Ducks Prospect McQueen Signs ATO, Joins San Diego Gulls Immediately

Roger McQueen's first professional games were always going to happen on a compressed timeline. With the AHL regular season entering its final weeks, the Anaheim Ducks signed their 2025 first-round pick to an amateur tryout agreement with the San Diego Gulls, sending the 6-foot-5 center directly into the lineup.

McQueen was selected 10th overall by the Ducks in the 2025 NHL Draft. He spent this season at Providence College, where he posted 11 goals and 27 points in 36 games for the Friars. Those are the numbers of one of college hockey's more productive freshmen, but a handful of late-season AHL games will test something his NCAA box scores can't capture: whether his game translates immediately against professional competition.

The ATO designation is worth understanding. The ATO lets McQueen play AHL games without being on an NHL contract, meaning the first year of his entry-level deal won't start until next fall. It's a mechanism designed precisely for this situation: a high-end college prospect who has finished his season and wants pro reps before summer development begins, without either side committing to a full professional deal. If he were to sign an ELC starting this season instead, a CBA quirk would prevent him from playing AHL games because he wasn't under an NHL contract on the trade deadline date; the ATO sidesteps that entirely.

For the Gulls, the timing is useful. Nathan Gaucher departed for the Anaheim roster on March 26, thinning the forward group at a critical stretch. McQueen steps in as a roster need and gives San Diego's coaching staff a controlled environment to evaluate exactly how his game holds up against pro pace and physicality.

The questions are specific. At 6-foot-5, McQueen has the frame NHL scouts covet at center, but the pro game demands something different from even the most productive NCAA player: sharper work in the faceoff circle, tighter defensive zone coverage, and the ability to process game speed without the recovery time college schedules allow. Every shift he logs over the next few weeks is data the Ducks can't get elsewhere.

For an organization building methodically through the draft, a strong cameo changes nothing contractually but could influence everything about how McQueen's summer is structured. A player who looks comfortable in AHL conditions might push toward a more aggressive development path, possibly bypassing a second college season entirely. A rougher adjustment tells the organization something equally valuable, informing how they shape his conditioning and systems work before training camp.

McQueen turned 19 last October. He has time. But San Diego's final games of this season just became the most important audition of his early career.