THN Anaheim reporters Patrick Present and Derek Lee participated in an exclusive discussion via Zoom call with Ducks assistant general manager Martin Madden to get an overview of the Ducks' prospects and Madden's role in the time leading up to the NHL Scouting Combine and the NHL Draft. Questions and responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

It’s busy season for you with the draft about six weeks away. What's the schedule look like between now and then with the draft combine, meetings and other things?

I'm preparing for meetings. We always have our last organizational meetings at the combine. 
That's the way we've done it for as long as I've been here. So guys are individually preparing their list, they’re interviewing players, they're following up with the coaches and GMs. They'll do that until the week prior, then we'll have some regional meetings prior to getting to Buffalo, and then we'll meet in the morning over there and have our interviews in the afternoon.

You guys hold the number 10 pick. Not getting into specifics, but looking back, not many top-10 picks are traded at or near the draft. Why do you think that's a philosophy within organizations when it comes to those top-10 picks?

I just think that most staffs, most GMs, you see it coming throughout the season. You work hard to assess those top-15 guys in the draft. You know them best. 
You know what you like, you know what you want, and, as it gets closer, you don't want to let that go. I think that's why most of those picks are never traded.

And speaking to that, the past handful of seasons, you're not just the Director of Amateur Scouting, you're also assistant GM. 
What is your input or influence on a player's development after they're drafted? Are you making those calls at all?

No, no, I am not. What I do provide is my perspective, my opinion. But Jim Johnson leads the development staff. 
He's had a few different guys over the last few years. They’ve spent the most time watching our guys and dealing with them individually. So what we do as an amateur staff, what I'll do, is relay what we've seen because we do get to see our own guys quite a bit. We don't go as deep, we don't go back and watch 15 games of video like his staff would, but we're there. We’re in the rink. 
We hear stuff. We know stuff around them, around their teams, right? Because it's not just about them, it's about their environment, and that we provide for sure, and what I think I provide is a lot of experience seeing how young players evolve and the path that they take on their way to becoming NHL players, and I think that's where my input is valuable.

For example, when Brian Dumoulin was traded at the trade deadline (to the New Jersey Devils) and Herman Träff was brought in, were you giving Pat reports on him and what you've seen from him?

Actually, all of our scouts continue to write reports about other teams' prospects, other draft-eligible, but not first-year draft-eligible players. The guys that are drafted, most of them end up playing at the World Juniors or some of the other international tournaments if they’re European kids. So, in his case, we did see him play in November at the Five Nations (tournament), and we saw him at the World Juniors again. (Ducks general manager) 
Pat (Verbeek) was there. (Ducks assistant general manager) Mike Stapleton was there at the World Juniors. Jim was there. 
I had four different guys come through on the amateur side as well. So, yeah, we have a book on all organizational prospects, ours and the other teams.

This new NCAA-CHL agreement that's being put into place where CHL players are now eligible to play in the NCAA. 
How does that kind of change the landscape towards what you do? Does it extend a player's rights within the club? For instance, if Tarin Smith were to go play in the NCAA next season, would you retain his rights for the duration of his college career?

We were told that the CBA addresses situations like this, so CHL players would be just like USHL players in the past. So if they do sign a letter of intent to go and play college, draft rights would be extended, just like USHL players or draft rights get extended over time. Whether that's good or bad is another discussion and I think it really comes down to individual cases. Some players need extra development time. 
Other players don't. What they need is to be stretched, to be put under the microscope right away, because, physically, they can deal with it, mentally, they can deal with it. They need to adapt now, not four years from now. So it'll be interesting to see how it all works out and who's helped by this change and how it all evolves over time. Because right now, it looks like the NCAA is a winner in terms of being able to attract talent. Lots of CHL guys have signed letters of intent to continue their careers there. Let's see how it goes over the next three, four years.

Beckett Sennecke is the most high-profile prospect in the Ducks’ pipeline right now. He had a productive season, but also a couple of suspensions. How do you feel this season went overall for that guy?

Really well. I think we're all very pleased with his development. He had to deal with a lot from the start, from the draft on. So, lots of different ways that he had to adapt and become aware of his own reactions and his own emotions related to everything. Off-ice reactions, on-ice. 
How do you deal with the spotlight? How do you deal with (being left off the World Juniors squad)? How do you rebound after that? 
How do you lead your team in the playoffs? How do you come back from injury? He grew as a person, he grew as a prospect. 
He had a terrific season.

As far as I know, his options next year are either full-time NHL or CHL or again, how far away do you think he is from making the jump to full-time NHL player and what aspects do you think he needs to improve upon?

