GM Verbeek Recaps Ducks Trade Deadline Moves, Looks Ahead to Summer Plans

The dust has settled and the phones are down.
After a few hectic week around the National Hockey League stocked full with headline-grabbing deals, the Trade Deadline has now officially passed.
In total, the Ducks completed six trades this week, acquiring a quality NHL winger, three draft picks and multiple prospects.
General Manager Pat Verbeek joined
Ducks Stream
, with host Alexis Downie and television analyst Brian Hayward, immediately following the deadline to recap Anaheim's activity and look ahead to an important summer for the Ducks.
Some answers have been lightly edited for style and clarity.

On the Trade Deadline
Overall, I think it was a crazy one. There were a lot of prices, a lot of high prices and a lot of movement. Probably more than I've ever seen since doing this on the management side. It's been crazy.
On the trade with Pittsburgh
This morning we traded Dmitry Kulikov to Pittsburgh for a third-round pick and Brock McGinn. Brock's the kind of player that I've been looking to get on our team. He plays a gritty style, a hardworking, gritty style that can produce offense.
So I'm happy that he was put in the deal that we could take and he's signed for a couple more years. It's a good fit for where we are in our process.

On the trade with Minnesota
Well, that one went down to 11:58 a.m. our time, which I guess is 2:58 with the league. You have to get the email in with the league [by 3 p.m. Eastern] and so we got confirmation from both teams and the league at 2:58 Eastern Time.
We were haggling over the last hour, looking at two or three different scenarios. In the end, we ended up trading [John] Klingberg for a fourth-round pick in 2025 and we ended up with the rights to Nikita Nesterenko, who is playing at Boston College. Since we shipped out two defensemen, we needed to get a defenseman back and Andrej Sustr will be coming back again in the deal. I'm very familiar with Sustr. We had him in Tampa. He's a great kid and a nice hockey player. He'll fit in well.
On Nikita Nesterenko
Well, there's a lot of things I like about him. He's six foot two and a very good skater. He has good skill. The thing he's added into his game that he hadn't had a couple years prior is he's he's competing harder and he's getting to the dirty areas of the ice to score goals...That's the part that's really changed for me. We started watching him pretty good. We've had one of our college scouts watching him all year, and he's taken a real good liking to him with improving his game overall from where he started in college to where he is now. We're excited to get the player.
He will be sent to San Diego, we'll sign him to an ATO, when his college season is over. We'll work on an NHL deal for next season.
On the Western Conference
I think the West is wide open now. I think Edmonton probably improved themselves quite a bit, getting Ekholm. He looks like a really good fit for their top four. They made some improvements there.
It really is wide open. You can look at Colorado, you can look at Vegas, you can look at Edmonton. There are a couple other teams as well that could be in the mix. So it's gonna be an interesting west [playoffs]. There are a gonna be a lot of good teams. In the east, there are gonna be two, three good teams not getting past the first round.
On Jackson Lacombe
Jackson Lacombe will be coming to the Anaheim Ducks when his season's over, but you know he is playing the for the top-ranked [University of Minnesota] Gophers, so we're not sure when that's going to be. I think, based on their status, it doesn't matter whether they win the Big-Ten. They'll get a big to play in the regionals and it's up to them from there. It's all one game knockouts.
On collecting draft capital
I like to get as many darts as I can to throw out the board, so I get a chance to hit that bullseye. That's what we're trying to do here. It is going to be important. When you start looking at the whole thing and how it's set up, both in the pro scouting and amateur scouting, they help each other in that sense.
At the end of the day, we want the big club towin championships. We're working through that process to build a lot of depth in the organization and give us a long run as a championship team.
On the trade with San Jose
Well, when Henry [Thrun] informed me he wasn't going to sign with us, I worked with the agent and a few teams, to try to get a deal to where I he'll ultimately sign. We worked it out with San Jose. I was very happy with the return that I got for Henry from San Jose.
On the prospect pipeline
Olen Zellweger is going to play in the Memorial Cup, so he won't have any chance to play in any part of the organization until after then.
Then [Pavel] Mintyukov is also on a first-place team too, so it's hard to predict where he's going to end up. Tristan Luneau as well is on a very good team. All these guys have chances to make deep runs in the playoffs with their teams. Those three players that I just mentioned, all three are close to leading their perspective leagues in scoring (by defensemen). So we're very excited. Luneau is actually leading his team in scoring. So we're very excited for those three players and the offensive ability that they're gonna be able to add to the team.
We also have Tyson Hines, who's leading the Quebec League in plus-minus. We have Noah Warren, who is 6-foot-5, our second rounder from last year. We're excited for our defensive prospects. You mentioned Jackson Lacombe. We're excited for our prospects. There's a really nice core setting up what I think would be a championship team on defense. So now it's just, just a matter of these kids developing, improving their skating skills and getting stronger. That, to me, is going to be the biggest thing that they need to improve on and will give them the chance to be able to play in the NHL one day.
On competition amongst the prospects
When you have competition, you push each other to get better. Whether there's high competition within positions or just within the team, it pushes everybody to raise their game. That's the best thing, you want to have happen. When everyone's pushing themselves to get better, that is going to really help the Anaheim Ducks organization.