Ducks recall former second-round pick

The Anaheim Ducks have recalled defenseman Olen Zellweger from their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, per a team announcement. 

Even though the Ducks already have six defensemen ready and able to play this evening, Eric Stephens of The Athletic reports that Zellweger could make his NHL debut tonight, as he was a full participant in practice this morning.

Zellweger originally came to the Ducks organization as the 34th overall selection of the 2021 NHL Draft. Mostly playing for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips during his Junior career, Zellweger played parts of five seasons, scoring 50 goals and 183 points in 180 games. 

In the playoffs, Zellweger’s offensive prowess was relied upon even more, where he scored 13 goals and 38 points over 20 postseason games.

Outside of being productive for the Silvertips and Kamloops Blazers, Zellweger was a part of Team Canada’s U20 team in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 World Junior Championships, winning the gold medal in both tournaments. 

In both of those gold medal runs, Zellweger suited up in 14 games, scoring two goals and 17 points, being one of the better defensemen on Team Canada’s roster.

Now having fully transitioned to professional hockey, Zellweger has spent the entire season up to this point with the Gulls and has played as advertised. Although San Diego is not playing well overall as a team, Zellweger has played in a total of 34 games, scoring eight goals and 25 points, which is good for second on the team in scoring.

In desperate need of defensemen even before the trade of Jamie Drysdale, the Ducks will now attempt to use one of their highly touted prospects to fill some of the gaps on the blue line. 

Proving to be an effective two-way defenseman in the AHL, there is a reasonable chance that Anaheim will utilize Zellweger to replace the lost minutes of Pavel Mintyukov, who was placed on the team’s injured reserve on January 11.