Derek Lee and Patrick Present Answer reader questions submitted at the end of August Rookie camp is just about a week away and on Tuesday, the Ducks announced their roster for camp and the upcoming rookie faceoff tournament that will be held in El Segundo, Calif. from Sept. 13-16. There are 29 players on the Ducks’ rookie camp roster. 23 of those players are part of the Ducks organization and 16 of those players are currently under contract. Cutter Gauthier, Tristan Luneau and Beckett Sennecke are a few of the headliners on the Ducks’ rookie camp roster. Both Gauthier and Luneau saw NHL action this past season while Sennecke was drafted third overall by the Ducks in June. With just eight games of NHL experience combined under their belts, it’s not a huge surprise to see Gauthier and Luneau taking part in rookie camp and the rookie tournament. The former attended development camp in July while the latter was unable to take part in on-ice activities from January to April due to a staph infection. Sennecke was seen wearing a boot during training camp for the Oshawa Generals [https://twitter.com/generalsupdates/status/1829200112477974539?s=46] at the end of August and it was revealed on Thursday that he suffered a foot fracture [https://twitter.com/anaheimducks/status/1831850067864776995?s=46] during offseason training. He is expected to be out for 6-8 weeks and will not take part in on-ice activities at rookie camp or play in the rookie tournament. The one other player on the camp roster besides Sennecke listed as injured is goaltender Tomáš Suchánek. Suchánek suffered a ruptured right ACL and will likely miss the entire 2024-25 season after having successful surgery to repair it. He had crutches and a brace on his right leg in a recent post from his Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/p/C_fMwUoRVlh/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==]. Other notable names on the roster include Yegor Sidorov, Nathan Gaucher, Rodwin Dionicio, Sam Colangelo and goaltender Vyacheslav Buteyets. Sidorov will get his first taste of pro hockey this season after signing his entry-level contract (ELC) this past April. He was one of the top goalscorers in the entire CHL and showed his goalscoring prowess in the WHL Playoffs, leading all players in goals. Gaucher’s first season as a pro was a mixed bag, though it was revealed by Ducks director of player development, Jim Johnson, that Gaucher battled injuries for most of the season [https://www.nhl.com/ducks/news/ducks-of-tomorrow-forward-prospect-update-with-director-of-player-development-jim-johnson]. A strong offseason and a clean bill health should help set Gaucher up for a better sophomore season as a pro. The expectation was that Dionicio would play in Switzerland for EHC Biel-Bienne in 2024-25 after it was announced in January that he had signed a three-year contract [https://twitter.com/ehcbiel/status/1747166877724348491?s=46] with them. However, that no longer appears to be the case. Dionicio will play for the San Diego Gulls in the AHL [https://www.nhl.com/es/news/rodwin-dionicio-el-joven-dominicano-trotamundos-a-las-puertas-de-la-nhl] after the Ducks became satisfied with how much he had improved his frame. "His body had completely changed," Johnson said. "He is a good skater in attack and has great offensive instincts. The aspect of training is very important: how you feed your body, how you rest properly, how you have good nutrition. All that was noticeable in his game. With his offensive instincts, the sky is the limit." Colangelo is one of the few Ducks prospects on the camp roster with NHL experience. He appeared in four games for the Gulls on a professional tryout (PTO) after his collegiate career ended before signing his ELC and playing in the Ducks’ last three games of the season. He scored his first NHL goal in his first game. This season will be Buteyets’ first experience playing professionally in North America after he signed his ELC in May. He spent the last two seasons playing for his hometown club Chelmet Chelyabinsk in the VHL in Russia. Buteyets’ English is minimal, but Gulls goaltending coach Jeff Glass spent nearly a decade playing in the KHL and didn’t appear to have any issues communicating with the young Russian during development camp. With Calle Clang and new signing Oscar Dansk [https://www.nhl.com/ducks/news/ducks-sign-goaltender-dansk-to-one-year-two-way-contract] ahead of him and filling the two goaltender spots in San Diego, the expectation is that Buteyets will begin the season in the ECHL with the Tulsa Oilers. Several of the six camp invites have ties to prospects in the Ducks organization. Thomas Desruisseaux and Loic Usereau are teammates of Maxim Massé with the Chicoutimi Saguenéens. Simon Lovsin was Nico Myatovic’s teammate last season with the Seattle Thunderbirds and goaltender Michael McIvor is Ethan Procyszyn’s teammate with the North Bay Battalion. The two remaining camp invites are intriguing as well. First, there’s Ruslan Gazizov from the London Knights, who has been passed over in the draft three times. A shade under six feet, Gazizov has shown he can put the puck in the net, scoring 23 and then 36 goals the past two seasons for the Knights. His strong play in the OHL Playoffs and Memorial Cup [https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/passed-over-twice-ruslan-gazizov-is-bolstering-his-nhl-draft-stock-at-memorial-cup] show he is capable of showing up in big moments. Then there’s Jaxsin Vaughan of the Regina Pats. A physical and gritty player, Vaughan had 25 points in 59 games for the Pats this past season while racking up 82 penalty minutes. Vaughan also has an identical twin brother, Corbin, who also plays for the Pats. Corbin was invited to the Los Angeles Kings’ development camp in July. The Vaughan brothers, known in Regina as the “Bash Brothers,” are of Indigenous heritage [https://www.nhl.com/news/color-of-hockey-vaughan-twins-could-be-selected-in-2024-nhl-draft], members of the Lower Nicola Indian Band, a Nlaka’pamux First Nations government in British Columbia. Defenseman Stian Solberg and goaltender Damian Clara are notable omissions from the camp roster, with both unable to partake due to being at training camp in Sweden with Färjestad. The same can be said for Lucas Pettersson (MoDo) and Daryls Uljanskis (AIK J20) who were both drafted in June along with Sennecke and Solberg. Bookmark The Hockey News Anaheim Ducks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/anaheim-ducks/] team site to never miss news, interviews or any other updates on the Ducks. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXObxwlRA-g[/embed]
