Anaheim Ducks prospect Beckett Sennecke, the No. 3 overall pick in the NHL Draft in June, suffered a foot fracture while training and is expected to be sideline for six to eight weeks, the team announced Thursday.
Sennecke, 18, was as surprised as anyone inside Sphere in Las Vegas when he was taken by the Ducks after San Jose grabbed Boston University star Macklin Celebrini with the No. 1 pick and Chicago followed by selecting Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov.
A Ducks spokesman said Thursday that Sennecke’s injury is believed to have occurred approximately one week ago. While the Toronto native likely was pegged to return to junior hockey this season, the 6-foot-2 right wing who broke out with the Ontario Hockey League’s Oshawa Generals won’t play in the upcoming seven-team Rookie Faceoff in El Segundo, Calif., and won’t participate in the Ducks’ training camp this month.
In his second OHL season, Sennecke had 27 goals and 41 assists in 63 games with Oshawa. His dominant playoff performance — in which he had 10 goals and 22 points in 16 games before suffering a concussion — helped win over Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek. The club signed Sennecke to a three-year entry-level contract in July.
Verbeek believes the strong-skating winger has high-end puck-handling and scoring skills, and a frame that will make him succeed in the NHL. At the draft, Sennecke compared his game to that of Nashville’s Filip Forsberg, in that he’s equally effective at setting up teammates with plays and also finishing plays himself.
“He’s got that reach,” Sennecke said of Forsberg. “Really good puck protection. Loves to cut to the middle. Super shifty. Yeah, those are the kind of similar qualities that I have.”
The Ducks also announced that goalie prospect Tomas Suchanek suffered a ruptured ACL, with a six-to-eight-month recovery timeline, which could keep him out for all of 2024-25. Suchanek, 21, earned a contract with Anaheim after emerging as the best goalie for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls last season, when he went 14-10-5 with a 2.92 goals-against average, .910 save percentage and three shutouts.
INJURY UPDATES: Right wing Beckett Sennecke suffered a foot fracture during offseason training and is expected to be out approximately 6-8 weeks.
Goaltender Tomas Suchanek had successful surgery to repair a ruptured ACL and is expected to be out approximately 6-8 months. pic.twitter.com/41uDN8lcZl
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) September 6, 2024
Required reading
• NHL Draft riser Beckett Sennecke had a ‘pretty authentic’ 4-letter reaction after going to Ducks at No. 3
• Anaheim Ducks rank No. 3 in NHL Pipeline Rankings for 2024
(Photo of Beckett Sennecke at the 2024 NHL Draft: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
