The Ducks have made it very clear. They want to make the playoffs this season. How attainable that goal is could be revealed very soon. Their 10-game slate during the first month of the season features seven road games, including five games in seven days. A poor run of form early on could derail playoff hopes before they even begin to bud.
“Anything can happen in this league,” Frank Vatrano said. “I think the biggest thing for us is we’ve got to get off to a good start. We always talk about it as players, you can make the playoffs in the first 12 games of the season and you can also not make the playoffs in the first 12 games of the season.”
A strong start to the season has been emphasized by both players and staff, with Nikita Nesterenko noting that head coach Joel Quenneville has placed a high importance on getting off to a hot start. A top priority, too, was getting Mason McTavish under contract before training camp ended to get him up to speed with new systems and back into game shape.
Ducks Sign Mason McTavish to Six-Year Extension
The waiting is over, the stalemate has ended and pen has been put to paper.
“Q was really preaching at the start (of training camp) to have a good start in the regular season,” Nesterenko said. “You can make playoffs in October, first month of the season. You come out strong and those are the games that could matter down the long stretch.”
“I think a key for us, even at the end of last season, was to get off to a good start this year,” McTavish said. “That’s the plan, and that comes with a lot of preparation and getting into game shape early.”
“When you’ve got the players that you planned on back in the fold and everybody’s now working towards a common goal, which is the playoffs, yeah, you feel good,” Verbeek said.
While they did add a few pieces to the team this past offseason, most of this group has played alongside each other for the past two seasons, gaining familiarity with one another and making for a more cohesive unit.
“All of us have been around each other,” Vatrano said. “There’s been a bit of changeover with a couple of new guys coming in, but they’re all familiar with us. The more you can get on the road and do team stuff, get dinners and just be around each other––we’ll get sick of each other after the end of the 14 days, but it’s always fun to get on the road and get away from home.”
Since being hired in 2022, general manager Pat Verbeek has spent the last three years rebuilding the team. By adding players like Chris Kreider and Mikael Granlund to the fold, Verbeek has signaled that the rebuild is over. It’s time to win now.
“Our expectation (this season) is to make the playoffs,” Verbeek said. “That’s our goal, and then we’ll go from there.”
“I think that our ultimate goal, when we start training camp, is going to be that we want to be a playoff team,” Quenneville said at his introductory press conference in May. “Over the course of the season, you can compare their stats from last year across the board. We know the areas that we are going to have to be better in.
“I think that’s a very realistic goal and achievement. That’ll be our mantra from the beginning of the year: we’re looking to be a playoff team, and we expect more from one another. I think expectations are healthy within our team. If they’re talking like that, you’ve got to back those kinds of things up. We don’t want to just have idle speaking here.”
“I think it’s great to have expectations,” Granlund said. “I think this group is good. We really want to get to the playoffs and I think if you want to succeed, you need to have some expectations. We are on the right path here and it’s a long process, still. You’re going to go day-by-day, but it’s a good thing.”
“I don’t think teams had high expectations of us to do well last year,” Alex Killorn said. “I think we exceeded expectations with where we ended up in the standings. So, now we want to take that other step to get into the playoffs.”
“Saying (that we want to make the playoffs) in the past has felt sort of like, ‘Hopefully, guys can take steps,’ myself included, and ‘Maybe this is the year that certain guys will take the next step,’” Troy Terry said. “But this year, the young guys have proved it. We older guys––I’m kind of a tweener––had good years last year and I think everyone’s just feeling confident going into it. It’s less guessing that it all kind of comes together. It’s a team that, I think, knows what it’s capable of now. We’ve added some experience and some big-time hockey players, so it’s an exciting time.”
“There’s a great work ethic up and down the group,” Kreider said. “I do think you’re going to keep hearing it a bunch of times, but the energy around the building, the optimism, that makes it that much easier. That lifts everyone up.”
“I think there’s a little bit more pressure on us this year with some of the moves we made this offseason,” Vatrano said. “This is the third year for the younger guys, getting it under their belts. There’s a lot of expectations from them and for them and even from us older guys that it’s time to win now. We’re done rebuilding.”
“Everyone’s got the same goal,” Nesterenko said. “We’ve been rebuilding for a little while now, but I think the message around the organization is that everyone’s trying to win. Everyone’s trying to win now; there’s no more rebuilding. Everyone’s tired of losing, and I think everyone’s on the same page. Hopefully, we can put that to work this year.”
To make the playoffs, the Ducks will rely on players like Terry, Kreider and Granlund for offensive production. Youngsters Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Jackson LaCombe and the aforementioned McTavish are poised to build off their strong performances last season while Lukáš Dostál enters the 2025-26 season as the unquestioned No. 1 goaltender after sharing the crease with the now-departed John Gibson last season.
Contributions from Nesterenko, Vatrano, Killorn and others can provide reliable support. Aside from Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba, Anaheim’s blue line is young and untested in meaningful, end-of-season games. Maturation must be quick for some of their defensemen if they hope to make the playoffs.
“Our goal at the end of the year is to be in the playoffs, and that’s an even bigger grind,” defenseman Drew Helleson said. “I kind of figured out what it’s like to be in the NHL last year and I think that helped me a lot coming into camp, just knowing what it’s like. That just makes you feel a little more comfortable.”
How Much the Ducks are Projected to Improve in 2025-26 Standings
With the 2025-26 season creeping ever closer, the landscape of the NHL and team outlooks are becoming clearer.
“It has been a long, painful process, but we felt that we’ve reached a point where the rebuild is coming to an end,” Ducks owner Henry Samueli said in May. “It’s time to take the step to becoming a perennial playoff contender and, eventually, a Stanley Cup contender.
“So, we said if we want to take that step, we really should bring in a coach who’s been there, done that. That was one of the main reasons for wanting to bring someone like Joel Quenneville in, because we felt comfortable that he could take us from the end of a rebuild to the beginning of a playoff era.”
“We want to be the team that he wants to coach, and we want to do everything we can for him to be successful,” Gudas said. “We want to be successful and we talked about the rebuild being over. We want to take the next step. For us, this is a very important year to have a good start and make sure to grow into the players we are able to be.”
“It's going to be a lot of fun this year,” Ryan Strome said. “We're going to have a great time. We're going to have a good team. Our job is just to bring it every day and have a good positive energy and keep trying to grow every day. Take small steps and try to get to our end goal.”
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