The only certainty is uncertainty when it comes to who the Ducks will select with their third overall pick, just the way Pat Verbeek and co. want it.
The only certainty is uncertainty when it comes to who the Ducks will select with their third overall pick, just the way Pat Verbeek and co. want it.
The 2024 NHL Entry Draft is fast approaching while news and rumors are flying out of Las Vegas fast and furious.
The San Jose Sharks won the Draft Lottery in May and the number one selection has been locked up since, Boson University star forward and Hobey Baker Award winner Macklin Celebrini. All indications point toward the Chicago Blackhawks heavily leaning toward Michigan State standout defenseman Artyom Levshunov with their second overall pick.
That means the draft truly starts with the third overall selection and the Anaheim Ducks. Notoriously tight-lipped, next to zero information is leaking out of Pat Verbeek's camp. It's the first true inflection point of the draft.
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The Ducks are in an envious position where they have a relatively deep and potent pool of young players at every position and there's no pressing need for the organization.
There isn't a public consensus on who the top players in this draft are after Celebrini and there seems to be even less consensus among NHL teams.
"We’re going to go with the old boring way and say that we’re going to go with the best player available according to our opinion and our projection." Ducks Assistant General Manager and Director of Amateur Scouting Martin Madden told local media last week.
Madden stated that to that point, eight players were under consideration for their selection at third overall.
Monday, Gabriel Foley of recruitscouting.com reported he heard the Ducks were leaning toward six players; forwards Beckett Sennecke, Cayden Lindstrom, and Tij Iginla as well as defensemen Anton Silayev, Carter Yakemchuk, and Sam Dickinson.
Noticeably absent from this collection of players are standout defensemen Zayne Parekh and Southern California native Zeev Buium.
The Athletic's Scott Wheeler reported Wednesday that he believes Oshawa Generals' winger Sennecke is "firmly in the mix" for the Ducks.
Also on Wednesday, former NHL scout and founder of recrutes.ca stated he heard from a "very tied-in source" that Anaheim is considering remarkably mobile 6-foot-7 defensive-defenseman Silayev.
On Silayev, he didn't attend the NHL's Scouting Combine and isn't a Gold Star client, so he wasn't at their showcase in Florida last week and teams didn't have the chance to meet with him under those circumstances. All the teams selecting in the top-five of the draft met with him previously and he was scheduled to interview, assess, and run through physical testing with all top-ten teams during draft week.
Elite Prospects' Cam Robinson threw out some tidbits while at the pool in Las Vegas regarding the Ducks' pick. He stated Levshunov is "all but locked in" as the second overall selection with the Blackhawks.
He questioned if the Ducks were going to pick Silayev or Dickinson. He mentioned that the Ducks "may like Zayne Parekh more" than Dickinson and speculated if they may wind up selecting Demidov after all.
A few hours later, Robinson posted another poolside report regarding talented Russian winger Demidov. He said he's heard "he's not going three to Anaheim."
With Demidov seemingly off the table for the Ducks' selection at the top of the NHL Draft, there are still several directions they can go.
The name that's been most consistently mocked to the Ducks has been Silayev from Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL. The name that's been linked to the Ducks most frequently of late has been the "late-rising" Sennecke.
There isn't an outlet that seems to have a firm grasp of what the Ducks are thinking with their top pick.
Pat Verbeek, Martin Madden, and the Ducks scouting staff will continue to have discussions on all these players and solidify their list before hitting the draft floor at 4 pm on Friday afternoon.
The only thing that is constant in all reports regarding Anaheim is that most everything to come out of the Ducks' camp is speculation due to their tight-lipped nature.
We will find out soon if all these rumors will be confirmed or if they were simply smokescreens. The 2024 NHL Draft truly does start at number-three with the Anaheim Ducks.
Report: Verbeek Speaks at Combine, Offers Little to No Update on Gibson and Zegras "Rumors"