Armed with nearly $39 million in cap space, Pat Verbeek is poised to strike. Discover which Pacific Division rivals hold the potential missing pieces for Anaheim’s emerging roster.
As the calendar flips from May to June, and the NHL Stanley Cup final has begun, the majority of significant transactions between now and the start of the 2026-27 season will likely take place over the course of the next four to six weeks.
The Anaheim Ducks find themselves in unfamiliar waters after what could be seen as their first successful season in nearly a decade. They enter the offseason with a projected $38.7 million in cap space, two core RFAs (Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier) to sign to big extensions, two secondary RFAs (Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger) on whom tough decisions will have to be made, and one to three areas on the roster potentially in need of upgrades.
Anaheim could now be seen as a desirable destination for players on the move. Even after RFAs are inked to new deals, the Ducks will still have considerable cap space to add quality players to their roster who could help them now and moving into a bright future.
After feasibly identifying three areas in need of an upgrade on the Ducks’ depth chart (right shot defense, second-line center, top-nine winger), now seems like a good time to identify paths in which general manager Pat Verbeek could go about adding to his group and numerous organizations’ situations they could target around the league.
I’ve decided to break this up by division, so we’ll take a look at some teams in the Pacific Division, the Ducks’ own, and the one some would claim to be the NHL’s “pillow fight” division.
Disclaimer: This exercise is purely speculative. Some players mentioned have been previously reported to be in trade discussions, while others haven’t. This is intended to provide ideas on the type of players the Ducks could target this offseason.
(Alphabetical Order)
Calgary Flames
From the outside, the Flames appear to be one of the few NHL teams who are actually rebuilding and acquiring talent in the form of picks and prospects. Since the calendar flipped from 2025 to 2026, the Flames have parted ways with veterans Rasmus Andersson, MacKenzie Weegar, and Nazem Kadri, and they could be in the business of parting with more to reset their window and build a contending core.
The Flames enter the 2026 offseason with $22.7 million in cap space, eight picks in the first three rounds of the 2026 draft (including two first-round picks), and a whopping 18 picks in the first three rounds of the next three drafts (six first-round picks).
The three names that jump off the depth chart page who could fetch quality returns for Calgary and fit Anaheim’s roster are tenacious two-way forwards Blake Coleman (34) and Joel Farabee (26), as well as do-it-all offensive middle-six center Morgan Frost (27).
Coleman is a two-time cup winner who, even in his later years, can still find the back of the net, is one of the more difficult players to play against in the NHL, and has one year remaining on his contract ($4.9 million AAV, 10-team NTC). Farabee provides a similar skillset to Coleman, just eight years younger, and has two years remaining on his contract ($5 million AAV).
Frost has established himself as a 40-45 point center and can, in theory, provide secondary scoring as a stopgap second-line until a younger player like Mason McTavish or Roger McQueen seizes the role, and after which, Frost could thrive as a third-line center. Frost has one year remaining on his contract ($4.375 million, 8-team NTC).
Verbeek made his first deal with Calgary at the 2026 trade deadline, sending Ryan Strome to the Flames in exchange for a seventh-round pick. Could the Ducks’ GM revisit that relationship this summer?
Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks were the NHL’s worst team in the NHL in 2025-26 by a country mile, finishing with just 58 points in the standings (14 points behind the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks). They’ll have a completely new hockey operations department and coaching staff heading into the 2026-27 season, with new co-presidents of hockey operations Henrik and Daniel Sedin, general manager Ryan Johnson, and head coach Manny Malhotra.
The front office has made virtually the entire roster available on the trade market, and they enter the offseason with a projected $22 million in cap space to complement two first-round picks in the upcoming entry draft.
With five years left on his deal ($5.5 million, full NMC), Jake DeBrusk (29) seems like the most obvious forward to potentially find a new home for the 2026-27 season. Elias Pettersson (27) and Brock Boeser (29) are another pair of contracts the Canucks would likely be looking to move on from, but pose a much more difficult hurdle.
In desperate need of a change of scenery, Pettersson still has six years remaining on his sizable contract ($11.6 million AAV, full NMC). Even with retention, of which one doubts Vancouver’s willingness to retain close to the 50% maximum, the uncertainty around his ability to regain his potency will likely leave many teams (especially ones projected to flirt with the cap ceiling at some point, like Anaheim) extremely wary.
Boeser has a more manageable cap hit ($7.25 million, full NMC) with his remaining six years, but his high-watermark, 40-goal season in 2023-24 seems too distant a memory.
The prize on the Canucks roster, should he be made available, is right-shot defenseman Filip Hronek (28). Hronek is an all-situations defender who could potentially become the coveted long-term, top-pair partner alongside Jackson Lacombe and in front of fellow Czech netminder, Lukas Dostal, should the Ducks look to pursue him. He’s under contract for six more seasons at a cap hit that projects to become more reasonable by the day ($7.25 million, full NMC).
With Vancouver’s recent shift in front office and coaching leadership, they’ll likely want to start building their vision as soon as possible. In that scenario, Anaheim presents as good a potential trade partner as any.
Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas is in the midst of their third Stanley Cup Final series in the brief, nine-year history of the franchise and are currently up 2-1 on the Carolina Hurricanes. Like with most “win-now” teams, they’ll have some decisions to make come the offseason on who within the depth chart to retain and who to move on from.
Traditionally, Vegas has had no hesitation when it comes to moving on from top players if they feel it’s what’s right for the club in order to win in the immediate future. They enter the 2026 offseason with a projected $4.6 million in cap space, and that will likely increase by $8.8 million if/when Alex Pietrangelo is placed on LTIR.
Vegas only has nine forwards and five defensemen on their roster for 2026-27, with top four defenseman Rasmus Andersson set to become a UFA on July 1 and breakout forward Pavel Dorofeyev to become an RFA.
Should either hit a market, Anaheim may be interested in adding one, but if Vegas intends to keep one or both, the Knights may need to move off a contract or two on their current roster.
Three players who look to be obvious options that Vegas may be inclined to move are centers William Karlsson (33) and Tomas Hertl (32), along with goaltender Adin Hill (30). Hill makes little to no sense for Anaheim, but the centers could garner some interest and slot in well in the Ducks’ middle six.
Karlsson has become the exact player Anaheim has needed since the Ducks traded him to the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2015, and though he’ll be 34 by the end of next season, he can still provide an extremely positive 200-foot, middle-six presence at the center position. He has one year remaining on his contract ($5.9 million, 10-team NTC).
Hertl had his struggles this season for the Knights, but has increasingly found his footing as Vegas has advanced further into the playoffs. He hasn’t been tasked with killing penalties as he had with the San Jose Sharks franchise, but he still possesses that skillset. He has four years remaining on his contract ($6.75 milion, three-team trade list).
By many accounts, Vegas has become one of the NHL’s true villain organizations, and they seem perfectly happy with that narrative. Is there a trade to be made between second-round opponents in the Pacific Division as one (Vegas) attempts to remain at the top for as long as possible and one (Anaheim) looks to reach that pinnacle in the next handful of years?