Editor’s note: Lisa Dillman is the new beat writer covering the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. Dillman previously covered the NHL for the Los Angeles Daily News, the Los Angeles Times and the Athletic.

IRVINE — The words ‘idle’ and ‘down time’ and Mason McTavish rarely co-exist, if at all.

Supporting evidence was there – in black, orange and white – on the Ducks’ roster for the upcoming Rookie Faceoff tournament in San Jose. Most players have one or maybe two teams listed as their 2021-22 tour of hockey duty.

McTavish was the outlier.

There were four teams listed – Hamilton (OHL), the Ducks (NHL), Peterborough (OHL) and San Diego (AHL). Granted, a couple of those stops were brief ones but the list didn’t include his timely international competitions for Canada – the 2022 World Junior Championships this summer and the Winter Olympics in Beijing, in which the 19-year-old center was the youngest player for Team Canada.

The Ducks’ rookies were on the ice Thursday for a practice session before departing for San Jose and it would have been understandable if McTavish had just rolled into town a few days ago after his hectic year.

But, in fact, McTavish was on the ice at the start of September for informal practices with the likes of the Ducks’ Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras, not long after McTavish’s starring role for Canada in the gold medal game against Finland on Aug. 20 in Edmonton.

“I’ve played a lot of hockey over the last couple of years,” said McTavish, the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NHL draft. “It’s something I love to do. The guys here are making a lot of fun (with it). I haven’t had that long a break.”

The break was days, not weeks,

“I wanted to get back in the gym,” he said. “The days get really long when I’m not doing anything. So I like to skate and get in the gym.”

McTavish made a sensational defensive play with a goal-line stop in overtime and you can be sure there will be oral histories and/or documentaries north of the border about that sequence in years to come, detailing Canada’s 3-2 win. It was a neat twist of fate considering that he makes his name scoring, having led the tournament. The understated McTavish called it a “special moment.”

“I’ve watched that save a few times,” said defenseman Olen Zellweger, one of three Ducks prospects on that Canadian team.

“It was pretty crazy that he saved that.”

Zellweger smiled, adding, “I can imagine how goalies appreciate that save.”

At his home in Toronto, Drysdale said he watched every game of the tournament.

“You could tell he (McTavish) was a man on a mission,” Drysdale said. “He’s a legit man too. Everyone is really excited to have him.”

But first things first for McTavish.

Before next week’s main training camp is an assignment in San Jose. McTavish is scheduled to play in the Ducks’ tournament opener on Friday against the Sharks’ rookies, and after that, the hockey operations staff will assess his status for the next two games in the six-team event, on Saturday and Monday. He appeared in only one game at last year’s rookie tournament in Arizona because of an injury,

“I’m pretty sure he should be – not putting pressure on the guy – but he should be one of the standouts at this camp,” said Roy Sommer, the San Diego Gulls coach, who will be running the Ducks’ bench during the tournament.

The peer group will be an important measuring stick

“Hey, it’s the start of a lot of their careers … the thing that is cool about it – they’re all the same age,” Sommer said. “You’ve got 18-year-olds against 21-year-olds. It’s not like the American League where you’re going to see a 20-year-old against a vet that’s a 30-year-old. They’re all playing against their peers.

“I was telling those guys today that you want to come back from this tournament and have management go, ‘Man, that McTavish, what a great camp he had.’

“It’s the start of training camp. You have a good three games up there and it carries on to the start of (main) training camp.”

SOMMER TAKES

• On Zellweger: “He plays bigger than his size and gets back for pucks quick and makes a good first pass coming out and he’s got an edge to him. Fun guy to watch. He’s an exceptional player.”

• On 2022 first-round draft pick defenseman Pavel Mintyukov: “We were doing breakouts and I liked his headiness out there. He made a couple of pop plays, showed some deception going back for pucks and I thought he did a good job of making the first pass. You can tell he defends hard.”

• On 2022 first-round draft pick forward Nathan Gaucher: “What is intriguing about him is his size and his engine. Powerful guy. Those guys are hard to find, power forwards like an (Evander) Kane type guy that is physical and can score.”

ROY’S RETURN

Coming home again is going to be a curious experience for the 65-year-old Sommer. The legendary minor-league coach spent the last 24 seasons coaching Sharks’ AHL teams. The all-time AHL leader in games won (808) and coached (1,736) was hired by the Ducks this summer to coach the Gulls.

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“To be honest with you, it’s weird still,” he said. “I was putting on all my underwear and it had this little Ducks (logo) on there. After looking at a Shark for 26 years, it’s going to be different. But it’ll be fun to go back. I’ve been in the new building when they were building it, so I don’t know what it’s like when the Barracuda are playing.

“They’ve done a good job. It’ll be a little different. I’m not going to lie to you after being with them for so long. A new challenge in my life at a later age.”

ALSO

The Ducks made one change to the rookie roster, adding a third goalie, Francesco Lapenna, as a free-agent invite. He split last season between Charlottetown and Drummondville of the QMJHL this past season. Goaltender Gage Alexander, who was drafted in the fifth round (No. 148 overall) in 2021, is expected to start the tournament opener against the Sharks.