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Ducks’ Jakob Silfverberg Announces Plans To Retire

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Anaheim Ducks winger Jakob Silfverberg has announced his plans to retire from the NHL at the end of the season (Twitter link). Friday will mark his last time suiting up at the Honda Center, as the Ducks host the Calgary Flames in their last home game of the season.

This news comes as a surprise from the 33-year-old Silfverberg. While injuries limited him as the 2020s rolled around – he’s otherwise had a generally healthy career, playing in 70-or-more games in seven different seasons, including each of the last two. His scoring has taken a major hit, though, with Silfverberg netting just 19 points in 78 games this season – less than half of his totals from just four seasons ago.

Still, Silfverberg has had a fruitful career, totaling 817 games over the last 12 seasons. All but one of those seasons came with Anaheim, who acquired the Swedish winger in the 2013 trade that sent Bobby Ryan to the Ottawa Senators. Silfverberg would go on to play in the fifth-most games in Ducks history – playing 769 with the Ducks – and score the seventh-most points with 354. He also added the fourth-most playoff points, scoring 41 in 57 postseason performances. While he hasn’t dominated the scoresheet like former teammates Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry, Silfverberg provided invaluable consistency for a long time in Anaheim, always carrying a controllable cap hit.

While Silfverberg’s NHL career is coming to a close, there is no indication of whether he’ll return to Sweden’s SHL or not. Silfverberg played in 166 games with Brynäs IF before moving to the NHL, after growing up through the organization’s youth program. He served as team captain in the 2011-12 season – his last year in Sweden – while wearing #100.

Anaheim Ducks Reassign Nikita Nesterenko

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  • After having spent five days with the Anaheim Ducks, Nikita Nesterenko is headed back down to the AHL as the organization announced they have reassigned back to their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. Nesterenko was able to make his season debut with the Ducks over this emergency recall, suiting up in three games while scoring one goal. Now returning to San Diego, the former sixth-round pick will look to build upon his 15-goal, 33-point campaign in the last few contests.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Kyle Kukkonen Transfers To Wisconsin

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  • After Kyle Kukkonen’s sophomore year at Michigan State didn’t go anywhere near as well as his freshman campaign, he has transferred to Wisconsin. The Ducks drafted the 21-year-old in the sixth round in 2021 (162nd overall) and things were looking up last year when he had 18 goals and nine assists in 39 games.  However, the center was limited to just a goal and 11 helpers in 27 contests this season, leading to the change of scenery.

Ducks Recall Alex Stalock On An Emergency Basis

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With John Gibson unavailable to dress tonight against Seattle, the Ducks needed a backup goaltender.  In a move they have made several times, the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve brought up Alex Stalock on an emergency basis.  The emergency designation means he won’t count against their post-deadline recalls.

This is the sixth recall of the season for the 36-year-old who has been returned to the minors within 48 hours of the promotions each time; it wouldn’t be shocking if that trend continued as long as Gibson is clear to return on Sunday versus St. Louis.  With his NHL time being short-lived this season, Stalock has yet to see regular season action with Anaheim so far.

Instead, Stalock has served as the veteran third-string option with AHL San Diego this season, playing in just 13 games behind prospects Tomas Suchanek and Calle Clang.  With his playing time being limited, it’s no surprise that he has struggled, posting a 3.81 GAA and a .889 SV% in 13 appearances.  Those numbers certainly won’t help his cause when he hits the open market as an unrestricted free agent in July.

Ducks Recall Nikita Nesterenko, Issue Injury Updates

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The Ducks announced that they’ve recalled forward Nikita Nesterenko from AHL San Diego amid multiple changing injury designations ahead of tonight’s game against the Kraken. Forwards Max Jones (upper body) and Mason McTavish (lower body) are out, Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune reports, as is standout rookie defenseman Pavel Mintyukov (lower body). Lee also relays that blue-liner Radko Gudas will return after missing 10 games with an upper-body injury. As a result of McTavish’s injury, the only new absence after their last outing, Nesterenko’s recall comes under emergency conditions. It does not count their two remaining standard recalls this season. Lee also reported on Nesterenko’s recall prior to the official announcement.

Nesterenko, 22, is in his first full professional season after signing with the Ducks out of Boston College to close out 2022-23. Drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 draft by the Wild, his signing rights were traded to Anaheim as part of the deal that sent defenseman John Klingberg to Minnesota at last year’s deadline. He ended last year with one goal in nine NHL games but didn’t crack the Ducks’ opening night roster this season, spending the entirety of 2023-24 thus far on assignment to San Diego. He’s settled in as their most competent two-way center, notching 15 goals and 33 points in 63 appearances. His +8 rating is the highest among forwards and second on the team behind veteran NHL defenseman Robert Hägg.

