{"id":62801,"date":"2025-11-20T23:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62801\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T23:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T23:22:09","slug":"ducks-defenseman-pavel-mintyukov-would-like-to-be-moved-if-not-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/62801\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov “would like to be moved” if not playing"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2013 Another year, another logjam of young defensemen for the Anaheim Ducks<\/a>, but a report dropped late Wednesday night that may bring that situation to a head sooner than anyone expected.<\/p>\n

Just minutes after the Ducks wrapped their media availability following yet another dramatic one-goal win<\/a>, this time over Boston, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman wrote in his 32 Thoughts<\/a> column that 21-year-old Anaheim defenseman Pavel Mintyukov could be on the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter back-to-back healthy scratches, word filtered that Ducks defenceman Pavel Mintyukov would like to be moved if he\u2019s not going to play,\u201d Friedman wrote. \u201cHe has fallen behind Jackson LaCombe and Olen Zellweger on the left side of Anaheim\u2019s defence. Ian Moore, who had a strong camp, was elevated in Mintyukov\u2019s place. This is the 10th overall pick in the 2022 draft, so Ducks GM Pat Verbeek will not be rushed into anything. Something to keep an eye on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mintyukov played in the first 18 games of the season for the Ducks, but when Anaheim captain Radko Gudas returned from a lower-body injury on Monday, the Ducks elected to keep 23-year-old rookie Ian Moore, a right-hander who played in righty Gudas\u2019 absence, in the line-up instead of the third-year left-hander Mintyukov.<\/p>\n

After the Ducks won on Monday, coach Joel Quenneville chose to keep the same line-up on Wednesday, as he has after most victories. After the morning skates on Monday and Wednesday and following Tuesday\u2019s optional practice, Mintyukov was kept on the ice for extra skills and conditioning drills.<\/p>\n

The fact is that Moore forced a difficult choice with stellar play.<\/p>\n

In his 14 games, the Ducks\u2019 expected goal share with Moore at five-on-five is 51.68%, just behind Olen Zellweger\u2019s defensive corps-leading 51.76%, and the team\u2019s shot attempt share with Moore at five-on-five is 52.51%, behind only Jackson LaCombe\u2019s blue line-leading 53.57%.<\/p>\n

Not to mention Moore is now tied for second among Ducks defensemen in goals, after netting his second on Wednesday\u2019s game-winner.<\/p>\n

Mintyukov on the other hand is sixth among Anaheim\u2019s seven defensemen in expected goal share (42.81%) and seventh in shot attempt share (44.13%). Mintyukov has two assists.<\/p>\n

Interestingly when comparing the numbers is that the two are each other\u2019s most common defensive partner. However, the deep dive will show that Moore has a 48.08% expected goal share with Mintyukov and a 62.58% without Mintyukov. Without Moore, Mintyukov has a 48.02% expected goal share.<\/p>\n

In isolation, the choice makes sense, and it\u2019s just two healthy scratches of a 20-game season with 62 more games to play.<\/p>\n

However, where Mintyukov\u2019s reported frustration likely stems from is the fact that this is now the second straight season where he is again drawing the short straw of a defensive position battle against an unexpectedly rising defenseman.<\/p>\n

Different defenseman, different coaching staff, same result<\/p>\n

Last season, it was understood that Mintyukov, Zellweger and LaCombe would initially fight for time behind veteran left-handers Cam Fowler and Brian Dumoulin with one of the three being forced to their offside on the right.<\/p>\n

However, when Cam Fowler went down with an injury, right-handed Drew Helleson came up from San Diego and became a steady reliable hand, and when Fowler returned from injury\u2014sound familiar yet?\u2013Mintyukov, Zellweger and LaCombe were forced to rotate through a single spot.<\/p>\n

The trade for Jacob Trouba also complicated things, and Fowler was traded by the end of that week. LaCombe then took off with his own solidified spot, but Zellweger and Mintyukov then became the focus of a long-standing back and forth, with both being healthy scratches for long stretches.<\/p>\n

After Dumoulin was traded at the deadline, everything finally locked into place to allow all the young defenseman to play in the same line-up.<\/p>\n

Entering this season, there was no logjam. There was push from Moore and Tristan Luneau\u2013who had actually made the Ducks opening roster out of camp the previous two seasons\u2013but it was expected that the NHL guys would be the NHL guys with Moore and Luneau playing valuable learning minutes in AHL San Diego.<\/p>\n

