Breaking Down The Direction Of The Ducks

The Ducks are still well under the salary cap ceiling, sitting about $29MM below the limit with four players left to sign to complete a 23-man roster (as per PuckPedia). While that’s certainly a lot of space under the cap, it’s not necessarily a positive sign, given how the Ducks have exhausted their salary cap space by signing and trading for high-priced veterans who are past their prime. A few years ago, the Ducks seemed poised for success, but they have made little progress in their rebuild, and if anything, their recent moves have hindered what could have been something special.

When Pat Verbeek became the general manager of the Ducks in February 2022, he knew the team was in the midst of a rebuild and aimed to make them a contender. He had a plan, and from a broad perspective, his approach to bring in veterans made sense to support younger players and a prospect pool ranked 12th, according to Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. The Ducks had been focusing on youth for a while and had some promising young players starting to get significant NHL minutes. Bringing in experienced players who had been there before would provide emerging stars like Trevor Zegras with a mentor figure to help them develop into skilled professionals.

The Ducks had a poor start to Verbeek’s tenure, falling further down the standings in 2022-23 with a 23-47-12 record to finish last in the Western Conference. On the ice, the Ducks finished 31st in the NHL in goals for and 32nd in goals against, with a -129-goal differential. The team’s performance can’t solely be blamed on Verbeek, who had only been in the role for a few months before summer 2022. However, his influence was evident in certain aspects of the team, particularly in the signings of a few free agents, some of whom were successful, while others were not.

Verbeek signed Frank Vatrano to a three-year deal in July 2022, which proved to be a great bargain. However, he also signed Ryan Strome to a five-year, $25MM contract. Strome has recorded 41 points in each of the last three seasons, but his below-average defensive metrics offset some of his offensive contributions. Defencemen John Klingberg and Nathan Beaulieu were also acquired that offseason and struggled to adjust to Anaheim’s lineup, posting some of the worst numbers of their careers. Klingberg was traded to Minnesota before the NHL Trade Deadline, and Beaulieu finished the season and has not played in the NHL since.

In the summer of 2023, Verbeek continued his trend of overestimating veterans by signing a couple of 33-year-old veterans, defenceman Radko Gudas and Alex Killorn. The Gudas signing was for three years at $4MM per season and was a sensible gamble given his abilities at the time. Gudas doesn’t put up points, but he has been reasonably practical, and rebuilding teams generally need to overpay in free agency. The Killorn signing, however, raised many eyebrows even though he was coming off a 64-point season with Tampa Bay. Killorn was signed to a four-year deal worth $25MM ($6.25MM annually) and has not come close to delivering enough value to justify his contract. That signing started a significant trend in Anaheim that continues today: overvaluing players’ past contributions.

Moving forward, Verbeek arguably made his best move in early 2024 when he acquired forward Cutter Gauthier from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenseman Jamie Drysdale and a second-round pick. That move was a significant victory for the Ducks, strengthening their pool of young players with star potential.

After the Gauthier trade, Verbeek went back to work adding high-priced veterans to the lineup, trading for defenseman Brian Dumoulin in July 2024, and then eventually making a head-scratching trade for Jacob Trouba in late 2024. The Dumoulin trade turned out to be good business, as he was later flipped to New Jersey at the Trade Deadline for a second-round pick and a prospect, but the Trouba deal never made sense and still looks like a mistake to this day. The New York Rangers not only managed to get out from beneath Trouba’s $8MM cap hit but also received some value from Anaheim, acquiring defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a 2025 fourth-round pick. Trouba has value due to his physicality, ability to block shots, and willingness to get involved in transition; however, his mobility and turnovers are significant issues that have persisted in Anaheim, not to mention his hefty cap hit. Verbeek then followed up this trade by moving on from Cam Fowler in a deal with St. Louis, where he retained $2.5MM in salary.

Continuing with his trend, Verbeek then acquired Chris Kreider from the Rangers along with a fourth-round pick, giving them another chance to move on from a bad contract. The Ducks sent back a third-round pick and the 2023 second-round pick (59th overall), Carey Terrance. The jury is still out on the Kreider move, and he remains a net-front presence who can still skate, but his numbers took a significant hit next season, and the Ducks are gambling on a 34-year-old with a lot of hard miles on his body to recapture his game. Kreider did have 22 goals last season, so it’s not impossible to imagine him providing value to the Ducks, but at $6.5MM per season for two more years, the Ducks overpaid for another veteran who may or may not work out.

Verbeek followed up this trade by moving Zegras for a second and fourth-round pick, in exchange for forward Ryan Poehling. While Poehling is quite suitable as a depth forward, the return felt disappointing for an injury-prone player with considerable offensive talent. Zegras has struggled with injuries over the past few seasons and may not work out in Philadelphia. However, for a team like the Ducks, which seems willing to gamble on veterans returning to form, it was unusual to see them sell low on a relatively young forward who could still bounce back.

Finally, you have the Ducks’ last handful of moves, which include trading goaltender John Gibson for Petr Mrazek (and two draft picks) as well as the signings of Mikael Granlund and Ville Husso. The Gibson trade was good business for Anaheim and moved them away from a player who had made headlines for the past couple of seasons, as his timeline didn’t match the one the Ducks were on. Acquiring Mrazek as part of the package was also reasonable, as it provided Anaheim with a temporary backup to play behind Lukas Dostal. What didn’t make sense was giving Husso two more years at $2.2MM per season, as he has been a below-average goaltender for the last three seasons and spent more time in the AHL last season than he did in the NHL. Now, the goaltender market was certainly weak this summer, but handing out that kind of contract to an AHL-level goalie to play in the minors is a major misfire.

Anaheim completed their free agent moves by signing forward Granlund to a three-year, $21MM contract. Granlund is a solid offensive player who can generate points and is a great passer. However, he is only two summers removed from being a salary cap dump in Pittsburgh and is nowhere near worth a $7MM price tag. He doesn’t contribute much defensively, but should boost their 30th-ranked offence.

Now, people will point to the veteran acquisitions and say that Anaheim has plenty of cap space, so it doesn’t matter if they spend money on players like Husso and Granlund. But the fact is that Anaheim was in a prime position to contend by now, yet they have made things worse by acquiring older, slower players who haven’t helped the younger ones so far.

Fans might also argue that Anaheim isn’t going to contend this year or next, so having these veterans on the books doesn’t affect the long-term strategy. However, Anaheim could have better utilized and weaponized its cap space to bring in younger players or acquire other assets by taking on teams’ bad contracts, similar to the strategy Pittsburgh has employed. There is nothing wrong with overpaying players during a rebuild, but eventually, the bill comes due. For Anaheim, it seems they are still paying that bill, and they might continue to do so for a few more seasons.

Photo by Danny Wild-Imagn Images