That strong showing on a bottom-five Gulls club may earn him some NHL viewings down the stretch. He wasn’t much of a factor in his first major league attempt, losing all three faceoffs he took and averaging 13:17 per game, but his otherwise poor 41.8 CF% at even strength was better than his teammates’ down the stretch, a testament to just how inept last season’s Ducks were at controlling possession. They’ve improved dramatically in that category under first-year head coach Greg Cronin, posting a 47.0 CF% at even strength compared to last year’s 42.6.

Anaheim is rather set down the middle with McTavish, Leo Carlsson, and Isac Lundeström doing decent work anchoring the top three lines, although a third-line checking unit anchored by Lundeström moving to the wing with Nesterenko down the middle is an appealing thought for Ducks fans. The club also has 2022 first-round pick Nathan Gaucher in the center pipeline. Trevor Zegras, who’s mustered only nine points in 25 games this season and has battled injuries seemingly non-stop, seems locked into a spot on the wing for the remainder of his tenure in SoCal.

With Ben Meyers and Jakob Silfverberg destined for unrestricted free agency this summer, there may be a spot for Nesterenko on next season’s opening night roster if GM Pat Verbeek doesn’t plug too many holes on the open market. His NHL performance to close out the season will likely go a long way toward dictating that likelihood. He’s set for restricted free agency in a few months after completing his two-year entry-level contract and still has five more years under team control until he’s eligible for UFA status.

Ducks Sign Coulson Pitre, Yegor Sidorov To Entry-Level Deals

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The Ducks have signed right-wing prospects Coulson Pitre and Yegor Sidorov to three-year, entry-level deals beginning next season, per a team release. PuckPedia reports Sidorov’s contract carries a cap hit of $865K and pays him a $775K base salary, a $90K signing bonus, a $35K games played bonus, and an $82.5K minors salary each season. Pitre’s deal is slightly lower-value, carrying a cap hit of $858K. It carries the same base and minor salary as Sidorov’s but has no games played bonus and reduced signing bonuses – $85K in year 1 and $82.5K in years 2 and 3. Both players are represented by Dan Milstein’s Gold Star Hockey agency.

Anaheim selected both players in the third round of last year’s draft, 20 picks apart. They selected Pitre with their 65th overall pick and later selected Sidorov with the 85th overall pick, acquired from the Wild in a March 2022 trade for enforcer Nicolas Deslauriers.

Pitre, 19, has put up relatively consistent point totals across three seasons with OHL Flint. The Newmarket, Ontario, native lost out on what would have been his first OHL season in Windsor when the league suspended operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. He was traded to Flint just prior to the 2021-22 campaign, where he put together a strong rookie season with 23 goals and 44 points in 52 games.

That showing earned him OHL All-Rookie Team honors, making it clear he was on the path toward NHL selection the following offseason. He just cracked the point-per-game mark in his draft year, logging 25 goals and 60 points in 59 games, before dropping to 55 points in 55 games this season.

It was far from a breakthrough season, but Pitre doesn’t project as a top-six scoring winger. Still, he’s a rather well-rounded talent and combined a bang-and-crash game with an accurate release, carrying appeal to NHL clubs as a third-line checking winger who can contribute 10-20 goals a season. He, along with Sidorov, failed to crack The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler’s ranking of Anaheim’s top 15 prospects, but that’s more a testament to their top-five depth than anything else.

Sidorov, also 19, was an overage selection, initially eligible but passed over in 2022. A breakout season with WHL Saskatoon last season changed teams’ minds on the Belarusian winger, though, and his team-leading 40 goals in 53 games earned him top-100 love after being a fringe player on most draft boards the year prior. The gifted sniper turned things up a notch this season, cracking the 50-goal mark and adding 38 assists for 88 points in 66 games. Internationally, he was part of Belarus’ contingent at the 2022 D1A World Juniors that won a gold medal and earned promotion to the top-level tournament, although they’ve since been barred from participating due to safety concerns and the country’s involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

He’ll be 20 in June, so unlike Pitre, he’s ineligible for an entry-level slide. Sidorov’s ELC will begin next season regardless of where he plays, while Pitre’s could defer to 2025-26 if he plays fewer than 10 NHL games. Pitre and Sidorov join Blackhawks prospect Nick Lardis as 2023 third-round picks to ink ELCs today.

Ryan Strome Fined For Slash On Tye Kartye

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  • The league announced that Ducks forward Ryan Strome was fined the maximum of $5K for a cross-check on Seattle’s Tye Kartye during yesterday’s game. The incident occurred early in the third period with both players receiving penalties on the play, Strome for the cross-check and Kartye for roughing.

