Most of the big off-season moves in the NHL have been made, but how has the balance of power shifted? We delve into that with TheHockeyNews.com's new series ranking the off-season performances of the 32 NHL teams. In today's file we're focused on team No. 31, the Anaheim Ducks.
The Anaheim Ducks took important steps forward this past season when they qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 2017-18.
After already exceeding expectations, the Ducks' young core surprised many when they eliminated the defending Western Conference-champion Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the post-season.
However, to say they have had a rough off-season would be a major understatement.
The changes made throughout the summer have, on paper, made the Ducks worse. Only the Detroit Red Wings had a worse season than Anaheim in TheHockeyNews.com’s new series rating the off-seasons of every NHL team.
Moving from No. 32 through to No. 1, we’re rating each team’s off-season, including arrivals and departures (including coaching and management members) via free-agency and trades.
The Ducks may still be a playoff team in 2026-27, but as the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings will be fighting for post-season spots in the Pacific Division, Anaheim could be on the outside looking in.
We began this series with a look at the Red Wings, but let’s break down the Ducks’ off-season, and see why they’re rated 31st-overall in our new series:
Additions:
A.J. Greer (LW), Nick Jensen (D), Laurent Brossoit (G)
The Ducks have some terrific young talent to build around including Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Jackson LaCombe and Pavel Mintyukov.
Verbeek had a ton of salary cap space to use to improve the lineup this summer, so the additions of three veterans in Greer, Jensen and Brossoit feels underwhelming to say the least.
Greer was a good footsoldier in his days with the Florida Panthers, but the ceiling for him is essentially what we saw out of him last season when he tallied a career-high 17 goals. It's hard to imagine that the 29-year-old will be a difference-maker on a true Cup contender.
Jensen – who played for the Ottawa Senators the past two seasons – slots in on the second defense pairing, while Brossoit is a replacement for Mrazek as a depth goaltender.
For a team with so much momentum to build on heading into a pivotal off-season, it's easy to see why these moves feel disappointing.
There might not have been an abundance of needle-movers available to Verbeek, but his job isn’t to make excuses – it’s to develop this group of youngsters into an elite NHL team. None of the acquisitions this summer lead you to believe Anaheim is better now than they were at the start of the off-season.
Departures:
Radko Gudas (D), Jacob Trouba (D), Mason McTavish (C), John Carlson (D), Olen Zellweger (D), Petr Mrazek (G)
In our list of departures, we’re going to honorably mention the cap space that’s departed from the Ducks in order to retain Leo Carlsson.
A major misstep from the front office led the Ducks to match Carlsson's five-year, $90-million offer sheet that the Philadelphia Flyers signed him to.
Verbeek now has $9-million in salary cap space, but he also has to sign Gauthier to a long-term extension. That means the Ducks may have to move more money around to make Gauthier happy and lock up his core to long-term extensions.
There’s also a significant exodus of experienced talent in Anaheim. Losing Trouba, Carlson and Zellweger makes the Ducks’ D-corps weaker than it was last season, and trading McTavish to the St. Louis Blues hurts the team's depth up front.
The departures this summer could lead to the Ducks being not nearly as effective as the team whose 2025-26 season was ended by the Vegas Golden Knights in the second-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Depending on aging players can be concerning in today's NHL, but it feels like the Ducks are skewing too young, and that lack of experience could impact their 2026-27 season.
The Bottom Line:
Verbeek has been leading the Ducks' front office since 2022, and while he's managed to put young pieces in place, he has yet to elevate them from a playoff-caliber team to a championship-caliber team.
Ideally, Verbeek should have been focused on adding talent, rather than peeling off pieces like McTavish and Zellweger. Carlsson’s $18-million salary gave them little flexibility to make those necessary additions, while also setting incredibly high expectations for the Swedish center.
Anaheim still has some solid pieces in place. Carlsson is 21, Gauthier is 22, and up-and-coming winger Beckett Sennecke is only 20. There’s still upside to this core of youngsters, but they were in a position to add significantly more than they did.
The Ducks could get the internal growth Verbeek is clearly counting on, but there’s potential for this team to crumble under pressure that’ll only increase in the future.
If they fail to meet those expectations, the series of curious decisions made this off-season can be looked to as one of the reasons for their failure.
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