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Ducks Name Radko Gudas Captain

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The Anaheim Ducks have named veteran defender Radko Gudas as the ninth captain in franchise history. He’ll succeed Ducks legend Ryan Getzlaf in the role, becoming the first to wear Anaheim’s ’C’ since Getzlaf’s retirement in 2022. Gudas also becomes the sixth NHL captain from Czechia, alongside Peter Stastny, Jaromir Jagr, Patrik Elias, Bobby Holik, and Milan Hejduk.

Gudas has put together a proud career in the NHL, appearing in 748 games as part of 12 seasons. He’s become a bit of a journeyman over that time, playing with five different clubs after starting his career in Tampa Bay. The Lightning drafted Gudas 66th overall in 2010 and promoted him to the NHL two years later. From there, it wasn’t long before the hard-hitting, stay-at-home defender worked his way into top-line minutes.

That was thanks to an overwhelming physical presence, emphasized in the 2013-14 season when Gudas recorded 273 hits – a franchise record in Tampa Bay but not a career-high for Gudas. He’d go on to top that mark twice with the Philadelphia Flyers, with 304 and 280 hits in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons respectively – again franchise records among Flyers defenders. Bruising became a core piece of Gudas’ game, and it wasn’t until the 2021-22 season that his physicality would finally hit a peak as he recorded 355 hits with the Florida Panthers, the third-most of any defender since the NHL began tracking hits – interestingly behind Jeremy Lauzon (383; 2023-24) and Mark Borowiecki (364; 2016-17).

Gudas made a move to Anaheim last summer – signing a three-year, $12MM UFA contract and bringing an end to his three-year stint with the Panthers. He once again assumed a confident, second-pairing role with the Ducks, recording 18 points in 66 games – his highest scoring since 2018-19. More than that, Gudas emerged as a clear leader amidst Anaheim’s young lineup. The Ducks have now recognized that leadership by making him the first player to wear the ’C’ on their newly-designed jerseys.

It’s a proud moment for the 36-year-old defender, who shared his thoughts on the news by saying, “I am honored to be named captain of the Anaheim Ducks and lead our team into an exciting era. The trust put in me by Pat, our management, coaches and my teammates is something I take with pride. Leadership is a shared quality amongst our team, and I look forward to representing the Ducks on the ice and also outside of the rink in the community.”

West Notes: Lehkonen, Fowler, Nurse

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Whether Avalanche winger Artturi Lehkonen will be in the opening night lineup remains to be seen, reports John Matisz of The Score.

After a comment earlier in the week from Nathan MacKinnon suggesting Lehkonen wouldn’t be “starting the season” in the Avs’ lineup flew under the radar, Matisz reached out to the team for confirmation, receiving a response that there’s still no firm timeline for his return. During exit meetings in May, Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said that Lehkonen needed offseason shoulder surgery but that his absence wasn’t expected to stretch into the regular season.

That assumption was challenged by head coach Jared Bednar last month, who confirmed Lehkonen wouldn’t be ready to start camp and cast doubt about whether he’d be cleared for Colorado’s season opener.

The 29-year-old Finn has broken out as a bonafide top-six winger in Denver since being acquired from the Canadiens near the 2022 trade deadline. Injuries have limited him since his arrival, though – especially last season. A neck injury kept him to 45 appearances on the year, but he still managed to pot 16 goals and 18 assists for 34 points while averaging over 18 minutes per night.

There’s more from the Western Conference:

  • Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler acknowledges most of what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said was true when he reported last week that both parties were looking to find him a new home on the trade market. “I understand that I’m on the second half of my career and these guys are just getting going,” the veteran blue liner told Eric Stephens of The Athletic, referencing Anaheim’s rebuild. “Those are the people that are going to push this team to where they want to be.” Stephens listed the Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Jets, and Stars as some speculative trade destinations.
  • The injury putting Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse’s availability for the beginning of training camp in jeopardy was sustained in the Stanley Cup Final, Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal reports. The lingering effects are directly related to the hit he took in Game 2 from Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues. The blue liner sat out much of the rest of the game after taking the hit in the first period but didn’t miss any action in Games 3 through 7.

Anaheim Ducks To Sign Three Players To PTOs

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Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports the Anaheim Ducks are bringing in Mark Pysyk, Boris Katchouk, and Gustav Lindstrom on professional tryout agreements. The Ducks will surely rely more on their youth this season but all three players could serve as reasonable depth if some prospects aren’t adjusting well.

Katchouk is only a few years removed from being a top prospect in his own right with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Katchouk scored 11 goals and 34 points in 29 games with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch during the 2020-21 season which caused many to believe he may become a middle-six fixture in Tampa for years to come. Unfortunately, his inconsistent ice time led to inconsistent play and the Lightning moved Katchouk to the Chicago Blackhawks in a package for Brandon Hagel.

He played much better with Chicago when more playing time came his way with five goals and 16 points in 58 games during the 2022-23 season but poor play last year ran out the clock with the Blackhawks. The team waived Katchouk near the trade deadline last year and he was eventually claimed by the Ottawa Senators where he scored two goals and four points in 21 games down the stretch.

The Ducks will also bring in a pair of right-handed shot defensemen one of which has spent a decent amount of time with the team already. Anaheim claimed Lindstrom in mid-January of last season away from the Montreal Canadiens and he played rather well for the team down the stretch. He only tallied six assists in 32 games but limited his turnovers and achieved a +12 rating by season’s end placing him second on the team, respectively.

