Ducks’ Isac Lundestrom out until January with torn Achilles: What this means for Leo Carlsson

Anaheim Ducks center Isac Lundestrom will be sidelined for at least the first half of the 2023-24 season due to a torn Achilles tendon, the team confirmed to The Athletic on Wednesday. This opens the door for Leo Carlsson, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, to win a job with Anaheim out of training camp.

The Ducks, who signed right wing Troy Terry to a seven-year contract extension earlier in the day, confirmed an initial report out of Sweden in which Lundestrom suffered the injury while training. The 23-year-old forward has had surgery to repair the tendon and the club said the present timetable for a return is January.

It is another injury setback for Lundestrom, a 2018 first-round pick who will be entering his sixth season with Anaheim. The native of Gallivare, Sweden, went between the Ducks and the American Hockey League’s San Diego Gulls for two seasons before sticking with Anaheim for good in the shortened 2020-21 NHL season. He broke out with 16 goals and 13 assists across 80 games in 2021-22 but fell back to just four goals and 10 assists last season in 61 contests as he missed time due to a broken finger.

Lundestrom’s absence opens the third-line center job behind Trevor Zegras and Mason McTavish. At the draft on June 28 in Nashville, the Ducks selected Carlsson as the second pick after the Chicago Blackhawks expectedly grabbed junior hockey phenom Connor Bedard. It was a surprise in many circles as Anaheim was widely seen to take University of Michigan star freshman and Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli.

But the 18-year-old Carlsson was expected to compete for a roster spot at camp in September.

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Before the injury, Lundestrom might have been in a battle to hold off Carlsson and another talented center prospect in Nathan Gaucher. Now the 6-foot-3 Carlsson, whom the Ducks talked of as a potential franchise center on draft night, has a lane to earning a spot under new Anaheim coach Greg Cronin. Last season, Carlsson had 10 goals and 25 points in 44 games with Örebro HK of the SHL while adding another nine points in 13 playoff contests. He also centered Sweden’s top line at the IIHF world championships.

“We were excited about his high hockey IQ,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek told The Athletic at the draft. “His creativity. I think he has a really nice combination of being able to make other players around him better and being able to provide the offense, not only from a playmaking standpoint but from a goal-scoring standpoint as well.

“I was really taken aback by his two-way game. Looking at him, we’re excited for the potential for him to be not only a dominant player in the offensive zone but also in the defensive zone as well.”

Echoed Anaheim assistant GM Martin Madden of Carlsson making his linemates better: “That’s the most important part of his game that we see continue to allow him to grow into a dominant first-line center for us in the future.”

Carlsson is the third No. 2 pick in the Ducks’ franchise history, joining defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky in 1994 and scoring winger Bobby Ryan in 2005. However, Gaucher could make a bid for Lundestrom’s vacant spot. The 19-year-old went 22nd overall in 2022 and had an impressive rookie camp last fall. He went back to the junior-level QMJHL and had a strong season with the Quebec Remparts that culminated in a league championship and the team’s first Memorial Cup title since 2006.

At 6-foot-3 and 207 pounds, Gaucher has been seen as a prototypical third-line center with shutdown abilities against quality forwards. He was honored by the QMJHL as its top defensive forward.

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(Photo: Derek Leung / Getty Images)