{"id":488382,"date":"2026-10-07T20:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T20:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488382\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T20:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T20:12:08","slug":"ducks-first-round-pick-nikita-klepov-in-line-to-make-nhl-debut-vs-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488382\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks first-round pick Nikita Klepov in line to make NHL debut vs. Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After sitting in the press box for the first two games of the season, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/players\/nikita-klepov\/ca37dcbd-c539-48b5-b178-13911ea7e45f\" class=\"sn-player-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-player=\"ca37dcbd-c539-48b5-b178-13911ea7e45f\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nikita Klepov<\/a> is poised for a personal highlight on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/teams\/anaheim-ducks\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"anaheim-ducks\" data-league=\"nhl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a>&#8216; first-round pick in this year&#8217;s draft (15th overall) was on the team&#8217;s third line at morning skate, a sign that he make his NHL debut against the Edmonton Oilers (10 p.m. ET \/ 8 p.m. MT, Sportsnet West, Sportsnet+).<\/p>\n<p>The former Saginaw Spirit star had planned to play NCAA hockey at Michigan State this season, but changed his mind after being taken by the Ducks and signing his entry-level contract.<\/p>\n<p>Klepov, 18, was the OHL&#8217;s top scorer and rookie of the year last season when he had 37 goals and 60 assists in 67 games.<\/p>\n<p>The American-born, Russian-raised winger can play up to nine games with the Ducks before his entry-level contract kicks in.<\/p>\n<p>He can&#8217;t play full-time in the AHL, though he could end up there on a conditioning stint. There also is the option for the Ducks to return Klepov to the Spirit, who are expected to be a top team in the OHL this season.<\/p>\n<p>Klepov will be the fifth 2026 first-rounder to make his NHL debut, following No. 1 Gavin McKenna (Toronto Maple Leafs), No. 2 Ivar Stenberg (San Jose Sharks), No. 5 Alberts Smits (New York Rangers) and No. 8 Viggo Bjorck (Winnipeg Jets).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After sitting in the press box for the first two games of the season, Nikita Klepov is poised&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-488382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}