The Ducks have made several trades heading into Friday's deadline. Have we seen the last Ducks trade of 2023-24?

The NHL trade deadline Is set for Friday, March 8 at noon PST. The Anaheim Ducks are in the “seller category” again this season as they sit at 30 of 32 teams in the NHL standings. They’ve made two significant trades and one more minor one as we approach Friday’s deadline and have increased their draft capital.

Trade: Ducks send Ilya Lyubushkin to Toronto Maple Leafs for Draft Pick

On Friday, March 1, the Ducks traded pending UFA RHD Ilya Lyubushkin to the Toronto Maple Leafs and retained 50% of his $2.75 million cap hit. In exchange, they received the Maple Leafs’ 2025 third-round pick. The Carolina Hurricanes were involved in the trade and retained 25% of Lyubushkin’s cap hit, sent the signing rights of 24-year-old Russian winger Kirill Slepets to the Maple Leafs, and received Toronto’s 2024 sixth-round pick.

Trade: Ducks send Adam Henrique, Sam Carrick to Oilers for Draft Picks

On Wednesday morning, The Ducks traded pending UFAs Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick to the Edmonton Oilers and retained 50% of each of their cap hits. From the Oilers, the Ducks received their 2024 first-round pick and their conditional 2025 fifth-round pick. If the Oilers win the Stanley Cup, the 2025 fifth-round pick becomes a 2025 fourth-round pick. The Tampa Bay Lightning were involved in the trade as they sent the signing rights to 24-year-old goaltender Ty Taylor to the Edmonton Oilers, retained 25% of Adam Henrique’s cap hit, and received a conditional 2025 fourth-round pick.

Trade: The Anaheim Ducks Send Jacob Perreault to the Canadiens in Exchange for Jan Mysak

Thursday morning, The Ducks and Montreal Canadiens swapped 21-year-old AHL forwards. Forward Jan Mysak was moved to Anaheim’s organization in exchange for forward Jacob Perreault. Both players seemingly needed a change of scenery and will theoretically be better fits in their new team’s on-ice systems.

Anaheim Ducks Trade Deadline Preview

The Ducks have one significant remaining pending UFA on their roster, Jakob Silfverberg. Silfverberg is in the last year of his five-year contract carrying an AAV of $5.25 million. Having used all three of their salary retention slots with the two previous deals, they will be unable to retain on a potential Silfverberg deal. He’s scored 16 points in 61 games in the 2023-24 season playing as solid of a season defensively as he always has while adding playmaking elements to his game offensively.

Silfverberg, the longest-tenured Ducks forward, will likely finish out the season in Anaheim.

Frank Vatrano is the most valuable potential trade piece on the Ducks roster in the 2023-24 season. The all-star winger is in the second year of his three-year contract that carries an AAV of $3.65 million and has scored a career-high 29 goals and 20 assists in 62 games. Vatrano plays a brand of hockey that is coveted in the playoffs and he can provide needed depth scoring to any contending team. Several teams are reported to be interested in acquiring his services for the stretch run of this season and all of next season. The Ducks can’t retain any of Vatrano’s cap hit, so the acquiring team must take on the entirety of the $3.65 million unless a third team is included.

The reported asking price is very high for Frank Vatrano. Unless Ducks’ General Manager Pat Verbeek is blown away by an offer, he will likely remain in Anaheim for the remainder of the season.

Cold Water on Zegras Trade Chatter

Trevor Zegras’ name has been speculated about in trade talks, but those “rumors” are close to base-less. Again, Pat Verbeek would have to be blown away with a trade offer to entertain moving on from the supremely talented 22-year-old forward.

Reports during the Summer of 2023 indicated that Ducks’ goaltender John Gibson had talks with management about a potential change of scenery. Despite several teams coveting an upgrade in net, his $6.4 million cap hit, three remaining years on his contract, and 10-team no-trade clause are rendering moving the 30-year-old talented goalie nearly impossible with the number of contenders against the salary cap ceiling this season.

A few young players around the league are either speculated to be disgruntled in their situations, looking for a change of scenery, or blocked in their team’s respective depth chart. Those types of moves typically don’t occur around the trade deadline and are more often than not, held for the offseason.

Teams are known for their desperation to add key pieces at the trade deadline with only six weeks remaining in the regular season. If that desperation leads to an offer for a player (or players) on the Ducks roster that Pat Verbeek can’t refuse, that seems to be the only scenario in which the Ducks will remain significantly active during this trade deadline season.