After making the Ducks’ opening night roster for the second consecutive season, Tristan Luneau is headed to the AHL.
Luneau was a healthy scratch in the Ducks’ last two games and at 20 years old, needs regular playing time to continue developing. After cracking the opening night lineup, he appeared in six games and did not have any points.
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Offensive production isn’t the end-all-be-all for a defenseman, but for a player like Luneau, his puck handling and skating ability allow him to create offensively and that part of his game is still coming along at the NHL level.
“Tristan went down with (Ducks director of sports science) Mike Barwis in Florida and they did a lot of hard training,” Gulls head coach Matt McIlvane said. “He certainly invested in his body and he comes back and he looks like an animal. He’s certainly got a great frame to be successful and to propel him forward.”
“I’ve always been a defenseman that skates a lot and I didn’t want to lose that,” Luneau said. “I didn’t want to lose speed. I feel like I’ve gained some speed over the summer, so that’s one thing I want to keep.”
During training camp, Luneau admitted that some of his reads were off and he had trouble adjusting to the game’s pace because he hadn’t played in so long. He has also had some defensive bumps, most notably a turnover in the second game of the season against the Vegas Golden Knights, which led directly to a goal against.
The demotion to San Diego isn’t a true indictment of Luneau’s play. It’s about getting him top pair minutes in a more forgiving environment than the NHL while he works out some kinks.
With how well Olen Zellweger has played and the need to get Jackson LaCombe regular playing time after one full season in the NHL, the logical decision was to send Luneau to the AHL. Anaheim also carried eight defensemen to begin the season, meaning that at least one of their young blueliners was sitting in the press box every game.
Luneau is also still working himself back from a staph infection that cost him almost an entire year. While he did play summer league hockey and got several games under his belt thanks to rookie camp and preseason, he’s played very little hockey since resuming skating in April.
In San Diego, he can jump into a role as the immediate no. 1 defenseman and use the opportunity to strengthen his skills, much like Zellweger did last season after a short stint in the NHL. Upon his return following the trade deadline, Zellweger looked like he had made the proper adjustments. The hope is that Luneau can too.
“He’s just a ball of energy,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said. “He’s one of those guys that you have to tamp down his energy, right? He’s confident. He’s just so aggressive. He wants to score a goal every shift, he wants to defend every play and it’s awesome to have that that DNA in our locker room. He’s also a very humble kid and he’s going to be fun to coach.
“You’ve got to remember he’s 20, (Zellweger) is 20, (Pavel Mintyukov) is 20, Jackson LaCombe’s in his second year as a 23-year-old. These kids are young kids. They’re gonna make mistakes. As a coaching staff, we have to accept that part of their development while promoting the good things that are going to be the long-term mechanisms that are going to make them great players.
“We had a taste of Luneau last year and his first game, it was not great statistically in terms of how we managed the game as coaches. But every game he got better and better. And it’s a shame he got sidelined with that injury.”
