{"id":19393,"date":"2026-07-01T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19393"},"modified":"2026-07-01T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T21:34:10","slug":"coveted-ducks-draft-pick-nikita-klepov-seizing-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19393","title":{"rendered":"Coveted Ducks draft pick Nikita Klepov seizing opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

IRVINE \u2013\u2013 Even as the parent club has gone from cellar-dwellar to up-and-comer, the Ducks\u2019 prospect pool hasn\u2019t lost much of its luster.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s in large part because they keep adding high-ceiling aspirants despite dropping down in the draft order, snagging a top-five talent at No. 10 last year with center Roger McQueen and trading back into the first round this time around to snag winger Nikita Klepov.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s also because of a keen eye and meticulous development, as has been the case with 2024 third-rounder Maxim Mass\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Klepov, who turned 18 on Saturday, was the higher of two first-round selections that the Ducks received from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for former lottery pick Mason McTavish. The Florida-born, Russian-American dual citizen was the lynchpin of the exchange that shipped out a one-time franchise cornerstone, to the point where general manager Pat Verbeek said he wouldn\u2019t have made that particular deal if Klepov were not available at No. 15 overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously nice to realize that, but you have to put in a lot of work to get here,\u201d said Klepov, who met with the Ducks only once. \u201cIt\u2019s a good organization with a lot of good players in here, and you\u2019ve got to do everything that you can and work really hard for opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klepov said the stickhandling and power-play wizardry of Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov captivated him. Like Kucherov, he moved from Russia to North America and played in the Canadian junior system. Kucherov went to Quebec and Klepov headed to Ontario, skating for the same Saginaw Spirit club that Ducks defenseman and fellow Russian national Pavel Mintyukov did.<\/p>\n

After a year in the United States Hockey League, he exploded in \u201cthe O,\u201d bursting forth with a league-leading 97 points as a rookie.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI got some more of the coaches\u2019 trust and played a bigger role this year. The development program that they have in Saginaw is awesome, so that\u2019s what changed this year,\u201d Klepov said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Next, he\u2019ll head to Michigan State alongside Ducks prospect Eric Nilson. The Spartans\u2019 program boasted lottery picks Porter Martone and Cayden Lindstrom last season before it had nine players selected in this draft, including five first-rounders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to get started, the team is going to be awesome there with a lot of good young talent,\u201d Klepov said.<\/p>\n

Mass\u00e9, a 20-year-old winger, will also make the leap from the Canadian junior system to the NCAA, joining the UMass Minutemen this fall. He reached rarefied air in the CHL by becoming one of just six players to win both its rookie of the year honors and, later, its player of the year award. The third-rounder joined a group that had been almost exclusively composed of No. 1 overall picks, including Sidney Crosby, John Tavares, Gavin McKenna and Alex Lefreni\u00e9re.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unreal. I saw the article a couple days after I got the call that I was player of the year, and I was like \u2018Wow, those are great players who marked the game of hockey at the pro level,\u2019\u201d Mass\u00e9 said. \u201cI know I still have a lot of work to do to just play or have any similar impact, but just to have my name on the same trophies as them is a true honor for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GM Pat Verbeek says he wouldn’t have traded former lottery draft pick Mason McTavish to the St. Louis Blues if Klepov weren’t available at No. 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCoveted Ducks draft pick Nikita Klepov seizing opportunities - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19393\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coveted Ducks draft pick Nikita Klepov seizing opportunities - 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