The Ducks’ five-day rookie camp came to a close on Monday night with a 2-1 overtime defeat against the Los Angeles Kings.
Anaheim showed all their colors over the three games that they played in the tournament: a close win, a blowout loss and a narrow loss.
Cutter Gauthier, Sam Colangelo and Tristan Luneau showed why they’ve already been given NHL games so early into their pro careers, with each of them playing large roles.
Gauthier and Colangelo both had multiple points and were held out of the final game, but showed chemistry as linemates in both of those games.
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“Played against Sammy a little bit in college when he was Northeastern so (I) kind of know his game,” Gauthier said. “He’s a big boy, he’s smart and he can finish too.”
After playing wing in his lone NHL game, Gauthier was back in the middle for rookie camp, a position he spent most of his collegiate career at.
“That’s the advantage of guys who can play multiple positions,” San Diego Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. “So we could slide Cutter in there.”
Luneau had just one point in three games but he was a fixture on the Ducks’ blue line, playing in all situations. This was Luneau’s first taste of 5v5 action in a competitive setting in almost a year after he missed the last four months of the 2023-24 season due to a staph infection.
“I think what I saw from Tristan in these games, through this tournament, was steady progress,” McIlvane said. “Our key is a head start for main camp and I think that’s what he got.”
Anaheim’s second game of the tournament saw the first game action for Russian goaltender Vyacheslav “Slava” Buteyets (boo-THAI-yets), who signed his entry-level contract (ELC) in May.
The lopsided result (a 7-2 loss to the Macklin Celebrini-less San Jose Sharks) was more about sloppy play in front of Buteyets and players beginning to force the issue as the game got out of hand rather than a poor performance from the goaltender.
Related: Takeaways from the Ducks 7-2 Loss Against the Sharks in Rookie Faceoff
“We left him out to dry a lot,” McIlvane said. “(The Sharks) certainly had some great shots that went in, but there’s too much around the net—penalty kill included—where poor Slava has no chance. I…