ST. LOUIS — Where does Ducks forward Mason McTavish stand in his NHL rookie class?
Big picture: With the Ducks approaching the end of the first quarter of the season, McTavish is nicely positioned among his peers and right in the middle of the Calder Trophy conversation.
Heading into Sunday’s action, McTavish was tied for third in rookie scoring with nine points (two goals, seven assists) with two Ottawa Senators, forward Shane Pinto and defenseman Jake Sanderson. They trail center Matty Beniers of the Seattle Kraken (11 points) and forward Matias Maccelli of the Arizona Coyotes (10 points).
Of those five players, McTavish is the youngest, at 19, although, of course, he looks years older.
Another statistical element helps round out the picture. Among rookie forwards, McTavish is averaging 13 minutes 12 seconds, which ranks 11th, so he’s making efficient use of his time on ice.
On Saturday, McTavish was bumped up to the second center spot, centering Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano against the St. Louis Blues. Their line was together in the first period, for a total of 4 minutes 43 seconds, before it was tweaked in the second with Strome moving back to the middle and Jakob Silfverberg joined Strome and Vatrano, while McTavish dropped to the fourth line with Max Jones and Brett Leason.
McTavish ended up playing a season-high 19 minutes, most among Ducks forwards against the Blues. But the line adjustments had more to do with Strome than McTavish, in wanting to put Strome back at center rather than on the wing.
The Ducks opted to stay off the ice on Sunday and canceled a scheduled practice. They lost 6-2 to the Blues, overwhelmed at the start in terms of possession, and face the Blues again in St. Louis on Monday.
“We’re able to track a lot of stuff, physically, on these guys,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said. “There’s no use tracking it and employing people to advise you on when to push and when to pull back if you’re not going to listen. With the amount of travel and the amount of games we’ve played in a very short period of time, we’ve been getting indications that some of our guys are in the red, meaning there’s been a lot of load on their body.
“It was triggered again last night. The way we played last night, especially through the first two period was not the same team that had played the last three games.”
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Injury updates
Forward Max Comtois was with the Ducks at the start of this trip but went back to Southern California after the game in Winnipeg. Comtois has not played since Nov. 12 against Chicago.
“He’s had a lower-body (issue) going on and can’t seem to get past it,” Eakins said. “We just thought it was better to get him home and looked at a little deeper.”
Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who missed the last four games with a lower-body injury, is expected to draw back into the lineup on Monday. With Shattenkirk returning, the Ducks could go back to an 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup, but that decision has not been made yet.