Graduated Prospect: Leo Carlsson

By Thomas Harrington

Anaheim chose Leo Carlsson in the first round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, second overall. There was no question that Connor Bedard was going to be the first pick. The question was whether or not Carlsson or Adam Fantilli would go second. A year later, both Anaheim and Columbus are pretty happy with who they chose second and third overall.

When Anaheim picked Carlsson, it wasn’t immediately clear if he would play for the Ducks. He could play in the NHL, AHL, or spend another year in the SHL before coming to North America. In the end, it was decided that he’d play in Anaheim, but he started the season out by not playing in every game. In what was dubbed the Leo Plan, he started by playing only a couple of games every week, and then increasing the number of games as the season went along. It remains to be seen if giving Carlsson fewer games will help his development long term, but hopefully it will have.

He also missed some games with injuries, and ended up playing in 55 games and scored 12 goals and 29 points. He finished the season tied for 12th among goal scoring for rookies and 12th in points. If Carlsson had played in all 82 games and scored at a similar pace, he probably would have finished the season fifth in points among rookies.

Carlsson scored in his NHL debut against Dallas, and recorded his first career hat trick against Philadelphia in November. Unfortunately, he hit a bit of a wall in early December, and didn’t score again until the end of February, though he was injured for part of that time. Despite not lighting the world on fire, Carlsson had a solid rookie season and showed why Anaheim was right to pick him second overall. He’s an incredibly skilled and smart player. His potential is sky high and he should only get better as he adjusts to the NHL going forward.

Carlsson was Anaheim’s top center many nights, and played with Alex Killorn and Cutter Gauthier to end the season. It remains to be seen if the three stay together next year, but they looked good together. Carlsson and Killorn in particular played together a lot towards the end of the year and seemed to be developing some nice chemistry. This was Guathier’s first career game, and he looked comfortable playing with Carlsson and Killorn. If this does end up being Anaheim’s top line next season, I doubt they’ll be a dominant line, but they should be a very good one. It will also mean that the Ducks are spreading their offense out across three lines, as Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras, Frank Vatrano, and Troy Terry are all capable of putting up offensive numbers.

Carlsson has two more years left on his entry-level deal. Similar to many of the other graduated prospects from this past season, there’s no question the Ducks are going to extend him; the question is for how long. As early as next summer, the Ducks can sign him to an eight-year extension. Pat Verbeek has let both Zegras and Terry finish their contracts before negotiating an extension with them. He’ll probably follow a similar pattern with Carlsson, but if he does extend McTavish early, that could be a sign he’ll do something similar with Carlsson.

With the graduated prospects now complete, it’s time to turn to the prospect updates, starting with defenseman Drew Helleson.

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Graduated Prospect: Olen Zellweger

Graduated Prospect: Lukas Dostal

Graduated Prospect: Pavel Mintyukov

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July 14th, 2024