Logan MacMillan on trade talk, etc.
With all this (legitimate) talk of Brian Burke dangling draft picks as trade bait, and all this other (slightly less legitimate) talk of Logan MacMillan being candidate No. 1, I thought I'd take the issue straight to the Ducks' 2007 first-round draft pick, who was in Anaheim for rookie conditioning on Tuesday.
"I'm only young. It's not like I've been playing here for five years, set up shop here, anything like that," said MacMillan, who doesn't read the stories. "It's obviously a great organization. I'd love to stay here, but those are things you can't control, so you can't worry about."
Then I asked Ducks assistant coach Newell Brown, who was leading the drills all week, who impressed him during the week.
"Jake Gardiner looks like a really good prospect," Brown said of the team's 2008 first-round pick. "When he steps on the ice, you can see he's a passionate player. Just having a little scrimmage today, he's playing to win. He appears to have a tremendous amount of skill with the puck, with his feet. He's impressive."
Asked to single out a returning player - not a 2008 draftee - Brown said: "Eric Tangradi's making some strides. He had a successful season with his junior team, played in the Memorial Cup, looks like he's a lot more confident than he was last year at the same time and has a lot more maturity about him."
Also worth noting from rookie conditioning:
- Josh Brittain (2008, 3rd round) is the skinniest hockey player I've ever seen.
- Bobby Bolt (2005, 5th round) is enormous.
- Jake Gardiner (2008, 1st round) is an extremely smooth skater. Keep an eye on him during next year's college ice hockey playoffs if/when Wisconsin makes it.
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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