But the Ducks were also without a traditional seventh defenseman, and as they learned last season, it would be a waste to have a valued defensive prospect sit in the press box for long stretches. So instead of carrying Moore, Luneau or even the surprising Tyson Hinds, Anaheim opened the season with just six defensemen.<\/p>\n

Moore was simply called up as an insurance policy when the Ducks embarked on their first lengthy East Coast road trip, and outside of Quenneville\u2019s one-time 11-forward, seven-defenseman set-up to open the trip, it wasn\u2019t expected for Moore to play. He would likely ride out the trip and return to San Diego when Anaheim got home.<\/p>\n

Until Gudas got injured in Boston on Oct. 23. Moore then drew in two nights later in Tampa Bay, and the Utah native hasn\u2019t seen the press box since.<\/p>\n

Now, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft has been a healthy scratch in consecutive games, and the rumor mill begins to turn.<\/p>\n

Both Moore and Mintyukov are still waiver exempt, meaning they can be sent down to AHL San Diego to play at anytime without fear of being claimed off the wire. Well, Quenneville obviously likes Moore enough to keep him in the NHL line-up for now, and after over two seasons of NHL games under his belt, you could imagine a demotion would only frustrate Mintyukov further or if he would even report.<\/p>\n

While AHL time could have been useful at some point in his development, Mintyukov was ineligible for the AHL as a 19-year-old rookie, and following that 28-point rookie campaign, he was obviously going to compete for an NHL spot in Year Two, until the aforementioned logjam formed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible Moore could falter at some point and be scratched himself or sent down, but with his current form, it\u2019s hard to imagine when that would come and if that would be worth it for any of the parties involved to wait it out.<\/p>\n

The other option is the rumored trade, but the question is, who to trade?<\/p>\n

It could be Mintyukov as the focal point of this situation. He obviously has some brand recognition as a Top-10 pick that could still fetch a good value for Verbeek, but as Friedman wrote, Verbeek won\u2019t be forced into anything Verbeek doesn\u2019t want to do. As he did with John Gibson, Verbeek will hold onto an asset until his price is reached and not be moved any other outside force.<\/p>\n

If Verbeek does value Mintyukov that high, the other option would be trading another defenseman to open a spot. Obviously taking LaCombe\u2019s eight-year extension off the table and likely Moore, there are discussions to be had about each other Ducks defender in this scenario.<\/p>\n

As captain, it\u2019s also unlikely Verbeek would trade Gudas, as he is both the GM and coach\u2019s type of player, but Gudas is 35 years old and in the final year of his contract coming off injury. Trouba, 31, is also in the final year of his deal, but similarly, Verbeek is probably unlikely to deal a physical veteran leader, especially with Trouba\u2019s hot start.<\/p>\n

Could Helleson be moved? The 24-year-old only signed a two-year RFA extension over the summer, and while his boyhood connection and friendship with LaCombe can\u2019t be undersold, he is likely the most moveable of the Ducks current defensemen if Verbeek wants to keep Mintyukov.<\/p>\n

The other question to ask is simply has Mintyukov shown enough to be worth fighting these battles for? He is an extremely affable personality and well-liked in the room, but the dynamic spark of this rookie season has only come in flashes over the last two campaigns.<\/p>\n

Mintyukov undeniably has the skill, but it\u2019s hard not to wonder if the Greg Cronin experience or the recovery from a knee injury into last season stunted his growth as a player or at least affected his mentality toward the game.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if this can be worked through, but it is the first sign of strife in an otherwise stellar beginning to the Anaheim Ducks\u2019 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2013 Another year, another logjam of young defensemen for the Anaheim Ducks, but a report dropped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[37860,163,824,165,164,37859,6489,16181,10358,2099,10370,1719,9095,100,404,16534,14932,18469,5429,3729,37856,37857,37858,1722],"class_list":["post-62801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-32-thoughts","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-defenseman","tag-drew-helleson","tag-elliotte-friedman","tag-ian-moore","tag-jackson-lacombe","tag-jacob-trouba","tag-joel-quenneville","tag-mighty-ducks","tag-news","tag-nhl","tag-olen-zellweger","tag-pat-verbeek","tag-pavel-mintyukov","tag-radko-gudas","tag-report","tag-rumor","tag-trade-request","tag-trade-rumor","tag-tst-los-angeles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62801","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=62801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}