The Ducks' Three Candidates to Become the Team's Future Number-One Defenseman
Stanley Cups are rarely won by a team without a true number-one defenseman. The Ducks have three contenders to assume that position one day when the team is challenging for Stanley Cups of their own.
There isn't one recipe for building a Stanley Cup-winning team. Some teams win with stellar goaltending, some with center depth, and some with a suffocating defensive system (to name some examples). There's one particular ingredient, which if lacking renders winning a championship extremely difficult; a true, elite number-one defenseman.
In the modern era of the NHL (post 2004-05 lockout), only the 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes won a Stanley Cup without a true number-one on their blueline.
A number-one defenseman leads their blueline in ice time, receives difficult matchups, and plays significant minutes on both special teams units.
The Anaheim Ducks have missed the playoffs for six consecutive seasons. In that time they've accumulated one of the deepest and most potent U23 player pools in the NHL. Their young blueline is littered with offensive firepower and defensive acumen, but is there a player among them with the potential to one day be mentioned in the same breath as Charlie McAvoy, Miro Heiskanen, Cale Makar, Adam Fox, etc.?
The Ducks' three most prized young blueliners are slated to assume significant roles in the NHL for the 2024-25 season. Pavel Mintyukov (10th overall in 2022), Olen Zellweger (34th in 2021), and Tristan Luneau (53rd in 2022) are Anaheim's frontrunners to be the number-one defenseman on a Stanley Cup contending team when the time comes.
Pavel Mintyukov
To the surprise of many and due to his spectacular training camp, Pavel Mintyukov made the Ducks' opening night lineup and immediately assumed a top-four role on the blueline in his rookie season.
Mintyukov was the OHL Defenseman of the Year in 2022-23, scoring 88 points in 69 games for the Saginaw Spirit and Ottawa 67's.
He finished the 2023-24 season playing 63 games and tallying 28 points while averaging 18:50 TOI. He was second on the team in power play ice time (122:21) and racked up 61:19 TOI on the penalty kill.
Mintyukov missed 12 games after separating his shoulder in January during a 5-3 win over the Nashville Predators. He also was forced out of the lineup for the Ducks' last seven games of the season due to a bone bruise suffered in a 6-1 loss to the Oilers at the end of March.
Mintyukov was fearless from the jump to start his NHL career. He immediately involved himself offensively; timing when to join rushes, pinching, and controlling the offensive blueline.
His defensive wherewithal is what raised the most eyebrows during his rookie season, especially in the neutral zone. He expertly read neutral zone breakouts, eliminated outlets, and swiftly turned pucks up ice before the opponents could reset defensively.
The areas he will have to improve on if he's to become an elite two-way defender like his potential suggests would be retrieving pucks, fending off forechecks, and winning battles around the net.
On his current trajectory, Mintyukov is the likeliest Duck to become an elite number-one defenseman.
Olen Zellweger
Before his rookie season, Olen Zellweger was the WHL Defenseman of the Year in 2021-22, scoring 78 points in 55 games. In 2022-23, he elevated that standard even higher and was the WHL and CHL Defenseman of the Year scoring 79 points in 55 regular season games and adding 29 points in 14 playoff games. He's also won a U18 World Championship gold medal and two World Junior Championship gold medals for Team Canada.
Zellweger played the first 34 games of his rookie season in the AHL for the San Diego Gulls. His time there earned him a spot as an AHL All-Star as he totaled 37 points in 44 games.
He was called up for a brief four-game stint in the NHL at the end of January and was recalled at the beginning of March to finish the season with the Ducks.
His 2023-24 campaign in the NHL ended with totals of two goals and seven assists in 26 games. Zellweger averaged 19:17 TOI in those 26 games and saw 45:52 of power play time. He only played 4:18 on the penalty kill.
At first glance, one may see his 5-foot-9 frame paired with dazzling offensive skill and pigeonhole Zellweger as an offense-only defenseman. He is one of the hardest-working players in the organization and supremely dedicated to his craft. He's consistently the last Ducks player to leave the ice after practice and often has to be kicked off by rink staff.
Zellweger had some kinks to polish out with his fundamental defensive play at the start of the season and used his time in the AHL to do so.
"I might be shorter, but I think I'm pretty solid and well-balanced," Zellweger said when asked about the physicality of the NHL. "I’ll definitely be trying to get more physical. I think that also helps me get in the game more offensively. When you’re defending well and you have that tenacity, you transfer it to the O-zone."
Zellweger is as technically perfect a skater as can be found and has lightning-quick hands to match. He made an immediate impact on the cycle when he found his way into the Ducks lineup and made the team as a whole seem more dynamic.
He made a few errors in the man-to-man defensive zone coverage the Ducks ran in 2023-24 and that will likely be a point of emphasis and an area to improve upon ahead of the 2024-25 season.
As of today, it's tough to picture Zellweger as a mainstay of the future penalty kill for the Ducks, but with his dedication to improving every facet of his game, it can't be dismissed as an impossibility.
Zellweger spent his month of May representing Canada at the World Championships where he tallied five assists in ten games as the team's seventh defenseman and receiving very limited ice time.
Tristan Luneau
Tristan Luneau's development in 2023-24 was to be extremely calculated and measured. He started the season playing two games in the NHL with the Ducks before he was sent to the AHL to play six games with the Gulls, where he tallied two assists.
Before he was to join Team Canada at the 2024 World Junior Championship tournament, he played another five games with the Ducks and found the scoresheet with a goal and two assists.
Luneau, like Zellweger and Mintyukov, earned his league's (QMJHL) Defenseman of the Year Award in 2022-23, when he scored 83 points in 65 regular season games and added 17 more in 13 playoff games for Gatineau Olympiques.
Unfortunately for Luneau, the last hockey he played in 2023-24 was on Dec. 7, 2023. He suffered a staph infection in his knee when traveling to Sweden for the World Junior Championship. That infection required a lengthy recovery and only resumed on-ice hockey activities four days after the regular season concluded.
In his seven NHL games in 2023-24, Luneau averaged 17:52 TOI and didn't see any significant special teams time.
Luneau plays a simpler offensive game than Mintyukov or Zellweger but is a calculated and efficient puck mover. For a player who is as productive as he is on the offensive end, his defensive game is as polished as it gets. He displays a stifling gap and battles well in tight areas.
In his brief time in the NHL, he showed he could use some time dedicated to adjusting to the speed and strength of professional opponents as well as the limited time and space he's afforded to make decisions at the highest level.
Mintyukov, Zellweger, and Luneau are all anticipated to hold significant roles and responsibilities for the Anaheim Ducks in 2024-25. Special teams ice will be hotly contested between the three of them and if one of them can emerge as the team's future number-one defenseman, it will check a sizable box as Pat Verbeek tries to build the Ducks into a sustainable Stanley Cup contender.