The Ducks winger discusses his offseason, getting older and staying healthy.

IRVINE, Calif. - Inside Great Park Ice, Troy Terry’s stall sits between Alex Killorn and Mason McTavish. That’s two ends of the age spectrum with the 35-year-old Killorn and the 21-year-old McTavish. At 27, Terry already feels like one of the elder statesmen.

“I think it's a fun combination of ages,” Terry said. “We've got so many guys under 22, 23 and then we've got some guys over 30. So being one of the few like tweeners on the team, it's fun to kind of connect with both sides.”

For Terry, 2023-24 was a down year as his goals, assists and points totals all decreased for the second consecutive season. His 19.3% shot percentage from the 2021-22 season when he scored 37 goals was never going to be sustainable, but his shot percentage dropped again for the second consecutive season from 12.2% to 11.6%.

“I think we all needed it,” Terry said regarding the end of this past season. “I just always expect a lot out of myself and then (you get) a chance to decompress and sort of see that it wasn't a terrible year. There were still some things I got a lot better at and certain aspects of my game. I think just resetting, being with the family, and just kind of getting in a good mindset.”

Off the ice, Terry had a busy summer. He attended three weddings (Max Jones, Logan O’Connor and Jarid Lukosevicius) and was in the bridal party for all three. “It was a busy summer for weddings for me,” Terry said His wife, Dani, is also pregnant with their second child—another son—and is due in January. Their first child, Greyson, is 18 months old and a ball of energy for his parents.

“It’s an adjustment, for sure, just learning how to balance all of that,” Terry said. He’s running around––(the other day) I was in the street playing mini sticks with him. So he's buzzing around and hitting his hockey stick around and all that stuff. And then another boy on the way, which scares me a little bit. Dani’s excited, we’re both excited. It's different on the second one because the first one, you kind of just sit and wait. And then the second one, you're so busy with the first one that you kind of forget almost sometimes. But we're really excited.”

With one kid in tow and another on the way, Terry says that he feels like he now falls into the older category of players on the team. This being his seventh full season in the NHL, he is also one of the last draft picks from the Bob Murray era still on the team.

“I think I'm the last one of the guys,” Terry said, mentioning players like Max Jones, Sam Steel and Josh Mahura who were drafted around the same time as Terry and have since departed from the Ducks. “It’s been an adjustment and now I'm just trying to fit in with the really young kids. They make me feel old on this team, but it's been good, and we've got so many good, older guys on the team too.”

Jones, who signed with the Boston Bruins this past summer, has known Terry since they were teens and both played for the U.S. National Team Development Program. Terry’s former coach at Denver University, Jim Montgomery, is the Bruins’ head coach. Did Terry know that his longtime friend was moving on beforehand?

“Sort of,” Terry said. “I mean, he heard things and, you know, it's always the way it goes. You never really know for sure, but I think he had a pretty good idea. I think (Boston will) be a good spot and that's my old coach there too, so I was able to talk to him a little bit about what to expect there. I'm excited for him.”

O’Connor, who was Terry's college teammate, recently signed a long-term contract with the Colorado Avalanche. O’Connor joined the Avalanche in 2018 after going undrafted. Now, the two former roommates both have their futures locked down with their respective teams.

“It's awesome,” Terry said. “Our wives played lacrosse together growing up in grade school so they're close and Logan and I were roommates in college. Different paths for both of us. Not that I haven't had to work for it, but he's someone that in college I don't think had more than 20 points in college. (Colorado signing him) was kind of out of nowhere. He’s just worked his way up, to see him get an extended deal like that is awesome for him and we're really excited. We're next door neighbors, so I don't know how that'll affect him if he's gonna move houses now, but we're both really happy for him.”

The third wedding that Terry attended this past summer was Lukosevicius’. The two were teammates and often linemates as well at Denver, helping lead them to an NCAA Championship in 2017. That team went on a group trip to celebrate their five-year anniversary in 2022 and Terry says they’ll have another trip to celebrate their 10-year anniversary in 2027.

“It was a tight-knit group there and there's (also) a lot of guys (from that team) that are still playing,” Terry said. “So I come back and they're all back there in the summer.”

There’s never a good time to get injured, but a preseason injury has to be one of the more annoying times to get one. After dealing with a minor lower-body injury last week, Terry is healthy and ready to go for opening night. He registered the primary assist on Frank Vatrano’s goal in their final preseason game.

Terry revealed that he was dealing with a shoulder issue at the end of last season, one possible reason his production waned down the stretch. The issue likely stemmed from a hard hit he took during a game on Feb. 24 against the Los Angeles Kings. He had just nine points in his final 22 games of the season.

“That was my focus at the start of summer and for kind of a lot of summer, just getting that back to healthy,” Terry said. “It was a good summer for me off the ice in the weight room, but also just taking more time to make sure my body's healthy. Like I said, I feel old on this team now every once in a while, so I’m just making sure I'm taking care of everything and getting everything healthy, so I feel really well.”