{"id":539627,"date":"2026-04-04T02:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/539627\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T02:56:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T02:56:00","slug":"ducks-smith-tracy-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/539627\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks, Smith, Tracy \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly ahead of tonight\u2019s game at San Jose, the Anaheim Ducks revealed that<\/a> Radko Gudas<\/a> and Pavel Mintyukov<\/a> wouldn\u2019t play due to lower body injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Gudas, it more or less confirms the suspicion that the 35-year-old laced them up not yet healthy in order to answer the bell against the Maple Leafs. It\u2019s a commendable act from the Ducks\u2019 captain, especially as Gudas didn\u2019t throw a punch in his scrap with Max Domi,<\/a> stemming from the controversial hit which ended Auston Matthews<\/a>\u2019 season. Nonetheless, the Czech stay-at-home man will look to get healthy in time for the playoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another defenseman, Mintyukov has dealt with his own lower body issue, keeping him out of the lineup for the second time in the last three games. The 22-year-old has developed nicely in Anaheim, averaging 18:26 a contest and needing just one more game to make a career high 69 appearances in a season. Mintyukov still has untapped offensive upside, offering 20 points so far in 2025-26.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither Gudas or Mintyukov figure to have serious issues, but in the meantime, Ian Moore<\/a> and Drew Helleson<\/a> have stepped in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Elsewhere across the league:<\/p>\n

Los Angeles will weigh their coaching options this summer, as insider David Pagnotta suspected that interim head coach D.J. Smith<\/a> won\u2019t be back, on Monday\u2019s edition of Oilersnation Everyday<\/a>. After firing Jim Hiller<\/a> on March 1, Smith\u2019s efforts to provide a spark have proved often ineffective, with a 5-5-4 record. The former Senators head man has a .465 career win percentage, not winning more than 39 games in a season. This summer will bring major change to the Kings with icon An\u017ee Kopitar<\/a> set to hang up his skates, but still offering a strong core in win-now mode, Los Angeles will seek a long-term solution behind the bench. Smith, 48, came to the Kings as an assistant in February 2024. If it\u2019s indeed the beginning of the end of his tenure, it\u2019s safe to assume another NHL club will come calling with a similiar job offer.
\nThe Henderson Silver Knights, aptly named affiliates of Vegas, inked<\/a> goaltender Alexander Tracy<\/a> to an AHL contract for 2026-27. The undrafted netminder enters the professional circuit after an impressive four year career at Minnesota State University \u2013 Mankato. A native of Chicago, Illinois, the 25-year-old got the bulk of starts for three of his four collegiate seasons. He put up an eye-popping .946 save percentage last season, followed by a .927% this year, winning over 20 games in each. Vegas has had three drafted goaltenders who have gotten significant playing time in the AHL, but behind Carl Lindbom<\/a>, who has played well, neither Cameron Whitehead<\/a> or Jesper Vikman<\/a> have been able to stand out. Vikman was dealt to the Capitals organization as part of the Nic Dowd<\/a> trade. As a result, the 5\u201911\u201d Tracy will compete for a backup role in Henderson. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shortly ahead of tonight\u2019s game at San Jose, the Anaheim Ducks revealed that Radko Gudas and Pavel Mintyukov…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[401,61816,2210,233,5292,7204,1739,5,145,4,4181,9464,404],"class_list":{"0":"post-539627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim-ducks","8":"tag-ahl","9":"tag-alexander-tracy","10":"tag-anaheim","11":"tag-anaheim-ducks","12":"tag-anaheimducks","13":"tag-d-j-smith","14":"tag-ducks","15":"tag-hockey","16":"tag-los-angeles-kings","17":"tag-nhl","18":"tag-pavel-mintyukov","19":"tag-radko-gudas","20":"tag-snapshots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116344191904997882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}