Ducks assistant general manager Martin Madden discusses the 2026 NHL Draft and other topics with local media.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ducks assistant general manager Martin Madden spoke to local media via video conference call to discuss the 2026 NHL Draft, Ducks prospects and other topics. Below is a full transcript of the call, which has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
This year is the first year, I believe, since 2017 that the Ducks don't have a first round pick. I know that you guys didn't really know that you weren't gonna have one until a couple months ago. How much did the scouting process change, if at all, in these last two months, knowing that you were going into this draft without a first round pick?
I addressed that with Alexis (Downie on Ducks Stream) earlier this week. It was one of the weirdest second halves of scouting that we've had as a staff, that I've had in my role for sure. But we met in January. One day, we were picking middle of the first round. The next day, we were picking in the top-5. It stayed like that for a few weeks, and then we got settled into a range that was quite easy to discern the players that would be available in that range and then it changed at the end. But that option to keep the pick if we made the playoffs kept us on our toes until the end, so it was challenging. Weather made it challenging for travel in the second half as well, so interesting scouting season for sure.
Are there any needs that you guys are going to look to fill in with those picks in the later rounds this year?
No. I think we've gone away from that approach. Not that we've used it a lot in the past, but I think I said it last year, if you remember. We like the players we like, and when we try to force into certain roles, into certain types, into trying to... it just hasn't worked out for us. We forced a few things, and that's not the way our group has had success. We've got some values from different positions and when it comes down to it, I need the person who knows the player better to be passionate with that player, and that's what’s led to success for us. That’s the way we're gonna continue in the future.
You alluded a little bit to this. It was a crazy breadth of prospects that you guys had to scout because your draft position was volatile. But do you think maybe there's an upshot to that now, and that if you guys do have the opportunity to either move up or move back, you may be a little bit more confident, prepared and flexible for that?
For sure, absolutely. I think we always need to be. We, historically, have been active moving down or up, so it's not that much different than usual. It's rare that you need to be aware of a top-10 group as well as the bottom-10 group. It’s rare that you get to trade up in the top-10 and for long stretches of the year, that's where we were standing. So we needed to know those players. So, if opportunities come on Friday or Saturday, we will be ready. Your question is definitely relevant to where we stand now.
And of course, in recent years, you guys have been really stockpiling futures, probably maybe looking a little bit more at ceilings of players because now, as the team is becoming more competitive. Does it change your approach to scouting or what you're looking for at all, or has there not been much shift there?
No, I think we always strive to learn from the past and understand better where value lies and understand ourselves as a group and where, if we have tendencies and learn from our mistakes, learn from our successes. I think that ultimately guides us in how we go about strategizing around different picks.
I went to ask you about one prospect that's already been drafted, Maxime Massé. I know that when you guys drafted him, there were a lot of exciting things as far as his size, his competitiveness and maybe some offensive upside. But his D+1, D+2 years, he's really taken off in terms of his junior career. He's up there with guys who went first overall in terms of accomplishments. Has there been anything in his development that's surprised you, and do you think his ceiling has come up in the two years since you guys selected him?
I think he's continued to develop really well. I think what made him an attractive pick, still makes him an attractive prospect is his offensive hockey sense and his ability to finish. The quickness of his release, the hand-eye coordination around the net, are still the tools that make him an important prospect for us. Where he has progressed is athletically. He understands he will need to continue to develop in that respect, and that has guided his transition to the NCAA next year for more seasoning and maybe more time to be active in the gym. His skating, his power has improved a lot. But he understands it needs to keep improving for him to do the same thing in the NHL level and he's going to give himself the time to get that done.
How much of a priority is it for you guys to move into this year's first round? Or is it much of a priority at all? If so, do you feel like you've got the assets to be able to pull something like that?
I don't know if it's a priority. Would we like to get up from 50th overall as we stand today? I would say yes. I think it has more to do with how we view the prospect pool, the draft pool this year and where we see the best value. It’s nice to want to do something, but you need a partner to do it. I think opportunities will arise because, as you are well aware, many teams have a lot of picks in the top-60. So we think teams will be willing to move around the draft floor at the draft board. So, hopefully, we're involved.
We’ve seen this trend of players out of Canadian juniors move into the NCAA ranks. What do you think that's done in terms of the development of prospects, those that have switched into college play?
I think it's a little early to tell so far. A few guys clearly have parlayed that into an even quicker transition at the NHL level. A little easier to do what you do well once you've established you can do it well against stronger players. Having said that, it might impact five guys in a draft year. Many more than that have made the switch. Many more who have decided to go at 18, some have gone at 19. After a few years, it's going to be interesting to look back and see who really benefits from moving quickly, who should stay back and get more responsibility, more ice time, bigger responsibilities. How does that affect their development curve? Making sure that they're physically ready for that opportunity and that they’re impactful players once they get there. But generally, I will say that it does give us––our perspective––it does give us a midpoint between somebody who might not be quite physically or even mentally ready to be a pro and go through the grind of an 82-game schedule in the American League. So that would be a nice midpoint to be able to compete against stronger, if not as talented, guys at the American League level. You get to play half the games against stronger guys. You can adapt. You can see how you match up in that respect. It’s early to conclude, but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next two to three years.