I'll leave the second one for development staff, but 
I'll say for the first one, he's close. He's one really good summer away from being able to compete physically with NHL players, in my mind. There's no doubt he's got the talent to make the jump. 
Now, he just needs to seize the opportunity and that comes with pressure. Let’s see what the team looks like in September, October and where he fits at that point. It's his to take, I think.

Stian Solberg, he started this season with Färjestad in the SHL, first pro season outside of Norway. It was a little up and down and then he ended up finishing the season with San Diego in the AHL. 
What kind of went into that decision to bring him over to North America at the end?

That was not my decision, so I would ask you to ask the proper person for that aspect of it. But in the end, we did need bodies. 
We had a lot of injuries (in San Diego). I don't think they valued him enough in Färjestad to deserve to keep him around for longer, that’s just my personal take. I think he proved in his short stint in San Diego, and right now at the World Championships, that he has a really valuable role already. He can have an impact when you trust him with ice time.

On the flip side of that, Rodwin Dionicio was with San Diego to start and then he ended up going to Biel in Switzerland. What kind of went into that decision, whether you played a part in it or not?

First of all, Rodwin has moved around a lot over the last four years and at some point, different people need different things. And I think Rodwin needed to be closer to home to be at his best when that move was made. He played well once he got there. 
He had some flashes in San Diego as well, but I would leave it at that.

A couple of guys who were taken in the late first round and early second round played in San Diego this season: Nathan Gaucher and Nico Myatovic. They struggled to produce a little bit early in the season, but kind of turned it on towards the end of the year. 
Nathan finished with 10 points in his last 12 games before he got hurt. Nico had nine in his last 13. Is this kind of what you expected from their trajectories as they adjust to the pros?

I think they are two completely different situations. Nathan has had to deal with a couple of really important injuries that have set him back a little bit since we drafted them. And unfortunately, he hurt himself right before camp, so it took him a while to get going this year because of that. And then unfortunately, ended the season with injury as well. But he grew a lot in terms of his confidence with the puck, offensively. Overall, his offensive play grew as he gained confidence, establishing himself as a hard player to play against on the defensive side. They were using him in a checking role, 
PK. But as the season went on, his skating got better and better, and I think that helped with time and space, so he had more confidence in his hands. He had more confidence to look around and make plays.

Whereas Nico, I think Nico's been a slow starter at the junior level, and the pro level. He needs to be comfortable in his environment and understand exactly all the variables and how he fits in and how he needs to adapt to be at his best. 
So it didn't surprise me that it took a while. What I liked the most about his play is that he was playing fast at the end of the year. Early on, you could see that he was observing the play a lot, he wasn't using his speed, he wasn't using his athleticism as much as he had the previous season in juniors. So it was nice to see that he was back playing at pace and showing confidence in his abilities on the forecheck, but with the puck as well.

A couple of the guys that were on the NHL team this year, Cutter (Gauthier) and Leo (Carlsson)—when they were drafted, they were always listed as average skaters in the media scouting reports. 
But this season, we kind of saw some big-time flashes of elite skating from the two of them. How much of a factor is skating when you're drafting a player like that, and how much can they improve upon it in the years following their draft?

Well, I think those scouting reports were wrong, first of all, especially for Cutter Gauthier. He’s always been a good skater. He’s not even close to being average, as far I'm concerned. I think he saw that this year for sure. Leo, he’s a late bloomer physically, so he's had to adapt a little bit like Beckett. 
He's had to adapt to his growing frame over the last four years. In his draft year, even before his draft year, maybe the last half year before his draft season, his skating really improved as he got stronger and the stride is natural. He's got a really good glide. There was more of a question of explosiveness and strength. So, when that is the case, I think it's easier to improve your skating when you just need to get in the gym and work hard and add muscle to your legs. The technical aspect is a little bit more difficult to improve because of muscle memory. 
You just need lots and lots of repetition, and it can be done, it’s just more difficult.

I wanted to ask about Sasha Pastujov. He started the season in ECHL, then came back to the AHL and he had a really great season. He and Yegor Sidorov, they’re kind of similar players in the style of being prolific goalscorers at the junior level, and now they've kind of maybe got to reinvent themselves a little bit at the pro level. 
Where do you see the role for someone like Pastujov or Sidorov kind of being moving into this next season?

First of all, Sasha showed lots of character by going to the E. I think he would be the first to say he didn't have a good camp and probably deserved to be in the ECHL to start the year, but he didn't hang his head and he had put in lots of work in the summer. He's a great kid, but he's got character. He worked his butt off all summer to get stronger and to get a little faster because that's what he needs to improve. His speed and skating overall, but his speed in particular, and he put in the work and for some reason, it didn't come through during training camp. He went back there, got his confidence back, got his legs back going, and didn’t miss a beat by the time he got back to San Diego. 
So his capacity to adapt to read the play, to handle the puck is natural. And when he was able to come back and play at pace, production followed, I don't think producing is ever going to be a big, difficult thing for Sasha. I think he's got that naturally. His awareness is great, his touch is very good.

