Wearing #14 and standing at well under six foot tall, Duco inevitably draws comparisons to former Rangers' superstar: Derek Roy who now wears the red, white and black in Buffalo with the Sabres.  Unfortunately for the Rangers Duco was taken in the 5th round and was not signed prior to the team's decision to make: 16 year old: Matt Pepe their one and only wildcard.  The wildcard position is any underaged player drafted after the team's first two bantam picks.

Mike Duco does indeed appear to have some of the creative offensive skills to someday put up "Derek Roy" like numbers in the future, though he is behind where Roy was at this point of his OHL career.  One pleasant, unexpected surprise that you wouldn't expect when looking at the smallish center is Duco's physical game.  Duco might be small in stature but he's a heavyweight when it comes to the world of hitting in the OHL, he has leveled players at home, on the road and even during postseason play.  Duco has tremendous balance and appears to have very strong lower body strength that enable him to power other players into the ice.

Duco closed out his Tier II season with the Toronto Marlboros with a total of 27 goals in only 40 games.  The Rangers so valued Duco that they elected to save the remaining 5 games of his 10 game callup until the Rangers' postseason.  Duco was also instrumental in all of his team's playoff successes in the tier II ranks.  Looking forward towards his draft season, Duco should be more than motivated during his first full season up with the big club in Kitchener.