days of playing at the highest level were drawing to a close. Despite recording a respectable 13 points in 26 games with Ottawa and posting decent possession numbers, the Senators waived him. They assigned him to AHL Belleville, where he managed over a point per game. It was enough to land him another NHL contract for 2022-23 with the Florida Panthers, but they waived him pre-season and didn’t include him on the opening night roster. He would record two goals and 10 points in 25 games with their AHL affiliate in Charlotte before they traded him back to Anaheim in the days leading up to Christmas in a three-way swap of minor-league players, including the Detroit Red Wings. Del Zotto closed the season with a strong 31 points in 40 games for AHL San Diego.

But without ever getting a callup to the NHL throughout the season despite a paper-thin defense in Anaheim, Del Zotto has opted to step away from the game. His 736 games rank 18th among players from the 2008 draft class at the time of his retirement, during which he recorded 63 goals, 199 assists, 262 points, and averaged 20:03 per game over the years. PHR congratulates Del Zotto on his lengthy career in the pros and wishes him the best in retirement.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Tristan Luneau To ELC

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Eric Stephens of The Athletic is reporting that the Anaheim Ducks have signed their 2022 second-round pick Tristan Luneau to a three-year entry-level contract. Luneau’s game took a dramatic step in the right direction this past season as the native of Victoriaville, Quebec took home the Emile Bouchard Trophy awarded to the QMJHL Defenseman of the Year.

The 19-year-old nearly doubled his offensive output from his draft year to this year, as he went from 12 goals and 31 assists in 63 games back in 2021-22, to an offensive explosion this past year posting 20 goals and 63 assists in 65 games.

Luneau will join the Ducks farm system that is arguably the best in the NHL, and although he is joining a first-class prospect pipeline, he will likely spend one more year in the QMJHL. Barring unforeseen injuries he should dominate once again, as many predicted he would when he was taken first overall by the Gatineau Olympiques in the QMJHL Entry Draft.

With Luneau now under contract, he joins Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, Jamie Drysdale, Trevor Zegras, and a slew of other players under the age of 25 who should make up the Ducks core over the next decade in what should be an exciting time to be an Anaheim Ducks fan.

Alex Killorn Wouldn't Mind Finishing His Career With Montreal

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Ducks winger Alex Killorn was one of the top wingers available in free agency this summer on the heels of a career year that saw him put up 27 goals and 37 assists with Tampa Bay.  That helped him earn a four-year, $25MM deal with Anaheim, the priciest deal given to a forward on the open market.  Speaking on a recent episode of the Raw Knuckles podcast (video link), he indicated that while the Canadiens weren’t among the teams to show interest in him two months ago, he would like to spend a season with Montreal to end his career.  Killorn played his minor hockey in Quebec before going the collegiate route.   His new contract runs through the 2026-27 campaign and if he was to play beyond that, he’d be entering his age-38 season where he’d almost certainly be playing on a one-year deal at that time.

Anaheim Ducks Sign Zack Kassian To PTO

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed veteran winger Zack Kassian to a professional tryout, per a team post on X. The 32-year-old Canadian will now attempt to land a roster spot in Southern California after spending last season in a limited role with the Arizona Coyotes.

As outlined in our extensive breakdown of Kassian’s free agency last week, 2022-23 was a campaign to forget in the desert for the physical winger. He recorded just two goals (and no assists) in 51 contests and a -18 rating despite playing just 9:09 per game. As such, he was arguably the worst full-time player in the league last season – no other player with more than 41 games played in the previous year had less than four points, and no other player who averaged less than 10 minutes per game recorded a plus-minus rating worse than -10.

That culminated in the Coyotes buying out Kassian in June with one season left on his contract. The Coyotes acquired Kassian and his $3.2MM cap hit from the Edmonton Oilers at the 2022 NHL Draft.

Kassian had spent the previous seven seasons in Edmonton, playing 412 games in an Oilers jersey. He bounced up and down the lineup, at times even playing a complementary role alongside Connor McDavid when the Oilers were in the early days of building out their secondary scoring around their superstar. In 2019-20, Kassian posted a career-high 15 goals and 34 points despite playing in just 59 games, by far the best point-producing pace of his career.

Since the Buffalo Sabres took him 13th overall in the 2009 NHL Draft (he’ll be up soon in our ongoing Take Two series), Kassian has 92 goals, 111 assists, 203 points, and 913 penalty minutes in 661 NHL games with the Oilers, Sabres, Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks.

This could very well be a move for the Ducks to hit the veteran minimum during a handful of preseason games. It’s hard to make an argument for Kassian to win a roster spot over younger players in a similar role, such as Brett Leason or Pavol Regenda, and the Ducks would surely instead give any potential in-season call-ups to a bevy of younger forward prospects like Nathan Gaucher, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Nikita Nesterenko.

