IRVINE — The Ducks’ gorgeous new four-sheet practice facility in Irvine, host of this weekend’s six-team Rookie Faceoff tournament, is less than 15 miles away from the KHS Ice Arena in Anaheim. It was there that a young Sasha Chmelevski spent countless hours of his childhood, working on his skating and hockey skills until he was 12 years old, when his family relocated from Huntington Beach to Plymouth, Mich.



Eight years after the move, Chmelevski, 20, is back in the area as part of the Sharks’ rookie roster, looking potentially like a big part of the organization’s future. Among the 31 players the Sharks brought to the event, Chmelevski may have the best odds to crack the NHL lineup when the Sharks open their season on Oct. 2 in Las Vegas.



“I feel like things have come full circle for me coming back to the place where I used to play hockey growing up,” Chmelevski said this week. “It’s pretty...