2025-26 NHL team preview: Anaheim Ducks
LAST SEASON
Finally, some progress in GM Pat Verbeek’s rebuild and, better yet, it was fuelled by Anaheim’s young core players, providing hope for further improvement. The Ducks never felt fully in the Pacific Division race, no more than a game above .500 at any point in the season, but they also showed improved consistency, losing more than four games in a row just once. Their jump from 59 to 80 points constituted the Western Conference’s biggest improvement year over year – on the back of some encouraging showings in the second half.
Defenseman Jackson LaCombe experienced a monstrous breakout, seemingly leapfrogging Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger to become the team’s long-term No. 1 defenseman. LaCombe played more than 22 minutes a night, buried 14 goals, posted strong two-way numbers as a play driver and was almost a break-even player in scoring chance differential on a Ducks team that ranked among the worst defensive units in the NHL overall. Leo Carlsson’s snowball began to roll downhill in the second half; the big center finished his sophomore year with 29 points in 31 games and looks ready to become a star. Fellow pivot Mason McTavish went off for 16 goals and 33 points over his final 36 games. Even rookie right winger Cutter Gauthier heated up late in 2024-25 and appears on the cusp of a full-fledged breakout. With Lukas Dostal also continuing to mature as a goaltender, the Ducks finished last season as a team trending upward.
Still, with the Calgary Flames’ 96 points not even getting them into the playoffs, Verbeek had a chasm to bridge. His team remained atrocious defensively, at even strength and on the penalty kill, and the play of Dostal and John Gibson in goal was the primary reason for the standings leap rather than coach Greg Cronin, whose antagonistic style reportedly rubbed the players the wrong way and got him fired after the season ended. Determined to inch his group closer to the playoffs, Verbeek installed the freshly reinstated Joel Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup champ, as bench boss. The Ducks also went hunting in the trade market and free agency, augmenting their forward group with Chris Kreider and Mikael Granlund, and mercifully ended the will-they-or-won’t-they trade sagas of Gibson and Trevor Zegras, giving both players fresh starts elsewhere.
So the Ducks are on the rise, their best young players haven’t peaked yet, and they’ve added an all-time great as head coach. Can they punch their first postseason ticket since 2017-18?
KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES
Additions
Mikael Granlund, C
Chris Kreider, LW
Ryan Poehling, C
Petr Mrazek, G
Departures
John Gibson, G (Det)
Trevor Zegras, C (Phi)
Brett Leason, RW (UFA)
Oliver Kylington, D (UFA)
Robby Fabbri, C (UFA)
Brock McGinn, LW (UFA)
Isac Lundestrom, C (CBJ)
OFFENSE
Is the glass half empty or half full on the Ducks’ offense heading into 2025-26? Last season, they finished an anemic 30th in goals per game, with no player exceeding 22 goals. Their power-play efficiency mark looked like a typo: 11.8%. Only one NHL team in the past two decades has been worse with the man advantage.
Still, there’s reason to expect improvement going forward. Three of Anaheim’s top five goal scorers last season were 22 or younger. McTavish, Carlsson and Gauthier are all strong bets to build on what they showed last season. The Ducks also fortified their top nine with Granlund and Kreider. Granlund is one of the NHL’s most versatile forwards; he can play on your first, second or third line, at center or the wing, on the power play and/or the penalty kill. It feels like Kreider’s power forward game has worn him down at 34, but he’s a season removed from scoring 39 goals and deserves a mulligan on an injury-ravaged 2024-25 campaign in which he slipped to 22 in 68 games. Our projected third line of Frank Vatrano, Granlund and Ryan Strome speaks volumes on the Ducks’ improved depth. That trio would’ve been their first line a few years back. And while Quenneville is the high-profile hire, don’t sleep on new assistant coach Jay Woodcroft. During his assistant coach years, his teams have consistently ranked near the top of the league on the power play and, when he was a head coach, his 2022-23 Edmonton Oilers posted the best conversion rate in NHL history at 32.4 percent. Yes, that came with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but the Ducks aren’t devoid of talent. They’ll surely improve under Woodcroft.
Whether the Ducks climb to merely passable offensively or evolve into an above-average scoring team will depend on how much their young stars carry over their late-season momentum from 2024-25. From Feb. 2 onward last year, Gauthier ranked fifth among all 662 NHL skaters in 5-on-5 points per 60, while Carlsson and McTavish sat 23rd and 24th. As top-five NHL Draft picks, they all have the pedigree to keep it up.
DEFENSE
The Ducks were historically awful defensively in 2022-23, improved to below average in 2023-24, and regressed to horrible again last season. They killed just 74.2 percent of their penalties, and they surrendered the most shots and scoring chances of any team in the NHL. Ten teams allowed more goals than Anaheim, which tells you how great Dostal and Gibson were, excelling despite their extremely difficult workloads in terms of scoring chance volume and quality. Given the fickleness of goaltending, Anaheim’s “bleed chances and pray for a save” defensive scheme isn’t sustainable.
It may seem strange, then, to know the Ducks pretty much return the same top six with which they finished last season on defense. But they’re expecting improvement from within as their youngsters continue to mature. This D-corps belongs to LaCombe now. As a minute-munching horse who can skate like the wind, he’ll fill the role Duncan Keith did for Quenneville in the Chicago Blackhawks dynasty era. We could even see LaCombe challenge for a spot on Team USA for the 2026 Olympics if he starts the season strongly. Captain Radko Gudas and veteran Jacob Trouba will bring punishing physicality and veteran leadership but are past their primes. We know who they are at this point. For the Ducks to make gains defensively, they need progress from blue-chippers Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov. Zellweger’s game is more about puck movement and offense, and the Ducks will hope he becomes a strong power-play contributor, but Mintyukov has the tools to be an all-situations stalwart. Can the new coaching staff get these two on track? Last season, both players were unhappy with the consistency of their ice time and perhaps played with a fear of making mistakes and getting pressboxed by Cronin. With Cam Fowler and Brian Dumoulin traded during the stretch run last season, Zellweger and Mintyukov should have more runway to gain their confidence.