Sid is a strong skater. He's maybe not the fastest, but he's got great edges. 
He's quick in and out of holes. He’s a good playmaker, but he's mostly a shooter, and he was certainly that in junior. So when you move to pro and you need to adapt to being more of a give-and-go guy to get your time and space, to find free ice in the offensive zone, it’s not as easy to do it against pro defenders as it is against junior defenders. And you get into more contact situations and your time and space is much less, so you need to adapt that way and you need to make sure that you don't put yourself in difficult situations where you might get hurt. It happened a few times where he took some big hits, doing the things that he was doing in juniors and now he just needs to adapt them because the production was still there. So the next step is getting a little faster and finding a way to be more of a collective player in the defensive zone.

Goaltender 
Damian Clara was also with Färjestad this season, moved to Kärpat for a little bit and then came over to North America. Would the expectation be that he's going to go back to Europe and play over there?

I think that's still in question. See what he thinks is best and where there would be a fit. It was a great fit in Brynäs the previous season and he wanted to honor Färjestad’s contract. 
They gave him a break coming out of Italy, and they moved him along well in their junior system. For some reason, it was up and down this year there. It wasn't the greatest fit. I don't know if it was a question of systems or personalities or just playing at a higher level and being able to adapt because it was this first season in the SHL. 
So we’ll see where that takes us, but he finished on a strong note and we're still very confident in his abilities to be a good NHL goaltender.

Lucas Pettersson is moving to Brynäs to play with guys like (Jakob) Silverberg and a couple of other former Ducks. He had a little bit of a tough season with MoDo and going on loan to Östersunds. 
What did you kind of see from him (this season)? Kind of in the same way where Beckett was left off the Team Canada roster for World Juniors. Lucas was also left off the Team Sweden roster.

Well, he wasn't given a chance to make the Team Sweden roster as far as I’m concerned. He was really good in summer (during the Summer Showcase), he looked like he belonged for sure. But then he spent three months playing four minutes a night. 
It's tough to show what you can do, right? It affects your confidence and clearly, his confidence was affected by that until he got enough games in a row at a lower level where he showed that his offensive game was still there, his speed was still there, his ability to score goals was still there. 
He just needed to play enough that he understood the level of competition and what he needed to do to have success there. So I think he found a good fit for him. I think he's going to be really well surrounded in Brynäs. Yes, it's going to be in the SHL again, so he will need to earn his ice time, but I think he's better prepared for it now. 
He's had to deal with that tough first year. You’re 17 years old, you're not the physically strongest kid yet. Now he's got a full summer without all the pre-draft stuff that you need to deal with when you're going through the draft. 
So now he's got a full, long summer to hit the gym to work himself into the type of shape, physically strong to be able to deal with men in the SHL next year. I think he's in a good spot. He's going to be well surrounded by Silverberg for sure.

Is that his biggest thing as far as his development, just getting bigger and stronger? Because he seems to be a detail-oriented centerman.

Yeah, I think he's really smart both ways. He's got enough skill and speed to think that he will produce offensively at the pro level, in the NHL level. His two-way (play) is really, really, smart. Now, when you play that way, you need to be strong enough to play that way against men, right? So he just wasn't there yet last year.

From the most recent draft class, we talked about Sennecke and Solberg. But a few other guys from that draft class, it's easy to look at producing offensively, just because that's kind of what's on the highlight reels. What have you seen from the rest of that draft class defensively?

Defensively… Can you pick one guy and ask me about one guy? There’s quite a few of them *laughs*

Let’s go with Tarin Smith.

Tarin is such a good skater. 
To me, he's not just an offensive player. If you're gonna use him as an example, I think playing defensively and making good reads are part of his game. So that has never been an issue. 
Yes, he  produced more this season so he can look at, ‘OK, he’s a power play guy because he's producing more.’ The second-year WHL player, he's getting more opportunity to play in those situations, but his game is well-rounded. A little bit like Pettersson, like Lucas, he needs to keep getting stronger and bigger. He keeps growing. I think he added another inch over the past season. He still needs to add mass to say, ‘OK, he's going to be able to defend off the edge as well against pro that he does against junior players.’ 
He's going to be in the way because his feet will allow him to be in the way. Now, is he going to be able to box guys out as easily? Is he ready to do it next year at the pro level? 
I don't think so. He needs more seasoning. He needs more time to get stronger and bigger, to handle those types of situations, but I'm not worried at all about Tarin’s defensive game.

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