The Anaheim Ducks have missed the playoffs every year since 2017-18 and in doing so, have drafted in the top ten for seven consecutive seasons and procured one of the NHL’s deepest and most potent prospect pools.
Despite several young players having graduated and become full-time NHLers, such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellweger, the Ducks still have an impressive pipeline of potential impact and depth prospects yet to make the jump.
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For this exercise, only players who haven’t lost rookie status are eligible for a ranking, and to be clear, these are my (Patrick Present) subjective rankings.
Honorable Mentions: Yegor Sidorov, Herman Traff, Tarin Smith, Lasse Boelius, Calle Clang
Top Ten:
10. Nathan Gaucher, 21, C, San Diego Gulls (AHL)
9. Ian Moore, 23, RHD, San Diego Gulls (AHL)
8. Sasha Pastujov, 22, W, San Diego Gulls (AHL)
7. Tomas Suchanek, 22, G, San Diego Gulls (AHL)
Despite the Ducks having a wide collection of dart throws in the organization when it comes to goaltending prospects like Damian Clara, Calle Clang, Elijah Neuenschwander, and Vyacheslav Buteyets, only one made the top ten list of their overall prospects: Tomas Suchanek.
After a sparkling rookie AHL season with the Gulls, Suchanek sustained a gruesome ACL injury during offseason training in the summer of 2024, after returning home to his native Czechia following Ducks development camp. His injury required surgery, and he was forced to miss the entire 2024-25 season.
Suchanek’s road hadn’t been the smoothest leading up to the injury, and he, along with the Ducks organization, is hoping it’s nothing more than a speed bump, as he’s already overcome numerous obstacles to get to this point in his career.
He signed with the Gulls on a standard player contract in 2023 after having gone undrafted in 2021, 2022, and 2023, despite a quality season in Czechia’s second tier professional division in 2020-21, a solid two seasons after making the jump to the WHL playing for the Tri-City Americans between 2021 and 2023, and a simply spectacular showing at the 2023 World Junior Championship, where he backstopped Czechia to a silver medal (lost in overtime of the championship game) and posted a 5-0-2 record, a .934 SV%, and one shutout.
He earned a development, rookie, and training camp invite from the Ducks ahead of the 2023-24 season. In his first professional season in North America, he battled his way out of the ECHL with a 3-5-0 record and .906 SV% and competed for AHL starts with Alex Stalock and Calle Clang, where he shined brightest with a 14-10-5 record, a .910 SV%, and three shutouts.
Similar to friend and countryman, as well as starting Ducks goaltender, Lukas Dostal, Suchanek exudes poise and enthusiasm off the ice, as well as a focused calm in the crease. He displays true angles and stays square as pucks are moved throughout the defensive zone in front of him. He can flash dazzling athleticism at times, especially with his hands, both glove and blocker sides.
The aspect that jumps out and is most impressive from a young netminder is his ability to play the puck with his stick and manage the game in front of him. Having him stop pucks behind the net is akin to having a third defenseman to assist in puck retrievals, and he can ignite breakouts with crisp outlets.
Suchanek is fully recovered and attended Ducks development camp following the 2025 NHL Draft and noted how difficult it was to get his reaction time back up to speed.
"It went better than I thought," Suchanek said. "I thought (that) I'm going to have to learn how to skate again, but it went pretty good, so I was pretty happy.
"The biggest focus is to go step-by-step right now. You can have some goals, but I need to come back to the camp and prove to everyone and show everyone I'm still able to play hockey, as I did before the injuries. So, my main goal right now is to just show everyone that I can still play."
Suchanek has used his resilience as a motivating factor in the past and will look to do the same as he heads into rookie and training camps in September.
"It's been very long," Suchanek said. ”Took a lot (longer) than I thought it was gonna take. It's been pretty hard, but I'm super excited to be back and anxious to play hockey again.”
The 2025-26 season will be year two of a three-year entry-level contract Suchanek signed with the Ducks in March 2024.
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Photo Credit: Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK