EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Tristan Luneau is healthy and happy to be with the Anaheim Ducks when they open camp on Thursday — and hopefully when they open the season in San Jose and every game thereafter.
Every training camp participant feels that way, especially a young prospect such as Luneau. But it feels a lot more realistic with him. The defenseman made the Ducks out of camp last fall, and made his NHL debut. In November, Luneau scored his first goal.
Now he’s trying to squeeze into an interesting mix on Anaheim’s blue line, which includes veterans such as Cam Fowler, Radko Gudas and Brian Dumoulin, and fellow youngsters such as Pavel Mintyukov, Jackson LaCombe and Olen Zellweger.
“Lots of different types of players on that blue line,” Luneau said. “You’ve got some veterans that just play the game the right way. Bring some physicality. We got some young guys that bring some other aspects to the game.
“I’m just trying to play to my strengths on the ice. Trying to fit into that group and do whatever I got to do to help the organization for sure.”
Luneau wasn’t drafted in 2022 until the No. 53 pick, largely because he had to overcome knee surgery, but the 20-year-old moved freely about the ice at the recent Rookie Faceoff tournament as he handled the puck a ton for the Ducks. It was his first game action since last fall, and while there may have been some rust to knock off, that wasn’t apparent in his skating. Luneau had no problems getting back to collect pucks or tracking forwards. He jumped up into the offensive zone for chances and moved along the blue line with ease.
The Ducks played Luneau in all three games and asked him to take on a leadership role, given his experience in that setting. Matt McIlvane, the coach of their AHL affiliate in San Diego, had Luneau for six games on a conditioning loan last season. “Steady progress” was McIlvane’s term for what he saw out of the defenseman over the weekend.
“Just think about what it’s like to miss so much hockey and then to get thrown into the competitive game,” McIlvane said. “This is a blitz of a tournament from testing right into practice right into the games. Three games in four nights with a practice in there. There’s plenty going on. And there’s a timing element that everyone’s trying to catch up with. Tristan’s not immune to that.
“And then there’s also your own feel and finding your own game. What I saw from Tristan in these games through this tournament was steady progress. Our key is a head start for main camp, and I think that’s what he got. He’s one step ahead.”
That wasn’t the case nine months ago. A setback had him playing catch-up through spring and summer. Luneau clearly remembers the morning. When you’re dream of playing for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship is shattered, you’ll never forget.
Everything was fine when he left for the greater Toronto area to attend Canada’s WJC camp in the December lead-up to the tournament. “Felt really good there,” Luneau recounted. “Couple of practices. Met everyone there. Great teammates. Great staff over there. So, I felt really good, honestly.
“Traveled to Sweden,” he continued. “Did two practices there on the first two days. Here comes the third day and I was feeling a little sluggish. Kind of little flu symptoms. Light-headed and things like that. That night, I felt fever so I couldn’t sleep. Woke up the next day, got out of bed and my two knees were huge. All swollen.”
One of 10 defenseman invited by Team Canada, Luneau was to be a key driver from the back end. The Ducks released him to play for his homeland after giving him seven games at the start of the 2023-24 season, a short stretch impressive enough for first-year coach Greg Cronin to give him rave reviews. He’d play another six contests in the American Hockey League on a conditioning loan to stay sharp. His progression in the organization was enough to convince Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek that he could trade Jamie Drysdale, whom the club chose as the No. 6 overall pick in 2020, to get top NCAA goal-scorer Cutter Gauthier.
As Canada prepared in Gothenburg, Luneau was ready for his moment. But instead of playing in the pre-tournament games, the native of Trois-Rivières, Quebec, and former star of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques was having his bloodwork analyzed to see if he had flu symptoms, COVID-19 or, as he said, “whatever it could be in there.”
The swelling in his knees was the result of a viral infection, which Luneau said was detected on his fourth day in Sweden. “Got surgery at 6 in the morning next day,” he added.
Luneau was crushed. He had finally become part of the competitive Team Canada mix after being passed over. Several of his friends — particularly those with a shared Quebec background — were on the team. His parents, Nadia and Dominic, had made the trip to Sweden.
When Canada was preparing for its WJC opener against Finland, Luneau was in the hospital feeling frustrated. Angry. “Took it out on the doctors a little bit,” he said. But he was thankful for those doctors as well. He felt like he was in good hands with their care. And they made it so if he couldn’t be with his teammates on the ice, he’d at least be there in the locker room.
“It’s crazy how hard it was to watch those games,” Luneau said. “I wanted to be there. As soon as I could get out of the hospital, I was in crutches going to the game. I was just sitting there. I had a four-hour window with my antibiotics and IV so I kind of timed it for the games.
“Trying to do whatever I could do to help that team. It was hard to watch honestly.”
These days, Luneau is in a far better place. The second half of last season was spent in Anaheim recovering under the watchful eyes of the Ducks’ medical and conditioning staffs. Affixing himself to their defense corps became his target. He prepared by putting more muscle on his 6-foot-1 frame and skating often at Université Laval or at one of the Junior AAA rinks near his home in Quebec.
“If you’re ever looking for an upside to something like a long-term injury, that’s what that does allow,” McIlvane said. “It allows time in the gym to invest in different parts of your body. Tristan went down with Mike Barwis in Florida and they did a lot of hard training. He certainly invested in his body. He comes back and he looks like an animal. He’s certainly got a great frame to be successful and to propel him forward.”
As camp opens, it isn’t a given that Luneau will emerge with a spot. The Ducks added Dumoulin through trade in July and have brought back Gustav Lindström on a pro tryout. Their defense still largely revolves around Fowler and Gudas while Mintyukov takes another step in his ascent as a critical top-four piece. Fowler may be part of current trade discussions Verbeek is having with interested teams, but the future is Mintyukov – with Zellweger and LaCombe also there to show they can defend consistently at the NHL level and deserve permanent spots.
Luneau is helped by the fact that brings a different element, as a right-handed shot who also has strong offensive skills. LaCombe, Fowler and Zellweger are lefties who have experience playing on the right side, but Luneau provides natural balance if he can win a job, since Gudas is the only right shot who is a regular.
The rookie games allowed Luneau to show that there’s no reason to worry over his knees. This was not a tear, which might have taken up to a year for Luneau to feel pain-free and at full strength. Once he was cleared of the infection, the pain was gone and he was skating with no impingement. When he couldn’t be on the ice, he’d use his time wisely.
“Last year, I was at the rink every day during recovery,” Luneau said. “I was in the video room with those guys. Watching practices. Just being around the team. Honestly, I was asking questions, but they were too. They’ve been great to me. All those guys, the veterans on the team. They were trying to support me. I was there to support them too. Just bring a positive environment to the rink every day.”
In the kitchen of his family home hangs a frame containing the puck from his first Ducks goal, when he put a rebound of his initial shot past Washington goalie Darcy Kuemper. It’s a gift for his parents, a thank-you to all they’ve done to help him realize his NHL dream. “They’re probably more proud than me of that goal,” he said. “Special moment.”
That dream is about to play itself out. Potentially many more moments to come.
(Photo of Tristan Luneau: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