As Carlsson matures, he should become a helpful defensive contributor from the forward group. Meanwhile, new assistant coach Ryan McGill should be a boon for the penalty kill. His New Jersey Devils were the league’s second-best unit at 82.7 percent last season. Checking center Ryan Poehling, acquired in the Zegras deal with the Philadelphia Flyers, should immediately slide in as a key contributor on the PK.
GOALTENDING
The surface numbers masked just how good Dostal and Gibson were last year. They posted save percentages of .903 and .911, respectively. But when we factor in the non-existent help from their defense: among 53 goalies who played 25 or more games last season, Gibson was sixth and Dostal was 17th in goals saved above expected per 60. Dostal, 25, gets the reins as the clear No. 1 with Gibson gone. If Dostal can replicate his outstanding first half, he’ll establish himself as a solidly above-average starting netminder, if not better. Petr Mrazek, who came from the Detroit Red Wings in the Gibson trade, assumes No. 2 duties. Mrazek isn’t the most consistent netminder season to season but has experience weathering storms on bad defensive teams and was excellent as recently as 2023-24. Ville Husso only has one above-average full NHL season to his name but excelled in a brief late-season look with Anaheim last year and is pretty experienced by third-string insurance goalie standards. The Ducks are fine in net, especially if their defensive play improves.
COACHING
Quenneville returns to an NHL bench for the first time since fall 2021, when he stepped away from the Florida Panthers after details emerged of his inaction when informed of the alleged 2010 sexual assault of Chicago Blackhawks player Kyle Beach by video coach Brad Aldrich when Quenneville was head coach. Quenneville was reinstated by the NHL in 2024. Upon his hiring this past spring, Quenneville expressed his regret at not taking assertive enough action to help Beach and explained that he had apologized to Beach for failing him. Verbeek said the Ducks’ findings in their vetting process were “consistent with Joel’s account that he was not fully aware of the severity of what transpired in 2010.”
We can debate forever whether Quenneville’s contrition should’ve earned him another chance in the NHL, but he’s back behind the bench regardless. And he should be a significant upgrade over Cronin. Quenneville’s 969 wins are second all-time only to Scott Bowman. When Quenneville took over the Blackhawks in 2008, they were a scuffling young team full of high draft picks and unable to break through as contenders. He’ll attempt to replicate the feat with the Ducks. As a coach who emphasizes open communication with players, he’ll be a breath of fresh air compared to the hardnosed Cronin.
ROOKIES
The ideal depth chart for a rookie is one that (a) isn’t so barren that it forces him into a job for which he’s not ready but (b) isn’t so stacked that there’s no daylight for him to win a job. That’s what we get with the Ducks’ forward group. Top prospect Beckett Sennecke is big and powerful and blends high-end scoring skill with a nasty streak. He could force his way onto this team or at least earn himself a nine-game look with a strong camp showing. We could say the same for Roger McQueen but, given he’s a year younger than Sennecke and coming off a season shortened by a back injury, McQueen is more likely to make his push a year from now. Keep an eye on Nathan Gaucher, too. He’s not the highest-ceiling prospect, and he’s working his way back from shoulder surgery, but his scrappy game could make him a momentum changer in fourth-line duty in the second half of 2025-26.
On defense, the likes of Zellweger, Mintyukov and Drew Helleson all have to bring their best early on this season, because prospects Tristan Luneau and Stian Stolberg are breathing down their necks. Luneau is not technically a rookie anymore because he played at least six games in consecutive seasons, but with 13 career NHL games, he’s a rookie in spirit. He struggled in his brief NHL look last year but averaged better than a point per game in the AHL. Stian Stolberg saw his first AHL duty late last season. His robust physical play could earn him a look sooner rather than later.
Translation: the Ducks are already a young team on the rise, yet they have several more really exciting prospects yet to graduate to the NHL. It’s an exciting time to cheer for this team.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. Does Joel Quenneville still have the touch? ‘Coach Q’ is 66 years old and hasn’t shepherded an NHL team in four years. He doesn’t return to the exact same league he left. Can he still take a young team to glory?
2. Will Mason McTavish be a Duck long-term? The talented second-line pivot remains unsigned as an RFA and has been the subject of trade rumors and offer-sheet scuttlebutt. The Ducks would be silly to move him, and I fully expect them to re-sign him, but until they do, the interest league-wide will be justifiably high. Get cracking on that contract, Mr. Verbeek. You don’t want the negotiation dragging into training camp.
3. Is Lukas Dostal ready to be a true No. 1 goalie? Dostal has excelled in spurts at the NHL level. But he no longer has Gibson as a 1B to shoulder the pressure. Dostal also posted an .889 SV% in 22 games after the 4 Nations Face-Off break last season. Can he break out with strong season wire to wire?
PREDICTION
A pessimistic viewpoint might note that Anaheim’s goaltending artificially inflated an otherwise still-bad team and that the standings improvement was a mirage.
But considering I predicted Anaheim’s exact point total and place in the standings last season, I’ve earned your trust, so hear me out. This team is chock full of improving, high-end talent. It has deepened its forward group and overhauled its coaching staff, installing people who should remedy the team’s most glaring flaws. Overhyping the Ducks as a slam-dunk playoff team would be too much, but I expect them to finish in the 95-point range and compete for a Wildcard berth down to the season’s final day. We know they’re at minimum the sixth-best team in the Pacific Division, but I believe they’re the fourth-best now, too.
Advanced stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Money Puck
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