Kassian is the second player invited to the Ducks’ training camp on a tryout basis. The team inked defenseman Scott Harrington to a PTO earlier this month.

Carl Hagelin Announces Retirement

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Two-time Stanley Cup champion winger Carl Hagelin announced his retirement today via an Instagram post. Now 35 years old, Hagelin missed the 2022-23 season due to severe eye and hip injuries.

“It’s been an amazing ride, but it ends here,” Hagelin said. “Unfortunately, my eye injury is too severe to keep playing the game I love.” He told reporters at the beginning of the offseason that he hoped to return to NHL play for the 2023-24 campaign, but unfortunately, that won’t be the case. His four-year, $11MM extension he’d signed with Washington in 2019 expired on July 1.

Picked in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers out of Södertälje SK’s junior program in Sweden, Hagelin took a somewhat unconventional path for European prospects and immediately came over to North America, embarking on a four-year collegiate career with the University of Michigan. It was undoubtedly the right choice, however – by his senior year, he was named team captain and produced over a point per game over his last two seasons.

Aside from a few games in the minors in 2011-12, Hagelin made the jump to the NHL immediately from college, recording 38 points in 64 games during his rookie season with the Rangers, along with a +24 rating. That placed him fifth in Calder Trophy voting and even earned him a few votes for the Selke Trophy.

He would continue consistently producing in the 30-40 point range over his four-year tenure with the Rangers but never really built on that rookie campaign. That’s not a knock on Hagelin at all, however. He was a quintessential two-way middle-six secondary scoring forward with a good amount of speed to his game. That’s even more impressive in relation to his sixth-round selection, given he went on to play over 700 NHL games.

His tenure in New York ended somewhat unceremoniously. A restricted free agent at the end of 2014-15, he couldn’t agree to a new deal with the Rangers and his signing rights were dealt to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for depth forward Emerson Etem (along with some draft picks changing hands, but nothing of significance). Anaheim compensated him nicely by signing him to the richest contract of his career (four years, $16MM), but Hagelin couldn’t really find his game in Southern California. He recorded just 12 points in 43 games to begin 2015-16 before Anaheim moved him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for David Perron, who was similarly underperforming in Pittsburgh.

It would turn out to be one of the most underrated transactions in Penguins history. Down the stretch, Hagelin would complete the famed third line with Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel that played such a crucial role in Pittsburgh winning their first of back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016. Hagelin exploded for 27 points in 37 games after the trade and added 16 points in 24 playoff games en route to the championship.

Again, he couldn’t quite recapture that performance the following season. While he would win another championship in 2017, he scored just two goals in 15 games during that playoff run. Fast forward to 2018-19, and Hagelin had scored only one goal and two assists through the first 16 games of the season. A move to the Los Angeles Kings in November didn’t do much for him, either – he recorded just five points in 22 games there. It was near the 2018-19 deadline that the Kings moved him to Washington, where he notched 11 points in the final 20 games of the season, appearing rejuvenated and earning himself the final four-year extension.

Hagelin would wrap up his career by scoring 20 goals and 66 points throughout 187 games in a Capitals uniform, posting solid numbers for a bottom-six scoring winger. Unfortunately, it was a freak eye injury in a practice in March of 2022 that would end his career.

PHR extends our best wishes to Hagelin in his continued recovery from both injuries and congratulates him on a championship-caliber career.

Anaheim Ducks Prospect Pool Ranked Best In NHL

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It’s been more than a half-decade since the Anaheim Ducks made it to the NHL’s postseason, and despite acquiring some talented players this offseason they remain likelier to finish the season outside of the playoff picture looking in. But even though Pat Verbeek’s rebuilding team may not be ready to earnestly compete for a Stanley Cup in 2023-24, Anaheim may not be far away. That’s at least according to The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, who ranked the Ducks’ prospect pool as the NHL’s best. (subscription link) Headlined by a trio of highly talented pivots in ascending star Trevor Zegras, 2023 second-overall pick Leo Carlsson, and 2021 third-overall pick Mason McTavish, the Ducks have the sort of foundation down the middle that most true contenders boast.

But even beyond those three centers is a deep group of high-upside players, including a glut of talented defensemen. Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, and Tristan Luneau each scored at high rates in the CHL last season and all three would be in the conversation for best prospect in several other NHL systems. In Anaheim, they rank fifth, sixth, and ninth, according to Pronman. So regardless of how the Ducks ultimately perform in the standings next season, it appears fans in Orange County will have plenty to look forward to.

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