A thin defensive corps faces immediate pressure as key players exit the ice, threatening to derail Anaheim’s momentum before the puck even drops.
A compressed training camp for the 2026-27 Anaheim Ducks has been underway for two sessions ahead of a pivotal season following one in which they saw their elongated playoff drought snapped, potentially opening a sustained window of contention.
After a difficult offseason of signing core players to more sizable contracts than anticipated, losing six contributing roster players, having another (Troy Terry) scheduled to miss the first 2-3 months of the season with an injury, and only adding around the fringes of the depth chart, many are anticipating the Ducks to take a step back in their build from a year ago.
A large contingent believes the weakness on the Ducks’ lineup lies on the blueline, while a smaller group believes the D-corps will improve as younger players more suited to the play style in which the coaching staff has implemented fill more prominent roles.
A blueline full of question marks has been accumulating more during the early days of camp, as the injury bug has reared its head and is already keeping some players off the ice.
Camp opened with two of the Ducks’ 48 invited players listed with “injured” designations: Troy Terry (unsurprisingly) and Tyson Hinds (surprisingly). Hinds is one of just four left-shot defensemen in the Ducks organization with NHL games on his resume (Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, Travis Mitchell), and two of them (Mitchell and Hinds) have fewer than ten regular season NHL games under their belt.
There’s good news on Hinds’ front, as he’s listed as just “day-to-day” with a lower-body injury, but is scheduled to make his camp debut on Saturday. Stian Solberg (20) appears to be fourth on the team’s organizational depth chart among left-shot defensemen.
On the right side of the blueline, the Ducks have even more question marks after losing all three starters (Jacob Trouba, John Carlson, Radko Gudas) from Game 1 of their first-round series against the Edmonton Oilers in May. The coaching staff was projected to run a rotation of four players (Drew Helleson, Nick Jensen, Ian Moore, Tristan Luneau) on the right side to start the season, but that group has taken a hit as well.
Ian Moore went down on opening day of camp and is scheduled to miss the next 2-4 weeks with a lower-body injury. Moore was one many had penciled in to play some top-line minutes alongside Jackson LaCombe at some point in the early stretch of the season.
Nick Jensen (35) was one of four veterans signed by the Ducks this offseason and was projected as the sole blueliner to enter the season over the age of 25. Jensen collided with prospect Yegor Sidorov on the second day of camp and left the ice. He isn’t listed among the players to participate in camp on Saturday.
With Moore out for an extended period and Jensen sidelined early in camp, San Diego Gulls standouts and 2022 second-round draft picks Tristan Luneau (22) and Noah Warren (22) are seemingly next on the organizational depth chart on the right side, with a somewhat significant gap between them, as Luneau’s impressed with his performance over the last two seasons in the AHL.
The blueline isn’t the only group with early bumps and bruises. Center Ryan Poehling missed the second day of camp with a lower-body injury and isn’t scheduled to participate on Saturday. He’s designated as “day-to-day” with a lower-body injury. The biggest acquisition the Ducks made this offseason was AJ Greer, who they signed to a four-year, $4.25 million AAV contract. He has also been omitted from Saturday’s participants.
The Ducks have one more day of training camp on Saturday before their first of just four exhibition games is scheduled for Sunday at 1 pm PST against the San Jose Sharks at Honda Center, and the hope is for no further injuries to occur.
