IRVINE, Calif. – The introductions are complete. The drills have been run. The scrimmages are done. It’s now time for the Anaheim Ducks to start putting practice into performance, as the first stage of training camp closed on Saturday.

The Ducks open the preseason on Sunday with a road contest at Toyota Arena in Ontario taking on the Los Angeles Kings in the Inland Empire Classic. Puck drop is at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast on anaheimducks.com or lakings.com.

There are 46 players remaining on the camp roster. Sunday’s game roster will be available day-of.

Here are some news and notes from the first three days of Ducks training camp:

Anaheim assigned eight players back to their Canadian junior teams as the first roster moves of training camp, and they’re obvious ones.

Forwards Emile Guite (Chicoutimi, QMJHL), Maxim Masse (Chicoutimi, QMJHL), Ethan Procyszyn (North Bay, OHL), Noah Read (London, OHL) and Brady Turko (Brandon, WHL) and defensemen Alexis Mathieu (Baie-Comeau, QMJHL), Tarin Smith (Everett, WHL) and Darels Uljanskis (Flint, OHL) all are headed back.

The Ontario, Western and Quebec Maritimes opened their seasons this weekend, and with all eight of those Ducks prospects participating in last weekend’s rookie camp, their big-league learning periods were done for the time being.

Beckett Sennecke is the lone junior player still in camp, and the Ducks obviously have different plans ahead for their 2024 No. 3 overall pick.

The Beckett Sennecke Plan?

In his opening training camp media availability, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek was asked about the path forward for his top prospect, who’s only playing options this year are to stick with the Ducks at the NHL level or head back to OHL Oshawa for a fourth junior season.

Verbeek alluded to the process Anaheim went through with Leo Carlsson in his rookie season two years ago.

“We’re going to analyze to see where (Sennecke) is at the end of these three, four weeks here,” Verbeek said, “and then I’ve got, as I did with Leo, I’ve got a couple different plans in my mind, and we’ll see and make the best decision at the end of training camp.”

In Carlsson’s rookie season, the Ducks put together a load management plan for their 2023 No. 2 overall pick to focus on his long-term development, particularly on the physical side.

In “The Leo Plan,” the young Swede played in roughly just two games a week and never on back-to-back nights in the first half of his rookie year with Anaheim, and on nights that he was a scratch, Carlsson would go through intense strength and conditioning workouts.

However, Anaheim is in a much different spot competitively two years later when making the choice with Sennecke. In 2023-24, the Ducks could spare the roster spot for their next franchise cornerstone, as they started the build portion of the rebuild.

Now, with the addition of impact veterans, coach Joel Quenneville at the helm and playoff goals, is there a spot for Sennecke to develop through the season?

The Seattle Kraken had a wrinkle in 2022 for their No. 4 overall pick Shane Wright. He stuck with the team out of training camp and, similarly to Carlsson, skipped occasional games in the first two months of the season all to stay under the 10-game threshold of burning the first year of his entry-level deal.

Seattle then used a loophole in the CBA to send Wright down to the AHL for a two-week conditioning stint after he was scratched in five consecutive games. Eventually, the Kraken burned enough time to allow Wright to go to the World Juniors in December, and Wright finally finished the season back with his junior team.

Early in Ducks training camp, Sennecke seems to be getting a bit of a showcase treatment, as he was right wing to Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson in Saturday’s scrimmage. In observing Sennecke, it’s evident that all the skills and senses are there, but he simply needs that strength program to get to that next level.

I would expect the window of opportunity to continue for Sennecke through the preseason, as Verbeek and the Ducks evaluate their options for his development.

Potential Line Combinations

The two scrimmages on Friday and Saturday gave a peak at potential line-ups the Ducks could ice once October rolls around. For brevity, let’s focus on combinations featuring NHL players, starting with the forwards from Saturday’s scrimmages (of course, noting the Mason McTavish-sized asterisk to these):

Chris Kreider-Mikael Granlund-Troy Terry

Cutter Gauthier-Leo Carlsson-Beckett Sennecke

Frank Vatrano-Ryan Strome-Alex Killorn

Ross Johnston-Ryan Poehling-Jansen Harkins

Nikita Nesterenko-Tim Washe-Sam Colangelo

The first and second listed lines provide a lot of promise with veteran power and youthful promise. I don’t know how many complaints you’d find with those combos to enter the season. Veteran know-how again populates that third listed line, and then either of the last two lines seem like highly probable fourth lines. 

Poehling-centered line feels more like a Greg Cronin-era creation, and the Washe-centered line feels like a look at 2026’s bottom six. Swap Poehling for Washe, and I imagine that’s the 2025 fourth-line.

The most interesting-looking line from Friday’s scrimmage was a Kreider-Carlsson-Terry combo, but separating Carlsson and Gauthier seems like a quickly resolved misstep. All for trying things right now, though.

On defense, pairings have been fairly run of the mill, with most of them getting some run at points last season. The one that stands out from Saturday was Jackson LaCombe with Drew Helleson, who were also paired on Friday. Would seemingly point to Helleson having an inside track to the Opening Night line-up.

Other defensive spot contenders–Tristan Luneau and Ian Moore–were paired together on Friday, but split on Saturday. Moore was with Stian Solberg for the second scrimmage, and that honestly looks like a stellar first pairing for San Diego.