BOSTON -- Leo Carlsson is settling into life in the NHL in all the usual ways. He has rented an apartment, finally, a way out of the hotel he's been staying in. He has started to get to know his Anaheim Ducks teammates, some of whom aren't that much older than the 18-year-old rookie.
But in other ways, Carlsson's introduction to the NHL has been anything but typical.
When the Ducks played the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Thursday, the center was in the lineup for the third time this season, playing in less than half of Anaheim's seven games to that point. It wasn't really because of injury, though Carlsson hurt his leg in a practice drill before the season started, which caused his NHL debut to be delayed until Oct. 19, the Ducks' third game of the season.
Instead, it was because of a strength and development program devised by general manager Pat Verbeek, a way to keep Carlsson strong and healthy as he heads into a career that the Ducks hope and believe will be long and productive.
For now, Carlsson, who was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, will play in about two games per week and will not play in games on consecutive nights, at least for the first few months of the season. He was a healthy scratch in the Ducks' previous two games -- at home against Boston on Sunday and the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday-- before slotting back in Thursday, when he had a goal and an assist in 22:37 of ice time in a 4-3 overtime win.
Carlsson had two shots on goal and played 17:09 in the Ducks' 7-4 win at the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. They next play at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday before returning home to face the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday.
"It's an organizational decision," coach Greg Cronin said. "I'm looking through a different lens as a coach than what management's looking at. He's a young kid. He's got a real bright future. I think that the plan is to try and strengthen him and build some power and some speed into his game. I think there's some data that Pat and our strength and conditioning staff believe in that's going to help reinforce that."
Carlsson's agent Matt Keator said he was happy with the communication from Verbeek and with the plan itself, a program that he said has been the subject of a lot of discussion since the draft. The two spoke about it when the Massachusetts-based Keator was in California about a month ago.