Going off of that NCAA question, there’s a handful of draft eligibles that played in the NCAA that are projected in the first round: Keaton Verhoeff, Gavin McKenna, Tynan Lawrence. How much of a grace period do you give those players when they're making that huge adjustment, and how do you kind of equate that into your scouting process?
Our veteran US scout Steve Lyons will start every discussion about those players with that statement. You’re talking about an 18-year-old playing against a 22-year-old. How many of them have had success, and look how much success this or that player's had at such a young age at that level. So, yes, we obviously take that perspective when we evaluate players. Is it a time variant? Is it just being cognizant of the strength differential between players? I think it varies depending on who we're talking about. There are different sets of answers to that question, talking about Verhoeff versus talking about Lawrence, for instance. Face different challenges in different roles and where they are physically in their development.
You stated a couple of times now that you're interested in moving around your draft position. I was wondering what goes into predicting who's going to go where at a certain point in the draft. Is that just a collaborative effort? For instance, when you guys traded up for Stian Solberg a couple of years ago, how did you calculate that he wasn't going to be there at 31, so you had to trade up to 23 to grab him?
We're gonna keep that one to ourselves, if you don't mind. *laughs* When you think you've got a competitive advantage like that, you want to make sure that you keep it for our use. We do think we have an edge in that respect.
Today, the USHL announced its westward expansion into Southern California, Orange County, San Diego. What's your view of that league in terms of what kind of players it produces and how it kind of factors into the developmental pipeline of hockey in the United States?
Too early to answer that. I want to see how that expansion really affects where the good players end up going. If you ask me at this second, how does NCAA eligibility impact where prospects are going, I would say the CHL is getting younger and the USHL is losing some of their better prospects. So how does bringing in more teams help? I'm not quite sure. Let's see what the ownership groups are. Let's see how they decide to divide up the USHL. Is it going to be tiered? Is it going to be geographically done? Too many questions to answer. The one thing that I think is fun for us in California is for minor hockey players in the state and Western kids in general, if they want to stay home, they'll be able to stay home a little longer and play a meaningful level of competitive hockey for a few more years. So that's certainly a positive from our perspective.
Let's just hear your view of the league in general, though, in terms of what kind of players it produces. What’s your review of the league in general?
The USHL has been a really competitive and good level for the last decade, at the very least. And while the style is different than the CHL, the number of players that were prospects in the amount of time that we spent covering it in the past 10 years has been equal. It was a true Tier 1 league at the junior level. But I'm just not sure how it all shakes out. I know a few teams will capitalize and will compete strongly to keep players in the league, so let's see. But the USHL has been a Tier 1 league that we respect and scout broadly for as long as I have been a Duck. That's for sure.
Last year, before the draft, you had said that Beckett Sennecke was one good summer away from putting things all together. Then he went out and had that fantastic rookie season this past year. Where do you see the progression in the same way for Roger McQueen?
I think for Beckett, it happened really quickly. He put in a great effort over the summer and then it happened really quickly for him from the start of rookie training camp to the end of the NHL training camp. You can see his confidence grow over that course, and he just took off from there. Roger comes from a different place in that you look at the last three years and the number of games that he's played, let's temper our expectations. Not that we see the player much differently in terms of talent and upside, but the last three years prior to first pro years have been different. It was nice to see him perform well in San Diego at the end of the year. It was a nice step. It was a good experience for him, introduction to pro hockey and I know he's going to work hard and come in with a mindset to compete for a job. But I would temper that. I'm not sure he's quite at the place Beckett was at the same stage last year.
And then going back to the 2023 draft, Leo Carlsson’s turned out to be a fantastic player. Not that we didn't know he was going to be one, but I just look at the rest of the draft class. You guys were comfortable moving Carey Terrance for Chris Kreider last summer. Damian Clara looks like he's developing pretty well, had a great performance at the Olympics. But I look at the rest of the draft class and, just from my perspective, it feels like their development has stalled for various reasons. Why do you think that it's kind of been that way for them?
Let me answer generally. It’s not a linear thing, development. So, at times, it takes more time than we'd like. Let’s see in two years where the rest of the draft class is and, hopefully, some of these kids step up and show that we were right in selecting them. Otherwise, we'll keep drafting players to compete from the Ducks and hopefully we'll do better than the rest of the league at it.
We've seen in the past day or two, a lot of first-round picks and even top-10 picks have been moved around. Is that surprising to you? How do you kind of assess things when something like that happens?
I think two different things: the free agent pool this year is not deep. You've got many, many teams who were ready to be competitive and want to be competitive quickly, so you've got an upward surge in contract values putting pressure on other teams to make decisions earlier than before. I am surprised that top-10 picks are involved because I think the top-15 of this draft is quite strong. But I think those were the main factors that led to what we've seen in the last few days.
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