Ducks 2024 Rookie Tournament Recap

By Thomas Harrington

This past weekend, Anaheim’s prospects participated in the 2024 Rookie Faceoff. They finished with a record of 1-1-1. To me, wins and losses don’t really matter all that much in a tournament like this. Instead, what matters is how good the players look, and how they learn from mistakes and difficult moments. I was able to watch the first two games in full, but only caught parts of the third. 

Game One – Ducks 4 – Avs 3

Game one saw Anaheim’s prospects face off against Colorado’s. Calle Clang got the start in net, and was arguably the Ducks’ best player in this game. It was a high-spirited game that saw a lot of action at both ends of the ice. The Ducks launched 47 shots on net and scored four times. The Ducks opened the scoring in this one. Alexandre Blais won the faceoff in the offensive zone. Coulson Pitre collected the puck, shot it, and Blais tipped it home. In the second period, Tyson Hinds made a good play to keep the puck in the offensive zone, and then headed to the front of the net where he got the puck back and scored. Colorado got on the board a little later in the period, scoring on the powerplay.

In the third, Anaheim’s top line of Cutter Gauthier, Yegor Sidorov, and Sam Colangelo really took over. Gauthier took a shot on net, collected the rebound in the corner, and just threw the puck at the net. It hit the goaltender and bounced in to make it 3-1. The Avalanche then won a faceoff in the offensive zone and scored to make it a one-goal game again. Later, Gauthier and Sidorov had a two-on-one break, Gauthier fed Sidorov the puck, and he scored on a great one-time blast. Colorado scored one more powerplay goal to make it 4-3. The Ducks were awarded a powerplay late in the game, but opted to play conservatively to let the clock run out and won the game.

Overall, Anaheim had a solid first game of the tournament. At forward, Sidorov and Blais really stood out to me, while I thought the entire defense looked really good. Even when a mistake was made, the players did a good job of getting back into position and disrupting Colorado’s play. This was Tristan Luneau’s first game since last December. He wasn’t perfect, but his skating looked very good and he impressed me given how much time he missed. Despite the high volume of shots, it rarely felt like the Avalanche were incredibly dangerous. Clang didn’t make any truly breathtaking saves, but was solid and stopped 39 of the 42 shots he faced. The biggest issue for Anaheim was special teams play. They gave up multiple powerplay goals while failing to score a goal on several chances. 

Game Two – Sharks 7 – Ducks 2

Game two saw the Ducks’ prospects face the Sharks’, and this one didn’t go as well. Vyacheslav Buteyets was in net for the Ducks in this one. This was his first game in North America. While the final score wasn’t flattering for him, it certainly wasn’t his fault. The first period was entertaining, as both teams had several chances and the clock moved quickly. The Sharks scored the first goal, but the Ducks got a powerplay late in the first, and Gauthier scored his second goal of the tournament with seconds left in the period. In the second, things fell apart for Anaheim. The Sharks scored two powerplay goals to make it 3-1, and that second one just gave them all the momentum.

From that point on, the Sharks were the better team and were buzzing in Anaheim’s zone for most of the rest of the game. In the third, the Sharks scored on the powerplay again, and then scored at even strength to make it 5-1. With both teams skating at four on four, the Sharks scored again, before Sidorov scored his second goal of the tournament to stop the bleeding. San Jose scored again just before time expired and won 7-2.

This game had an ugly score, but the Ducks were competitive for much of the first two periods. Things really fell apart once it was a 3-1 game. Rodwin Dionicio really stood out to me as Anaheim’s most noticeable player on the ice. He was making plays happen at both ends of the ice and was probably Anaheim’s most consistent skater in their first two games. The Ducks were just out of sync in this game, which isn’t that surprising given how little these players have been together. These kinds of scores happen at rookie tournaments. The important thing is to learn from this one and move on.

Game Three – Kings 2 – Ducks 1

The final game had Anaheim’s prospects face off against Los Angeles’. Buteyets was given the start in this one, though the plan was for him to only play half the game, and give camp invite Michael McIvor the net for the last half of the game. Both Gauthier and Colangelo were given the game off, letting others get to play higher in the lineup. Neither team scored in the first, but the Kings grabbed the lead early in the second. Late in the game, Pitre scored a powerplay goal to tie the game and eventually send it to overtime. There, the Kings found the goal and won 2-1.

Again, I don’t think records in this kind of tournament are all that meaningful. Instead, what’s much more important is how the players looked individually and how they played together as a team, and overall, I liked what I saw. Even in the loss to San Jose, the Ducks played well for the most part. Yes, the game got away from them, but that happens in rookie tournaments all the time. The important thing was the next day, without arguably their two best forwards, the Ducks responded and kept the game close.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Gauthier looks ready for the NHL, and Colangelo looked very good as well. But the forward who impressed me the most was Sidorov. He scored 50 goals in the WHL last year and that skill showed throughout this tournament. Blais also stood out to me. I’d never seen him play and came away very impressed with him. On defense, Luneau definitely made some mistakes, but given how much time he missed, he looked very good, especially his skating. But the defenseman who impressed me the most was Dionicio. He was constantly pushing the play, drawing penalties, and setting up scoring chances. Clang was very good in his one game and will hopefully put last year’s struggles behind him.

However, there were also some noticeable flaws from Anaheim’s prospects. Most notable was their special teams play. While they didn’t give up any powerplay goals to Los Angeles, they gave up three powerplay goals to both Colorado and San Jose, while only scoring two powerplay goals of their own across the three games. With better special teams they probably beat Los Angeles, the game against Colorado isn’t that close, and the game against San Jose is significantly closer. The other big issue was the final period against San Jose. Once the Sharks went up by two, it felt like the Ducks had no answer and couldn’t stop San Jose from doing what they wanted. Again, these kinds of games happen at rookie tournaments, but you still don’t want to be on the receiving end of it. The good thing is the Ducks bounced back with a better effort against Los Angeles.

Overall, this tournament went fine for the Ducks. No one prospect truly dominated, but no one looked terrible and, as far as I know, Anaheim suffered no major injuries. It’s unfortunate that both Beckett Sennecke and Tomas Suchanek were injured before the tournament and unable to participate, but at least others were able to get more playing time as a result. Training camp and the preseason are upon us. Expect many of these players to get a game or two of action and then be sent to their junior teams or the AHL.

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September 17th, 2024