Ducks Sign Nico Myatovic To Entry-Level Deal

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The Ducks have signed left-wing prospect Nico Myatovic to a three-year entry-level contract beginning in the 2024-25 season, per a team announcement. Myatovic will finish out the 2023-24 season on a tryout with AHL San Diego. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Myatovic, 19, was the first pick in the second round of last year’s draft. The 6’3″ forward was projected as a rather well-rounded offensive talent, notching 30 goals and 30 assists for 60 points in 68 games with WHL Seattle in his draft year.

After capping off his season with a WHL championship, things soured drastically for Myatovic this season. His Seattle club as a whole largely collapsed, losing multiple players to the pros and their remaining stars missing significant time due to injuries, Myatovic included. He sustained an injury just four games into the season that kept him out through January, limiting him to 34 games on the year. Even when in the lineup, he wasn’t scoring at last year’s rate, lighting the lamp nine times. His overall production remained at the same pace, though, adding 21 assists for 30 points. He checks in as the #12 prospect in the organization in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s latest rankings, sitting among 11 other players in what he terms the third tier of Anaheim prospects.

Myatovic will be 20 by January 1, and since he’s already accumulated four years of service in major junior hockey, he’ll be permitted to play in San Diego full-time next season per the NHL/CHL transfer agreement. However, since he’ll still be 19 as of September 15, his contract can slide one season. If he plays less than 10 NHL games in 2024-25, the contract will defer to 2025-26 and expire in 2028 instead of 2027.

The Prince George, British Columbia native is the second member of Anaheim’s 2023 class to sign a contract, joining second-overall pick Leo Carlsson. He’ll be an RFA upon expiry.

West Notes: McGinn, Grundström, Krug, Joshua

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The Anaheim Ducks have announced that forward Brock McGinn has undergone successful back surgery, focused on his intervertebral discs (Twitter link). This operation is expected to hold McGinn out for four months, ending his season early. McGinn has been on injured reserve since February 17th and absent from Anaheim’s lineup since January 25th.

This news marks the final blow in what was a difficult season for McGinn – who suffered a significant lower-body injury just days before Anaheim’s first game of the season that held him out for a month. That injury, as well as a brief departure for the birth of his first child in late December, held McGinn to just 24 appearances in the first half of the season. Those games will now stand as his only this year, marking the least he’s played since turning pro in the 2014-15 season. McGinn managed one goal, three points, four penalty minutes, and a -5 this year while averaging roughly 11 minutes of ice time. Anaheim has utilized a variety of talents in his place – with the Ducks debut of Ben Meyers, the return of Trevor Zegras from injury, and bottom-six stalwarts like Ross Johnston and Benoit-Olivier Groulx working to fill open minutes. McGinn will look to rejoin the bottom-six mix next season, with one year remaining on his contract.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Gritty forward Carl Grundström is progressing from injury, joining the Los Angeles Kings on their three-game road trip through Western Canada, per The Athletic’s Eric Stephens (Twitter link). Grundström has been out since February 13th with a lower-body injury that’s earned him a place on long-term injured reserve. He’s managed eight goals and 12 points in 50 games this season. Stephens adds that Grundström is still wearing a no-contact jersey at practice – but his attendance on the trip is nonetheless encouraging progress towards his return from a 21-game absence.
  • Defenseman Torey Krug could be held out of the St. Louis Blues’ lineup on Thursday with the flu, per NHL.com’s Lou Korac (Twitter link). Blues head coach Drew Bannister shared that he’s hopeful Krug will be good to go but designated him as questionable. Krug played in the first 69 games of St. Louis’ season but recently missed his first game of the year with a lower-body injury. He’s been a pivotal piece of St. Louis’ lineup when healthy, managing 34 points and 30 penalty minutes in 71 games. The Blues will hope he’s feeling better come tomorrow, as they gear up for a fight with the Calgary Flames.
  • The Vancouver Canucks upgraded forward Dakota Joshua to full-contact at their Wednesday-morning practice (Twitter link). Joshua has been out since February 13th, suffering an undisclosed injury in the midst of a three-point night. He’s flirted with a return many times since, but ultimately landed on Vancouver’s long-term injured reserve. While no official designation was provided, Joshua could have a chance to return as soon as Thursday, when the Canucks take on the Dallas Stars.

Gudas (Upper Body) Not On Road Trip

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  • Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas did not accompany the team on their road trip to Seattle, relays Derek Lee of The Sporting Tribune (Twitter link). The 33-year-old has been out for the last week and a half with an upper-body injury.  Gudas has played a big role on Anaheim’s second pairing this season, notching 16 points, 124 penalty minutes, 142 blocks, and 213 hits in 60 games; he sits in the top ten league-wide in PIMS and hits.

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