Prospect Report: Pavel Mintyukov
Jun 9, 2023By AJ Manderichio/SanDiegoGulls.com
Pavel Mintyukov is one of the brightest stars of Anaheim’s emerging prospect class.
The defenseman is among a trio of blueliners – including Olen Zellweger and Tristan Luneau – who grabbed headlines throughout junior hockey in the 2022-23 season. Mintyukov, the 10th overall selection in last year’s draft, took home Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Defenseman of the Year (Max Kaminsky Award) following a stellar season split between the Saginaw Spirit and the Ottawa 67s. Mintyukov led all OHL defensemen in points (88) and assists (64) while finishing second in goals (24). He joined Luneau and Zellweger as defensemen of the year in their respective leagues, making Anaheim the first team the first team in NHL history to have a prospect named the top blueliner in the three Canadian Hockey Leagues (OHL, QMJHL, WHL) in the same season.
In addition, the 6-foot-1 defensemen became the first blueliner in the OHL’s history to win Defenseman of the Month three straight times.
Mintyukov blends great offensive upside with a solid understanding of the defensive zone. He joined a loaded Ottawa team with designs on a Memorial Cup run. He posted nine assists across 11 OHL playoff games, but the 67s fell short of their Memorial Cup dreams. Mintyukov finishes his OHL career with 41-109=150 points in 136 games.
Now, Mintyukov gets the chance to compete for a spot with the Anaheim Ducks. At the press conference introducing Matt McIlvane as San Diego’s new head coach, Anaheim General Manager Pat Verbeek discussed the chance Mintyukov – and other young prospects – will have to prove themselves at the American Hockey League level.
"We have a very exciting group of young players," Verbeek said during the press conference. "Matt's probably going to see about 10 players, 21 and under next year that he's going to have to oversee, mold, make them understand what it takes to become a pro, but make them understand what it takes to become a champion. And essentially, he's going to be building champions here for the next couple of years."
McIlvane is ready for Mintyukov – and Anaheim’s prospects – to learn the pro game.
"We're going to see a team that plays suffocating team defense," he said during the press conference. "It's really, really hard to create chances against us. And we've got a lot of young prospects with great offensive upside. They're going to have to learn about playing defense in pro hockey and we're going to help them with those lessons."
"And then really, you need to be dynamic offensively. There's so many gifted players in our organization. We'll look to surround our youth with great leadership, but the blend between being relentlessly competitive, suffocating defensively, and dynamic offensively, without getting into too much detail, that's what we're going to shoot at."