What To Expect From Anaheim This Summer?

After a seventh straight year of missing the playoffs, the Anaheim Ducks didn’t waste time making changes to begin the offseason.

Following a season in which the Ducks weren’t able to make a ton of meaningful progress, the team fired head coach Greg Cronin after just two seasons, and made the controversial decision to hire Joel Quenneville to replace him.

Looking forward to the rest of the offseason, we can expect their move behind the bench won’t be the only change to come. Last offseason, it appeared as though the Ducks were poised to go after some of the top available free agents, but weren’t able to make any big splashes and entered the 2024-25 season without any significant external upgrades. This summer though, we can expect the team to be even more aggressive.

The young core

Anaheim has built around a young core, which should ultimately set them up for long-term success (even if the results haven’t come quite yet). But with an abundance of cap space and a desire to get back to the postseason, the Ducks have the potential to be a big player this summer.

Before looking to additions though, the team will still have a decision to make on a key roster player, being whether or not John Gibson remains with the Ducks through another offseason. Gibson has been speculated as a trade candidate for several years now, but has ended up staying put throughout the team’s rebuild. Now with two years left on his contract though and a long-term starter emerging in Lukas Dostal, it seems like a Gibson trade is more likely than ever.

Gibson put together a bounce-back year, making his $6.4 million cap hit look quite a bit more reasonable. Considering the lack of true starters available in free agency, the Ducks could be best suited to use Gibson as a trade chip this summer. As we’ve seen, the Ducks could certainly opt to hold onto the netminder, but if there’s one key roster player who could be dealt prior to the start of the 2025-26 season, it’s Gibson.

The Anaheim blueline

At the same time, the Ducks will also need to take a look at their blue line. The team has an abundance of young, left-handed defensemen, in Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov, along with Stian Solberg likely not too far off from making the jump to the roster. Meanwhile, Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba add experience on the right side, while Drew Helleson was solid in his first year of consistent NHL action, and Tristan Luneau will certainly push for a spot out of training camp.

Essentially, the Ducks are looking at a bit of a logjam on defense, which is a good problem to have in this case. They don’t need to make a move, but it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that they opt to make a move if the right trade comes along.

"I'm happy to be a part of the Ducks organization."

Jacob Trouba spoke after the morning skate on facing his former team tonight, his experience this year and the goals for the team down the stretch. pic.twitter.com/mtmtm4sYSy

— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) March 28, 2025

At least in terms of additions though, the clear focus will be adding offense. The Ducks do have a great group of young talent, but after minimal progress over the last couple of years, we can bet that waiting for their young forwards to develop won’t be their only plan at this point.

A move down the middle looks less likely, with a group of Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish and Trevor Zegras all at their disposal, along with Ryan Strome. It still seems like the team has yet to decide whether they want Zegras at center or on the wing, but with both Zegras and Strome able to play down the middle, adding another center probably isn’t the focus this summer.

Zegras has been another player who’s been speculated as a trade candidate, but at this point, it still seems like the team is best suited to hang onto him. His value is at an all-time low, and he still has another year remaining on his contract, before becoming a restricted free agent in 2026. Zegras may not have thrived under Cronin, but with a new coach in place, there’s a strong possibility we could see him bounce back offensively.

Big on the wing

The most likely option is that if the Ducks are looking to go big this offseason, they’ll strive for an addition on the wing. The team doesn’t really have a ton of wingers who should be locked into a top-six spot long-term, outside of Troy Terry or Cutter Gauthier (and eventually, the hope is that Beckett Sennecke joins that group). The likes of Frank Vatrano and Alex Killorn can play up the lineup, but either would arguably be best suited in a third line role.

As a result, this looks to be the ideal time for the team to go after one of the top free agent wingers. All of Mitch Marner, Nikolaj Ehlers and Brock Boeser would be legitimate targets who could help to improve the team right away.

Of course, there needs to be some caution taken when it comes to locking players into the big-money, long-term deals that each of those wingers would command. The team still ultimately needs to be careful to make sure they’ll have the space available to ensure they can still lock up all of their top, young forwards.

But the Ducks’ cap situation is healthy enough that at this point, it would be a head-scratcher if they chose not to make a major upgrade. Allowing time for their core to develop may have been a fair focus in previous years, but now, it’s time to see the team take a step.

Look for the Ducks to be entering the 2025-26 season in a position to fight for a playoff spot, after a big addition or two up front. New head coach Quenneville was not brought in to babysit the status quo.