Saskatoon native Roger McQueen had some nerves when he was waiting to hear his name called during the 2025 NHL Draft.
"I knew Anaheim really liked me from hearing that and talking to them. I honestly had no idea where I was gonna go because of the injury, so it was a shot in the dark, honestly, going into it," McQueen said on the SportsCage via the Monday Nooner Podcast.
"I wasn't too worried about where I was gonna go. I definitely knew Anaheim liked me, I was definitely happy when they got that pick in."
Before McQueen was selected by the Ducks, he played for the Brandon Wheat Kings. Last season, the six-foot-five, 193-pound centre suited up in 17 games for the Wheat Kings due to a fracture in his lower back but managed to score 10 goals and record 10 assists. He helped Canada win the U18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2023 and the following year also helped Canada win the U18 IIHF World Championship.
"The worst part about it was that it was complete rest, I couldn't get better by going to the gym more. When the guys were on the road, I was hanging out at my house, walking my dog twice a day was basically what they told me was the only thing I could do," McQueen detailedabout how he dealt with his injured back.
"That was the toughest part about it, but then having it in your draft year was tough and not being able to do anything to get better. I think now I'm happy that I went through it and took the time because now I feel so much better. It was so long, it was like two-and-a-half years of a little bit of back pain here and there. Then it got worse and worse, so it was nice to finally have it over with."
One of the moments people remember from this year's NHL Draft was the Ducks whisking McQueen away in a helicopter to Disneyland.
"I got into the area right after I got drafted, you have a couple of podcasts or like NHL stuff and basically their rep came up to me and he was like: 'Hey, you have three minutes to get on a helicopter," McQueen recalled.
"They were like we can take one person, so I took my dad. Then they said, we'll send a van for 15 people to come with you, like your family. We had 33 people there, so there were a ton of them. We brought all the youngsters and a couple of my buddies, they're wearing Lightning McQueen shirts, if you've ever seen them. We brought them and then we went to Disneyland, hung out there and had a fast pass to do anything we wanted to go to."
Since Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars has the number 95, people wonder if Roger will play into the comparison.
"My favourite number is still 13. I would still love to wear 13, but I do like the number 95 and everything kind of comes around it. It's pretty funny, but there's definitely a lot of outside noise in that sense," McQueen said. "A lot of speculation, but we'll see. It's not set in stone."
