One under-the-radar prospect who could play games for each Pacific Division team in 2024-25

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
One under-the-radar prospect who could play games for each Pacific Division team in 2024-25
Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to the middle of July, also known as the NHL’s dry season.

By this point in the summer, there’s seldom all that much to talk about. Only so much can be said about teams re-signing their RFAs and swapping out one assistant coach for another. The faint hope of a surprise blockbuster trade is usually enough to tide most fans over for the first half of the month, but we’re now closer to August than June. If it hasn’t happened already, it probably won’t happen until training camp.

So, what better way to pass the time than to lean into the minutiae? If the title of this piece hasn’t already clued you in, here’s a cursory look at one prospect affiliated with each Pacific Division team who could go from “who?” to a steady NHL role at some point in the 2024-25 season.

To qualify for this list, a player must have appeared in fewer than five NHL games in his career through the end of the 2023-24 season. Also, for our purposes, all first-round picks are ineligible — after all, they hardly qualify as “under-the-radar” prospects. With that said, we’ll kick things off with the Anaheim Ducks.

Anaheim Ducks: Sam Colangelo, RW

On most teams, a prospect like Sam Colangelo wouldn’t qualify as “under-the-radar.” But in a Ducks pool that also includes Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Cutter Gauthier, and Beckett Sennecke, it’s easy to see how Colangelo could become overlooked. That could change in a big way as soon as this coming season.

Colangelo, 22, emerged as a full-fledged NCAA star at Western Michigan University in 2023-24, collecting 24 goals and 43 points in 38 games. He’d found success over his previous three years at Northeastern University, but nothing compared to what he accomplished as a senior with the Broncos. Colangelo was named a nominee for the Hobey Baker Award at Western Michigan despite playing with relatively few legit prospects; he ended up parlaying his excellent year into an NHL deal (and his first three games) with the Ducks in the spring.

Even after trading for Robby Fabbri and signing Jansen Harkins, the Ducks have plenty of room for a young forward like Colangelo to play his way into an NHL role in 2024-25. He’s not the greatest skater, but he’s a 6’3″ center with a big shot — NHL teams seldom hesitate to give opportunities to players who fit that description. At the very least, Colangelo should be able to help the long-suffering San Diego Gulls finally take a step forward next year, but that’s only if he doesn’t make the Ducks out of camp.

Calgary Flames: Jeremie Poirier, LHD

The Flames have a lot of players in their system who could handle NHL roles if called upon this season, from big winger William Stromgren to recent trade acquisition Artem Grushnikov, but Jeremie Poirier is the closest of the bunch. The skilled offensive defenseman missed most of the 2023-24 regular season after suffering a freak injury last October when an opponent’s skate blade sliced deep into his right forearm.

In the end, Poirier skated in just 23 games with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers in 2023-24, collecting three goals and 13 points; he added four more points in six playoff contests. He understandably looked a little rusty upon his return to the lineup in March and never quite reached the level he maintained during his outstanding AHL rookie season the previous year, in which he racked up 41 points in 69 games.

The Flames originally selected Poirier in the third round (No. 72 overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft. The 6′ left-handed defender has yet to make his NHL debut but has the puck-moving ability to play a top-four role at the next level if the rest of his game can translate. He’ll have plenty of competition — Calgary also has Zayne Parekh, Étienne Morin, Hunter Brzustewicz, Henry Mews, Ilya Solovyov, and Grushnikov in its system — but with a strong start to the 2024-25 season, Poirier could find himself with the Flames in no time.

Edmonton Oilers: Max Wanner, RHD

On the surface, Max Wanner doesn’t really stick out as a prospect of much repute. He’s a 21-year-old right-handed defenseman drafted in the seventh round three years ago and managed just 17 points in 68 AHL games with the Bakersfield Condors during the 2023-24 season. But for an Oilers team in desperate need of cheap reinforcements on the blue line (especially in the wake of yet another subpar playoff run for the pairing of Darnell Nurse and Cody Ceci), Wanner could be called upon for an audition before long.

The Estevan, Saskatchewan-born Wanner has made noticeable improvements each year since the Oilers selected him with their 13th-last pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. He’s reasonably mobile for a 6’3″ defender and plays a steady, no-nonsense game that should appeal to Edmonton fans who have become overly accustomed to more mistake-prone options on their bottom two pairs in recent seasons.

With Philip Broberg likely moving up to the Oilers for good, expect Wanner to receive the bulk of the high-leverage assignments in Bakersfield to start the 2024-25 season. If Ceci continues to struggle, Wanner could prove to be a far better option to play on the second pairing with Nurse than the likes of Troy Stecher and Josh Brown. The Oilers don’t have many defensive prospects of note in their system, but Wanner plays a projectable enough game to be worth mentioning.

Los Angeles Kings: Martin Chromiak, RW

Martin Chromiak has long been a bit of a divisive prospect. While some outlets rated the Slovak right wing as a potential top-60 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, he ended up falling all the way to the fifth round before the Kings finally took him with the No. 128 selection. It didn’t take L.A. too long to sign him after that, but for a player who lives and dies based on his offense, Chromiak has yet to truly break through as a high-end producer in the AHL.

Chromiak managed 15 goals in 55 games with AHL Ontario in 2022-23, but it took him 70 games to equal that output last season. That’s not a great sign, although it was likely also a consequence of players like Akil Thomas and Alex Turcotte playing larger roles and veteran Charles Hudon filling a top-six spot. Either way, it’ll be imperative for Chromiak to take a step forward if he wants to earn another contract from the Kings after this coming season.

