Anaheim Ducks Team Preview: Can they get into the playoff race?

It’s been seven years for the reason that Anaheim Ducks final made the playoffs, however the 2024-25 season will be appeared again on as one by which the workforce took a notable step ahead. The Ducks have been probably the most improved groups yr over yr, leaping from 59 factors in 2023-24 to 80 in 2024-25.

However, there stays plenty of work to do. Anaheim nonetheless missed the playoffs by 16 factors and completed 8-9-3 of their final 20 video games. The Ducks offence was thirtieth within the league, the facility play worst general, they usually had a penalty kill that wasn’t significantly better.

A number of extra veterans have been introduced in over the summer season. Chris Kreider was acquired from the Rangers for pennies on the greenback and he arrives motivated with two years left on his contract. Mikael Granlund was signed off the UFA market to a three-year cope with a $7 million AAV. While Kreider might be eyeing a bounce again, Granlund had one of many higher offensive seasons of his profession between San Jose and Dallas and was a top-four scorer for the Stars in three playoff rounds.

Although ending as probably the most improved groups in 2024-25 brings promise this new season, the harder job is to make up the remainder of the distinction and qualify for the playoffs. The veterans who dot the roster will play key management roles and be counted on to provide, but it surely’s the youthful technology that must pull the toughest. Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish (extra on him later), Cutter Gauthier and Jackson LaCombe all must maintain progressing if Anaheim’s lengthy rebuild goes to repay with some post-season hockey.

The Ducks are the primary franchise up in our have a look at 32 groups in 32 days, and here is what to look out for in Anaheim this season.

Newcomer to look at: Chris Kreider

Last season was an utter catastrophe for the New York Rangers, and Kreider was proper in the midst of all of it. The longest-tenured participant of the workforce and a vocal member of the management group, Kreider wasn’t happy when Jacob Trouba was dealt early within the season after which he struggled all through. Kreider did handle to attain 22 targets, although that was one of many decrease totals of his profession, and with simply eight assists, he completed with a measly 30 factors. Now 34 years outdated, is Kreider down the street of age-related decline, or can he return to type and assist present Anaheim the way in which to a playoff push after he was moved in a salary-dumping commerce?

Under-the-radar participant to look at: Tristan Luneau

The Ducks have a wealth of younger defencemen and their prime three scorers from the blue line final season have been all 23 and underneath: Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger. Those three are all additionally left pictures. On the precise, veterans Trouba and Radko Gudas will nonetheless get massive minutes, however are within the last season of their contracts. This is why we should always keep watch over Tristan Luneau in coaching camp. The 21-year-old was AHL San Diego’s prime scorer final season and completed third in scoring amongst all defencemen within the league. A second-round decide in 2022, Luneau brings an offensive upside that might garner a possibility with an excellent camp, or a fast name up throughout the season.

Top Prospect: Beckett Sennecke

When the Ducks took Sennecke third general within the 2024 draft, some noticed it as reaching for a participant over the likes of Ivan Demidov or Tij Iginla. Returning to OHL Oshawa for his draft plus-one season, Sennecke improved by 9 targets and 18 factors and was a driving drive in returning the Generals to the OHL Final. Sennecke has grown just a few inches and added appreciable weight, bringing him nearer to being prepared for the NHL, although the Ducks’ signing Kreider and Granlund over the summer season has restricted any shot of incomes a top-nine position this season.

Sennecke just isn’t sufficiently old to play within the AHL but and since he already signed his entry-level cope with the Ducks, he is additionally not eligible to modify over to the NCAA. If he would not crack the Ducks lineup, Sennecke will return to main junior. There, he’ll get one other shot to make Team Canada for the WJC, a roster he was surprisingly left off a yr in the past. This time round, he may very well be counted on to be one in all their key gamers.

1. Will Mason McTavish signal or will he be traded?

GM Pat Verbeek has performed hardball with younger gamers earlier than. In 2023, when each Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale have been RFAs, the Ducks didn’t come to phrases with these gamers till Oct. 2 and Oct. 5, respectively. This yr, it is Mason McTavish, contemporary off a 22-goal, 52-point season. It’s not typically {that a} 22-year-old centre picked third general will get traded, particularly after three good seasons to start an NHL profession, so odds are {that a} deal will get accomplished. But if the season begins with out one, look out.

2. Can Lukas Dostal construct on final season and make Anaheim’s massive funding value it?

After years of commerce hypothesis, the Ducks lastly moved on from John Gibson, buying and selling him to Detroit on July 1. The cause they might really feel good doing so was that Dostal had such a robust season and has now performed greater than half of the video games two years in a row — he has a .902 save proportion in 98 video games from 2023-24 by way of 2024-25. Just 17 days after buying and selling Gibson, the Ducks signed the 25-year-old Dostal to a five-year extension with a $6.5-million cap hit. Can he now show that he will be the goalie Anaheim wants on this subsequent window of growth, once they’ll be eyeing a transfer out of the rebuild and right into a playoff race?

3. Will Jackson LaCombe‘s breakout proceed?

One of the very best tales from this workforce final season was LaCombe, a second-round decide from 2019 who jumped from 17 to 43 factors between 2023-24 and 2024-25. The 12 targets he scored at even power final season was tied for seventh amongst all NHL defencemen, with Quinn Hughes and Rasmus Dahlin, and the person high-danger possibilities he bought at five-on-five ranked behind solely Zach Werenski and Cale Makar on the place. Invited to Team USA’s Olympic orientation camp in September, LaCombe might be seeking to observe up his breakout season with worldwide recognition.