{"id":298175,"date":"2025-11-21T00:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298175\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T00:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:19:07","slug":"ducks-pavel-mintyukov-potentially-seeking-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/298175\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks’ Pavel Mintyukov Potentially Seeking Trade?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his recent 32 Thoughts<\/a> blog, Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman reported that Anaheim Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov<\/a> is upset with being scratched in back-to-back games. So much so, in fact, that Friedman indicated that Mintyukov would like to be moved if the Ducks aren\u2019t going to play him.<\/p>\n

Mintyukov, 21, isn\u2019t helping his case too much. The former 10th overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft got off to a decent start to his career during the 2023-24 season, scoring four goals and 28 points in 63 games while averaging 18:51 of ice time per game. He finished 13th in voting for the Calder Memorial Trophy.<\/p>\n

Still, concerns remained about his defensive game, evidenced by his -20 rating and 88.9% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Over the next two years, including 18 games during the 2025-26 season, Mintyukov\u2019s defensive play has improved while his offensive contributions have cratered.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign, Mintyukov has scored five goals and 22 points in 86 contests, averaging 17:07 of ice time per game. Additionally, he\u2019s blocked 109 shots and added 91 hits during that time frame. Further, outside of his boxcar stats, his on-ice save percentage at even strength has improved, averaging around 91.0%.<\/p>\n

Struggling to break out in any meaningful fashion, it\u2019s unsurprising that other prospects such as Jackson LaCombe<\/a>, Olen Zellweger<\/a>, and Ian Moore<\/a> have passed Mintyukov on the organizational depth chart.<\/p>\n

That adds to the difficulty of hypothesizing a reasonable return for Mintyukov if the Ducks even made him available. It\u2019s relatively rare for a recent top-10 pick to request a trade in the last year of their entry-level contract. It\u2019s much more common for top prospects to request trades before signing their entry-level contract, such as Isaac Howard<\/a>, Rutger McGroarty<\/a>, and Mintyukov\u2019s teammate, Cutter Gauthier<\/a>, as recent examples.<\/p>\n

The closest example to Mintyukov\u2019s situation would be netminder Yaroslav Askarov<\/a>. Drafted with the 11th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft, Askarov requested a trade from the Nashville Predators in the final year of his entry-level contract after the team brought in Scott Wedgewood<\/a> as the backup netminder and signed Juuse Saros<\/a> to a long-term extension.<\/p>\n

Despite playing in far fewer games than Mintyukov at the time, the Predators were able to recoup Magnus Chrona<\/a>, David Edstrom<\/a>, and a conditional 2025 first-round pick from the San Jose Sharks for Askarov. Unfortunately, it\u2019s difficult to argue at this point that Mintyukov is worth that price tag.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, without arbitration rights, Mintyukov has little power in his situation. His General Manager, Pat Verbeek<\/a>, is one of the most patient front office leaders in the league, and won\u2019t feel pressure to make a move anytime soon. If Mintyukov is moved at any point during the current campaign, Verbeek will need to be blown away by the offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his recent 32 Thoughts blog, Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman reported that Anaheim Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov is upset…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[1419,64,63,10232,575,170626,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-298175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-newsstand","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-pavel-mintyukov","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}