The rebuilding Anaheim Ducks haven’t made any major moves this off-season.
Welcome to an Oilersnation summer series called Off-Season Review, in which we’ll take a dive into what’s going on with the other 15 teams in the Western Conference. This will be the seventh and final team we look at from the Pacific Division. Links are at the bottom of the article.
The Anaheim Ducks 2023-24 Season in a Nutshell
During the 2023 off-season, the Ducks signed veterans Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas, but neither player really helped the team as the Ducks once again finished at the bottom of the basement with 59 points, the third-fewest in the league.
They were well out of the playoff race when the trade deadline came around on Mar. 8, meaning once again the team sold at the deadline. On the final day of February, the Ducks moved Ilya Lyubushkin to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for a 2025 third-round pick and prospect Kirill Slepets.
Their biggest move of the deadline came six days later, moving Sam Carrick and Adam Henrique to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for a 2024 first-round pick as well as a conditional 2025 fifth-round pick. Two more moves were made prior to the deadline, as the Ducks acquired Jan Myšák from the Montréal Canadiens for Jacob Perrault, as well as acquiring Ben Meyers from the Colorado Avalanche for a 2024 fifth-round pick.
On top of that, the Ducks acquired 2022 fifth-overall pick, Cutter Gauthier, from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Jamie Drysdale early in January.
Some Notable Statistics
The Ducks didn’t have a great season, but 29-year-old Frank Vatrano scored a career-high 37 goals and 60 points in 82 games. With one more season on contract, he could get the Ducks a good package at the 2025 trade deadline.
Troy Terry, 25, also had a solid season, scoring 20 goals and 54 points in 76 games. It’s worth noting that it’s far from the 37 goals and 67 points he had in 2021-22, but he’s a solid top six forward. The team’s third-overall pick in the 2021 draft, Mason McTavish, scored 19 goals and 42 points in 64 games, a much better point-per-game pace than the prior season.
Former Oiler Ryan Strome scored 11 goals and 41 points in 79 games and provided a solid veteran presence for the Ducks. Defenceman Cam Fowler, who is only 31, scored five goals and 39 points from the blue line. Fellow veteran, Alexander Killorn, scored 18 goals and 36 points in 63 games.
The Ducks’ second-overall pick in the 2023 draft, Leo Carlsson, scored 12 goals and 29 points in 55 games in his first National Hockey League season, a pretty solid showing. Pavel Mintyukov, their 10th overall pick in the 2022 draft, scored four goals and 28 points in 63 games on the blue line.
There wasn’t an improvement from all their young players, though, as the Ducks’ Trevor Zegras struggled mightily in 2023-24. After scoring 23 goals and 60+ points in the prior two seasons, the 23-year-old forward scored just six goals and 15 points in 31 games. Now, an ankle injury as well as another injury to start the season didn’t help, but this has led to trade speculation. Off-Season Transactions
After two big veteran signings to begin the 2023 off-season, the Ducks haven’t done a whole lot this off-season.
In terms of trades, they made two trades at the draft involving picks, but no players were exchanged prior to free agency opening. Since free agency started, they acquired Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken for a 2026 fourth-round pick, as well as Robby Fabbri and a 2025 fourth-round pick for Gage Alexander. Both moves were cap dumps.
Another poor season saw the Ducks with a high draft pick, and with the third overall pick, they selected Beckett Sennecke. Last season, the 18-year-old scored 27 goals and 68 points in 63 regular season games for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League. In the postseason, he scored 10 goals and 22 points in 16 games, prior to an injury.
With Edmonton’s first-round pick, the Ducks moved up in a trade with Toronto, picking Stian Solberg with the 23rd-overall pick. The 18-year-old left-shot defenceman was just the second Norwegian player to be picked in the first round, with the first (Michael Brandsegg-Nygård) being picked eight picks prior.
In terms of signings, the Ducks re-signed Isac Lundestrom to a one-year deal worth $1.5 million on Jun. 30. The following day, they re-signed Urho Vaakanainen to a one-year deal worth $1.1 million, as well as Brett Leason to a one-year deal worth $1.05 million. Jansen Harkins signed a two-year, $1.575 million deal with the team after playing the 2023-24 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Ducks also re-signed all three of their restricted free agents. On Jul. 5, they signed Pavol Regenda to a one-year, two-way deal to a league minimum contract. Jackson LaCombe signed a two-year, $1.85 million deal 10 days later, while Nikita Nesterenko signed a one-year, two-way deal the same day.
As for who the Ducks lost to other teams, the most notable loss is Jakob Silfverberg, who signed a deal with Brynäs IF in the Swedish Hockey League. The 33-year-old right wing played 820 games, scoring 168 goals and 373 points, spending 11 seasons with the Ducks.
Andrew Agozzino signed with Utah, Glenn Gawdin signed with Los Angeles, Bo Groulx signed with the New York Rangers, Max Jones signed with Boston, William Lagesson played with Detroit, Ben Meyers signed with Seattle, and Colton White signed with New Jersey. In reality, all of these players are of the depth variety.
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Previously in this series…
