The Hockey News’ NHL summer splash rankings are nearly wrapped up, with the Anaheim Ducks in fifth place.
In these summer splash rankings, we’re examining each team’s off-season additions, departures, hirings and firings to see who improved or worsened. We’ve already catalogued all teams that got worse or basically stayed the same, and we’ve nearly arrived at the very top of the group of teams that improved or, in special circumstances, exceeded expectations to prevent getting worse.
We’re focused solely on NHL teams’ off-season development, or lack thereof. The Ducks are still rebuilding, and it will be challenging for them to make the playoffs, but they took notable steps forward this summer.
Additions
Mikael Granlund (C), Chris Kreider (LW), Ryan Poehling (C), Petr Mrazek (G), Joel Quenneville (coach)
The Breakdown: The Ducks finished 16 points out of a playoff spot in the West, and Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek went into the off-season with a mandate to get this team as competitive as possible as quickly as possible.
You can’t argue he hasn’t done so, as bringing in a slew of veterans – including former Dallas Stars center Mikael Granlund, former New York Rangers left winger Chris Kreider and reinstated coach Joel Quenneville – will almost assuredly result in a better record for the Ducks next season.
Kreider and Granlund will be looked to for a boost on offense after the Ducks scored the third-fewest goals in the NHL last season.
Kreider, 34, only had 22 goals and 30 points in 68 games, but he put up 39 goals and 75 points in 2023-24, so even landing somewhere in between would boost the Ducks. Granlund, 33, was one of the rebuilding San Jose Sharks’ leading scorers in the last two seasons before being traded to the Stars, where he still had 21 points in 31 games in more of a depth role.
Even Ryan Poehling, who came to the Ducks in the Trevor Zegras trade, can provide some solid depth scoring. He put up 12 goals and 31 points in 68 games with the Philadelphia Flyers while averaging just 13:53 of ice time.
Petr Mrazek came back in the John Gibson trade. He’ll compete with Ville Husso for the backup role. Either option is unlikely to perform as well as Gibson, so the goalie tandem is worse on paper but not enough to drag down the team’s overall improvement.
Quenneville must provide structure and confidence for a young Ducks core. And the truly crazy thing is that, after all those changes, Verbeek still has a whopping $20.5 million in available salary cap space.
Some of that will go to RFA center Mason McTavish, or to a player McTavish is traded for, but the Ducks will be able to be big-timers in trades this year. If that’s what it takes to bring in more top-level performers who can be part of Anaheim’s long-term future, Verbeek and the rest of Anaheim management will be thrilled to do so.
Departures
John Gibson (G), Trevor Zegras (C), Robby Fabbri (C), Isac Lundestrom (C), Brock McGinn (LW), Brett Leason (RW), Oliver Kylington (D), Greg Cronin (coach)
The Breakdown: Gibson and Zegras are by far the Ducks’ biggest departures this off-season.
It felt like Gibson was in the trade rumor mill for at least two years, but now was the right time. Lukas Dostal, 25, played 54 games in net and showed he can permanently take over on starting duties. Gibson’s .912 save percentage and 2.77 goals-against average were better than Dostal’s .903 SP and 3.10 GAA, but Dostal is still young for an NHL goalie and should only improve from here.
Trading Zegras would have been bewildering two years ago after his second 60-point season, but he’s since dealt with injury issues and a drop in production from 0.80 points per game in 2022-23 to 0.56 in 2024-25. With Leo Carlsson and McTavish becoming a one-two punch down the middle, and with Mikael Granlund under contract for the next three years, it made sense to move Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers for a fresh start and craft a more consistently healthy and effective roster.
As for Robby Fabbri, Brock McGinn, Brett Leason and Oliver Kylington, they haven’t latched on with another NHL team as of mid-August. Some of them may get contracts later in the off-season, but the Ducks were a subpar team last year because they simply didn’t have enough above-average talent, and Verbeek has done what he could to flush out some of that subpar talent in favor of more proven veterans.
Also gone after two years behind Anaheim’s bench is coach Greg Cronin, who was in his first job as an NHL coach when Verbeek replaced him with Quenneville. It’s true the Ducks improved in Cronin’s time running the team, going from 59 points in Year 1 to 80 in Year 2, but the chance to bring in a multi-time Cup-winner in Quenneville sealed Cronin’s fate.
Anaheim will still have some growing pains in the next few years, but Verbeek has clearly improved his team’s depth. And that’s the name of the game when it comes to getting out of the mix of non-playoff teams and moving into the mix of playoff teams.
The Bottom Line
The Ducks missed the playoffs for the last seven seasons. Rebuilding was always going to take time, but Anaheim fans will tell you this current rebuild has already taken up more time than they hoped it would.
While it will still be a challenge for the Ducks to leapfrog over Pacific Division teams, such as the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks, to qualify for the 2026 post-season, Anaheim now has a clearly defined core of youngsters to build around, and they’ve supplemented them with experienced hands in Kreider and Granlund.
At the end of next season, the Ducks may be a non-playoff team yet again. But the reason they’re so high in our summer splash rankings is because they’re a better team than the one that ended last season. They have more scoring power, they upgraded bench bosses, and their untouched defense core continues to develop along with their young starting netminder.
At the very least, Anaheim should be playing meaningful hockey right down the stretch. Verbeek has done what he set out to do, and that’s why, in our opinion, only four teams rank higher in the NHL summer splash rankings than the Ducks.
Summer Splash Rankings
5. Anaheim Ducks
9. Utah Mammoth
10. New York Rangers
13. St. Louis Blues
16. Ottawa Senators
17. Boston Bruins
18. Edmonton Oilers
19. Minnesota Wild
20. Seattle Kraken
27. Dallas Stars
28. Calgary Flames
30. Winnipeg Jets
32. Buffalo Sabres
Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com.
