ST. LOUIS – So often, you see a player who has dropped down to the AHL for a few games come back a different player in his second NHL stint.
Now it’s probably far too early and there have not been enough games to properly evaluate Ducks rookie forward Pavol Regenda, who scored his first NHL goal in his first game back (against Minnesota) with the Ducks. That followed a short run with the AHL San Diego, in which he had four points in four games with the Gulls.
The Ducks recalled him on Nov. 9. Regenda went without a point in the next three games after he scored his first goal in the NHL.
“I think he’s riding the wave that every young player rides,” Ducks coach Dallas Eakins said on Saturday. “So far it’s been fairly consistent. He had a good training camp, played well early and then there’s the drop off. It starts to drop as the pace picks up.
“He was sent down more as a roster issue, to get some games under his belt. Those guys that come back up usually give you really good games early and then they kind of level off and start to fall off.
“He’s starting to drop. … You’ve got to fight and claw every day just to stay another day. That’s no shot at the player, or criticism of the player. That’s just the reality of a young player’s career.
“When you look at some of our really high-end younger players, the thing that we talk about all the time is playing consistently at a high level. It’s hard to do and it just takes time to understand how to do it.”
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Also
Before the game, the Ducks announced they had reassigned defenseman Drew Helleson to their minor-league affiliate in San Diego. This move came as they activated defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk from injured reserve.
Shattenkirk was injured in the Ducks’ loss to the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 9 and has missed the past four games because of a lower-body injury, including the game at St. Louis on Saturday.
Shattenkirk is on the trip and could play against his former team, the Blues, on Monday. He played for the Blues from 2011 to 2017 and remains a popular figure in St. Louis.