Breaking Down Anaheim's 2023 Draft Class with Assistant GM Martin Madden

The two-day sprint of the NHL Draft has come and gone, with nine new faces eager to call themselves Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks made those nine selections, including six in the first three rounds, this week at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

After all the dust settled, AnaheimDucks.com caught up with Assistant GM Martin Madden for his thoughts on the draft class and the process in selecting each player.

On Anaheim's Draft Class

We thought the [draft pool] was deep enough that we were gonna select players we were super excited about towards the end of the second and third, and I think it lasted a little bit longer than that for us this year. It fell the way we wanted it to. Didn't get huge surprises, but the most likely scenario for us happened, and we're really happy with it.

On Leo Carlsson (1st round, 2nd Overall)

He has unbelievable hockey sense in every phase of the game. He's so calm, yet so focused and aware of what's going on in the ice. He makes players around him better and that will continue to happen because every level he played at this year, he's able to do that. Whether he was playing wing or he was playing center at the World Championships, he rose to that level to a degree that allowed him to be one of the best players in every instance.

On top of that, he made his his linemates better. So that's number one. I think that's the most important part of his game that we see continue to allow him to grow into a dominant first line center for us in the future. Obviously he's not done growing. Mentally, he's really mature. He understands himself physically. He's still not there yet. He's really strong on the ice, but he's got so much more potential as he'll keep growing and he'll be a different kid physically two years from now.

On Nico Myatovich (2nd Round, 33rd Overall)

We've loved Nico from last year. Really, really good hockey sense and applies it in different ways. He's a support player for good players. He did it on a elite Seattle team this year. He does all the little things right and he has the skill to be able to produce in front of the net. So he makes plays, but mostly he's an elite support player, somebody who can get pucks for first and second line players.

He's somebody who's the first on the backcheck and somebody who's always in the goalie's face. He's a culture guy, an unbelievable kid who is mature beyond his years with lots of room to grow and get stronger and faster.

On Carey Terrance (2nd Round, 59th Overall)

Carey is another really mature kid. With him, we like his speed and his ability to score goals. We see him more on the wing. I think he played both wing and center this year. He sees himself more as a winger, too. I think that's where he will be able to use his speed the most. He plays with pace and intensity, and he can finish.

On Damian Clara (2nd Round, 60th Overall)

There were four goalies that we were interested in selecting this year and we did want to select one. The way that goalies started to come off the board early in the second round, we didn't want to take a chance that he would not be available later than we picked him. [Ducks goaltending coach Sudarshan Maharaj] is very passionate about him. He's really young in his development scale, an Italian kid who moved to Red Bull Salzburg and then on to Farejstad. He's going to be playing pro next year in Brynas. He's just starting on his development curve and is unbelievably athletic for a 6-foot-5 guy. He's so coordinated. We love him.

On Coulson Pitre (3rd Round, 65th Overall) and Yegor Sidorov (3rd Round, 85th Overall)

We had a focus on forwards, speed and goal scoring. The three forwards that we took (on day two) are able to do that. They play with intensity, they play with speed and they play with paced. They shoot the puck and go to the net. Those two guys especially do that well.

On Konnor Smith (4th Round, 97th Overall)

By that point in the draft, we saw more value in the defensemen. There were very few guys like Konnor in the draft, 6-foot-5, 210 lbs., physical and smart. His mobility needs to improve over time. It's going to be a process. He's just growing into his body. But he likes to play a mean game and there are so few guys like that in junior hockey.

On Rodwin Dionicio (5th Round, 129th Overall)

He moved to defense less than two seasons ago and had an unbelievable rise when he went from Hamilton to Windsor. He went from a relatively young team to an elite defensive team and he basically led that power play. He showed he's coachable. He's got unbelievable instincts. He's a great athlete. He's got some runway to get better defensively and we trust our coaches that, in the long run, they'll get that part of his game to come around.

On Vojtech Port (6th Round, 161st Overall)

[Ducks scout] Glen Cochrane loves Vojtech. He saw him early in the year and then followed him really closely...Again, hockey sense and really quick on retrievals. He's got really good awareness to be able to sense pressure and move the puck...He's a long-term project. Physically, he's got some room to grow, but it's about mobility and hockey sense with him.