Pacific Notes: Gudas, Mintyukov, Wright, Romani
The Anaheim Ducks were playing fairly shorthanded in today’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers. Ahead of the game, the Ducks announced that defensemen Radko Gudas and Pavel Mintyukov would miss due to lower-body injuries.
Gudas, 35, only recently returned from a five-game suspension for a knee-on-knee hit on Auston Matthews that cost the latter his season. Meanwhile, Mintyukov, 22, hasn’t missed a game for Anaheim since the Olympic break, scoring two goals and five points in 16 games.
The lack of defensive depth showed tonight, but not to a significant degree. The Ducks have typically averaged 28 shots against this season, and allowed 34 shots to the Oilers tonight, who also had three power plays. Anaheim didn’t indicate how long either defenseman was expected to miss with their respective injuries.
Additional notes from the Pacific Division:
- In tonight’s game between the Seattle Kraken and Buffalo Sabres, the former will leave with some injury concerns for their center corps. After only 3:36 of ice time, the Kraken announced that center Shane Wright exited the game due to injury. Wright was not obviously injured during a specific play, but he had been hurt in Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, which means he may have started tonight’s game in discomfort.
- According to Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic, the Vancouver Canucks are not expected to sign recent sixth-round pick Anthony Romani to his entry-level contract. Romani, playing at Michigan State University, had his season ended today in overtime against the University of Wisconsin. Romani had 14 goals and 27 points in 36 games this season, and is expected to return to the Spartans for his sophomore season.
Pacific Notes: Hiller, Canucks, Romani, Pettersson
Speaking at his introductory press conference today (video link), Kings GM Ken Holland revealed that head coach Jim Hiller will remain with Los Angeles for next season. Hiller just completed his first full season as head coach of the team with the Kings picking up 105 points in the standings, tying their franchise record set back in 1974-75. However, they weren’t able to shake their recent playoff struggles, falling to the Oilers in the first round for the fourth straight year, leading some to wonder if Holland would opt to go in a different direction. However, that won’t be the case and Holland added that he has no intention of rebuilding or retooling this roster, meaning that Hiller should have largely the same group of core players for 2025-26.
More from the Pacific:
- At his introductory press conference today (video link), new Canucks head coach Adam Foote indicated that they intend to add two new assistant coaches to their staff. One will take Foote’s previous role running the defense while they hope the other will be able to help on the offensive side of things. The two new hires will join assistant coach Jaroslav Svejkovsky and goalie coach Marko Torenius.
- Still with the Canucks, prospect Anthony Romani announced on his Instagram page earlier this week that he has committed to Michigan State for next season. The 19-year-old was a sixth-round pick last year, going 162nd overall. Romani battled injuries this year but picked up 35 points in 35 games between North Bay and Barrie in the OHL before adding 12 goals and 12 assists in 16 playoff contests for the Colts.
- Ducks prospect Lucas Pettersson has signed a two-year deal with SHL Brynas, per a team release. The 19-year-old was an early second-round pick last June, going 35th overall after a strong showing in MoDo’s junior system. This season, the center primarily played professionally, splitting time between the SHL with MoDo and Ostersunds of the second-tier Allsvenskan. At their top level, Pettersson was limited to just one assist in 29 games while his team was demoted to the Allsvenskan for next season. With Ostersunds, he fared much better with nine goals and ten assists in 26 contests. By joining Brynas, Pettersson should be able to predominantly play at the SHL level next season, ideally in a more prominent role.