Anaheim Ducks prospects McQueen and Luneau eye NHL roster spots

Anaheim’s 32 in 32 prospect series opened Aug. 1 with a Ducks file that said Roger McQueen and Tristan Luneau could earn NHL roster spots this season. For the San Diego Gulls, that is more than a preseason note: it is a direct read on which prospects are closest to forcing a move in Anaheim and which players may be next in line for real minutes in the AHL.

The Anaheim entry was part of NHL.com’s leaguewide rollout from Aug. 1 through Sept. 1 and focused on the Ducks’ top five prospects for the 2026-27 season. A separate Ducks offseason piece had already placed McQueen, Luneau and Nikita Klepov on the cusp of the NHL, while Anaheim’s 2026 development camp highlighted Klepov, Marcus Nordmark, 2025 No. 10 overall pick McQueen and 2026 Olympian Damian Clara. McQueen’s path got another layer of weight when Anaheim signed him to a three-year entry-level contract that begins in the 2026-27 NHL season.

That matters for San Diego because the Ducks’ pipeline is built to feed both rosters at once. Anaheim has described the Gulls as its primary development affiliate in the American Hockey League, and the club has already moved players through that lane by assigning Damian Clara and center Lucas Pettersson from Brynas of the Swedish Hockey League to San Diego. The Ducks later extended Gulls general manager Rick Paterson’s contract and said he had built a successful pipeline between San Diego and Anaheim.

Luneau’s rise shapes the blue-line order, where every NHL-ready defenseman can squeeze another prospect into fewer minutes or send him to San Diego for a heavier role. McQueen’s progress matters just as much on the scoring side, where the Ducks’ forward picture already includes Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke as top fantasy targets, and NHL.com’s inside look at Anaheim pointed to Carlsson and defenseman Pavel Mintyukov as part of a young core chasing more after last season’s playoff return. When that many names are clustered near the top of the organization, the first call-up or the first injury can change the Gulls’ lineup overnight.

Anaheim’s prospect depth has drawn attention before, with The Athletic ranking the pool first among NHL clubs in 2023. The NHL’s 2026-27 season opens Sept. 29 and expands to 84 games, which gives the Ducks a tight runway to sort out who stays in Anaheim, who opens in San Diego, and which prospects become the next names AHL fans see every night.