The Kings are in a bit of a weird spot. They sacrificed much of their forward depth to acquire Pierre-Luc Dubois a year ago, only to flip Dubois for a goaltender earlier this summer after he flopped in his only season in L.A. They’ve added Warren Foegele and Tanner Jeannot, but Arthur Kaliyev seems to have one foot out the door and guys like Thomas and Turcotte have yet to fully establish themselves as NHLers. Chromiak showed he can put the puck in the net during his days with the Kingston Frontenacs. An injury or two could result in his first NHL call-up.

San Jose Sharks: Jack Thompson, RHD

It was a bit surprising to see the Tampa Bay Lightning include Jack Thompson as a throw-in to acquire Anthony Duclair from the Sharks ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. Thompson was a third-round pick in 2020 who took very little time to establish himself as a high-end defenseman at the AHL level. After being named an AHL All-Star with the Syracuse Crunch earlier this year, he remained productive on an awful San Jose Barracuda team down the stretch and even earned his second and third NHL games with the Sharks along the way.

The 6’1″ Thompson only just turned 22 in March and put up 41 points in 62 games split between the Crunch and Barracuda during the 2023-24 regular season. That the Sharks acquired a right-handed defenseman of Thompson’s caliber plus a 2024 third-round pick in exchange for Duclair and a future seventh-rounder was nothing short of larceny by Mike Grier.

The Sharks’ defensive group is pretty light on right-handed options. Jan Rutta and Matt Benning are experienced veterans, Ty Emberson showed reasonably well in 30 games last season, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic is theoretically capable of playing both sides, but most of the defenders in the San Jose system shoot left. If Thompson develops into a top-four option, he could be an ideal foil for someone like Sam Dickinson years down the line.

Seattle Kraken: Logan Morrison, C

The Kraken need quality centers in the worst way, even after overpaying to land Chandler Stephenson from the Vegas Golden Knights in free agency. With Matty Beniers stalling in his second full season in Seattle and Shane Wright still unproven at the NHL level, the door is wide open for a prospect like Logan Morrison to waltz in and steal a spot in training camp.

It’s difficult to believe nobody took a flier on Morrison after he put up 100 points in 60 OHL games as a 19-year-old with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2021-22, but that’s exactly what happened. The Guelph, Ontario product ended up having to wait another year before he finally signed his first NHL deal with the Kraken; in the interim, he managed 40 goals and 94 points in only 56 games split between Hamilton and the Ottawa 67’s, adding 10 goals and 16 points in 11 playoff games with Ottawa in 2023.

It’s not at all uncommon for “late bloomers” to struggle to put up points in the AHL after dominating in junior at ages 19 and 20, but Morrison looked every bit the part of a legit prospect with the Coachella Valley Firebirds in 2023-24. Despite playing behind Wright and several top AHL veterans for much of the season, Morrison collected 16 goals and 41 points in 64 games and added 10 points in 18 playoff contests. At 6′ and 179 pounds, Morrison might not be the most imposing player, but he has the talent to make a go of it in the NHL.

Vancouver Canucks: Max Sasson, C

As the reigning Pacific Division champs, the Canucks will understandably be predisposed this coming season in favor of the players who led the way for them last year. The chances of an untested prospect forcing himself into NHL duty full-time in Vancouver this season are low, if not negligible. This is a team that brought back most of its significant UFAs while also adding the likes of Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, Derek Forbort, and Vincent Desharnais. Barring a rash of injuries, there really just isn’t any room in their lineup.

Even so, it wouldn’t be that surprising to see Max Sasson earn a trial run one way or another in 2024-25. The former Western Michigan University standout earned his first pro contract with the Canucks as a 22-year-old in 2023 and emerged as a genuine contributor this past season, posting 18 goals and 42 points in 56 games with AHL Abbotsford. Considering that Sasson was a third-line forward in the NAHL — one step below the USHL — in his draft year, it’s extremely impressive that he’s made it this high on the Canucks’ depth chart six years later.

The Canucks are replete with low-cost depth forward options with varying degrees of upside, from former top prospects in Vasili Podkolzin and Aatu Raty to relatively unheralded types in Nils Aman and Arshdeep Bains. Unlike these guys, Sasson hasn’t been able to show what he can do in the NHL just yet. That alone might make him more appealing to the Canucks’ front office as a call-up option.

Vegas Golden Knights: Lukas Cormier, LHD

Much like the Canucks, it’d be surprising to see the Golden Knights deviate from their trademark all-veterans-all-the-time approach in the coming season. Vegas has traded prospects at a vastly higher rate than basically every other team since they entered the league in 2017, using them as trade chips to acquire the likes of Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Jack Eichel, and, more recently, Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin. They’ll fall victim to the law of diminishing returns eventually, but it hasn’t hit them yet.

That said, a team that takes advantage of the various quirks of the NHL’s salary cap system as much as Vegas does needs to be able to plug low-cost prospects into its lineup as necessary to remain compliant during the regular season. We saw plenty of that last year, with Pavel Dorofeyev, Kaedan Korczak, and Brendan Brisson all getting looks before being shunted in favour of more proven (and expensive) veterans once the playoffs rolled around. The 2024-25 season might prove to be Lukas Cormier’s opportunity to enter the limelight in that way.

The 22-year-old Cormier appeared in his first two NHL games with the Golden Knights this past season but spent the majority of the year with AHL Henderson, with whom he experienced a moderate decrease in production from his strong 35-point debut with the club a year prior. The 5’11” lefty won’t have a spot in Vegas to start the year with Hanifin, Nic Hague, and Brayden McNabb all ahead of him, but it’s easy to envision Cormier settling in on a pairing with Zach Whitecloud down the line. With apologies to Daniil Chayka and Chris Sedoff, Cormier is easily the strongest left-handed defense prospect in the Golden Knights’ pro ranks.

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