Ducks swing for extra picks, skill and upside in Day 2 of NHL Draft

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Value was the name of the game for the Anaheim Ducks in the 2026 NHL Draft, as the Ducks entered with six selections and ended up making nine picks over two days in Buffalo.

Not only did the Ducks increase their pick count–thanks to two first-round picks in the trade of Mason McTavish to St. Louis, a second-round pick in the trade of Olen Zellweger to Buffalo and a sixth-round pick from Carolina in exchange for the negotiating rights of pending free agent John Carlson–but Anaheim was able to pull in highly skilled players with upside in positions lower than the pre-draft rankings indicated.

That started in the first round Friday, where the Ducks selected two top-10 skill talents OHL rookie of the year Nikita Klepov at No. 15 and Swedish scorer Marcus Nordmark at No. 28.

Anaheim pulled the trigger on the McTavish trade because dynamic scorer Nikita Klepov was still available at No. 15.

“As a staff, we were all in on Nikita,” Ducks assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting Martin Madden said. “Great offensive mind, outstanding hands, competitive, has the type of game that will mesh very well with smart, skilled players in the NHL… The talent is undeniable. Really excited about having him as a Duck.”

That followed with another deal to jump up from No. 29 to No. 28, as Anaheim again wanted its guy with Nordmark.

“We had five forwards in mind, and by the time we got to 28, we didn't want to miss out on Marcus,” Madden said. “The upside is huge. He's fast, he's skilled. He's creative. We didn't want anybody else to move up just in front of us and take them, and we knew there was interest from the teams just following our pick.”

Into the second round on Saturday, Anaheim was able to continue to swing for upside.

At No. 45 overall, the Ducks made a rare dip into the prep ranks by selecting defenseman Jayden Kurtz out Rogers, Minnesota. There are some comparisons to be made to current Duck Jackson LaCombe for the 6-foot-3 defenseman, who played a bit for USHL Chicago and will again this season. He is also committed to the University of Wisconsin for the 2027-28 season.

“He's sort of a blend between Jackson and Ian Moore, who was playing prep school in his draft year,” Madden said. “Same type of path, same type of outstanding hockey sense, awareness, range. A little behind maybe some other people in terms of the level of experience that he's faced, level of competition he's faced so far, but we loved him when he got up to the USHL at the end of the year.”

The Ducks were able to swipe another highly regarded skill talent later than slated just five picks later, as Anaheim selected winger Mathis Preston at No. 50 overall from WHL Vancouver. Despite suffering a knee injury in January that put him out for two months, Preston still showed plenty of eye-catching moments, and Madden was surprised he was still available at No. 50.

“Mathis has been one of the top players in Canada in his age group since he was really young,” Madden said. “He had an outstanding 16-year-old season in Spokane, playing on a top line in the whole league. He started the season really strongly with Team Canada (at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup). So expectations were really high for him, but it wasn't an easy season in Spokane. He got hurt, he got traded (to Vancouver), he got hurt again. It happens.”

“He finished a year on a high note. Again, with Team Canada at the U-18s, his scoring ability, his speed, his capacity to raise the bar in key moments was there again.”

In the third round, the Ducks were able to fill a self-described need in the organizational pipeline at No. 82 overall with winger Rian Chudzinski, who provides the gritty tough-area scoring that any team needs.

“Just dog on a bone,” Madden said of Chudzinski. “He's a relentless F1 net-front guy. Really athletic, really competitive, but does it smartly. He's got a shot, which will allow him to provide some offense as well, but he's a different type of player in this draft. He fills another need. He fills another type of role for us. We don't have that many guys like him in the system.”

Chudzinski is the son of former Cleveland Browns head coach Rod Chuzinski, who helmed the Browns in 2013 and was a tight ends coach for the San Diego Chargers twice.

Into the later rounds, teams take on a bit more raw talent looking for more physical traits that stand out from the rest, and that was certainly the case in the fifth round, where the Ducks snagged 6-foot-6, 205-pound defenseman Eric Frossard.

“He skates well for a big guy. He can make a first pass, but let's be honest, what we like the most about about Eric is that he does play his size,” Madden said. “He's going to be able to adapt to a higher pace to a higher level of play, but we believe that he'll be able to continue to bring that size and aggressiveness at higher levels.”

Fossard played in the OHL last season and moves on to college play at Notre Dame in the fall.

In the sixth round, Anaheim went with a raw athletic goaltending talent with Gleb Peshkov. The 6-foot-2 Russian netminder came from the same youth program as Ducks prospect goaltender Vyacheslav Buteyets. Madden noted that Anaheim’s Russian scout Konstantin Krylov and Ducks director of goaltending Sudarshan Maharaj were both high on Peshkov’s upside.

“Yes, he’s raw, but he is super athletic, super lanky, very competitive,” Madden said. “We got a chance to see him in Florida last week as well. So it was nice to be able to see live what we'd seen on video. He's not there yet. Like all these kids later round picks. He's got some things to improve, but the raw ability is the tools are there for him to be an NHL goalie.”

Anaheim picked up an extra sixth-round pick in the trade of Carlson’s negotiating rights to Carolina and selected center Noah Kosick from the WHL. Kosick is committed to Michigan for the 2027-28 season. Madden credited Ducks director of player evaluation Bruce Franklin and scout Alex Gellert with identifying the player.

“He's been a high scoring center all his life,” Madden said of Kosick. “He is a late bloomer physically. He's grown a lot and continues to grow. He's put on almost 15  lbs. since the end of the season in Seattle. Over half an inch since then. He's really skilled but also has very good vision and skating ability. He just needs to get stronger. I think that will help his game on the inside a lot.”

The Ducks rounded out their draft day in the seventh round with the selection of defenseman James Rieber, who will play again in the USHL next season before his commitment to Miami University of Ohio for the 2027-28 season.

It was an unexpectedly more active draft day for the Ducks scouting department, but this is why all the extra work is done for those unsung parts of the organization.

“We're just excited about the players that we picked, right?” Madden said. “That's what we work all season for, preparing for all these types of scenarios, and when you're able to pick players that you as a scout and us as a staff are really passionate about that's why we do this. So it's an exciting day. It's been an exciting two days for sure.”