Pysyk is arguably the most interesting addition due to having played in an NHL contest since the 2021-22 season. He signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Red Wings before the 2022-23 NHL season but a tear of his Achilles tendon cost him the year. He went unsigned from his PTO with the Pittsburgh Penguins last year but eventually landed with the team’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. He went scoreless in eight games for the AHL Penguins but eventually found a more consistent home with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on a two-way contract with the Calgary Flames.

None of the three players are guaranteed contracts heading into the 2024-25 season but it seems like a prudent move for the Ducks to get a look at some talent for the AHL level. The team is in a position to graduate several prospects this year and could use some more depth in case they can’t find consistency in the early stages of their NHL careers.

Poll: Which Team Is The Best Landing Spot For Cam Fowler?

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Earlier today it came to light that the Anaheim Ducks and long-time cornerstone defenseman Cam Fowler were working on a trade to move Fowler to a new organization. Fowler has spent nearly 1000 games as a member of the Ducks. Still, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman explained that Anaheim wants to give their young blue-liners more opportunity moving forward.

Fowler owns a modified no-trade clause in his current deal which gives him a relative amount of control over where he ends up. Friedman reported that Fowler is willing to edit the list if prompted but there are only a handful of teams with the cap space and the need for a top-four defenseman. One could reasonably assume for various reasons that Fowler likely won’t end up on the Calgary Flames, Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Blackhawks, or San Jose Sharks which helps iron out a more concrete list of hypothetical landing spots.

The Winnipeg Jets immediately jump out as a team that could have interest in Fowler as one of Dylan Samberg, Ville Heinola, or Logan Stanley are currently pegged for top-four duties. That trio leaves much to be desired in a top-four role which could lead the Jets to pivot to Fowler. Winnipeg has just under $6MM in cap space with Cole Perfetti the only restricted free agent left to sign. Perfetti shouldn’t eat up too much of the available space which should allow the Jets to comfortably fit Fowler’s contract into the fold for the next two years especially if the Ducks retain some salary off the top.

Utah Hockey Club has already added heavily to their defensive group this summer swinging separate trades for Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino. The team is looking to contend in their first season in Salt Lake City and Fowler would give them a complete blue line. Most lineup predictions have Juuso Valimaki on the second defensive pairing but his inconsistency over the last two seasons may give general manager Bill Armstrong some pause. Utah still owns one of the better prospect pools in the league and would not need Anaheim to retain any salary in a hypothetical trade.

Another team looking to make it back to the playoffs after an eight-year drought is the Detroit Red Wings. The team nearly swung a trade for New York Rangers’ captain Jacob Trouba earlier this summer although he used his no-movement clause to block the deal. The nixed trade for Trouba indicated that the Red Wings are still looking to upgrade their blue line making them an enticing fit for Fowler. The team largely has no reliable options outside of youngster Moritz Seider and Fowler would represent a veteran defenseman who has maintained plenty of responsibility throughout his career as evidenced by his career average of 23:15 time on ice. There is a bit more uncertainty with the Red Wings salary cap picture as they still need to look down Seider, Lucas Raymond, and Jonatan Berggren on new deals.

Fowler and the Ducks organization will inevitably agree on a trade profitable for both sides. It’s uncertain at this time whether a trade will come together relatively quickly or if Fowler will start the 2024-25 season as a member of the Ducks. Will one of the abovementioned teams swing for Fowler or will another team off the board pull the trigger?

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Ducks Notes: Marchessault, Stamkos, Gibson, Gudas

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Anaheim was also one of the many teams making serious pitches for star forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Steven Stamkos during their brief stints on the free agent market earlier this summer, said Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on today’s “32 Thoughts” podcast. TSN’s Bob McKenzie reported at the time that the Ducks were among the top five teams making competitive offers for Stamkos, but Marchessault wasn’t linked to Anaheim until now. Many expected Anaheim to be a major player in free agency after picking up veterans Gudas and Alex Killorn in last year’s frenzy, especially with ample cap space to spend, but their offseason moves ended up being more conservative after Marchessault and Stamkos opted to both sign deals with the Predators instead.

There’s more from Friedman on Orange County:

  • The Ducks haven’t given up on trying to move goaltender John Gibson and are still shopping him with three years left on his contract, Friedman said. But there hasn’t been any significant progress, and no deal appears close with less than two weeks to go until training camp. They’ve been in trade discussions regarding the 31-year-old, who posted a career-worst .888 SV% in 46 appearances last season, for the entirety of the offseason, per Friedman.
  • With trade rumors now surrounding the Ducks’ longest-tenured player, Cam Fowler, expect them to name Radko Gudas their next captain before the season starts, Friedman said. The hulking 34-year-old defender was Anaheim’s best defensive player last season by a wide margin after signing a three-year, $12MM deal in free agency, leading the team with a +14 rating, 128 PIMs, 154 blocks, and 232 hits. The captaincy in Anaheim has been vacant since Ryan Getzlaf retired in 2022.

Ducks, Cam Fowler Reportedly Exploring Trade Options

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After over a decade in Orange County, defenseman Cam Fowler’s time with the Ducks may soon come to an end. Both he and the team are in the early stages of exploring trade options in what Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman called a “positive working environment” on Friday’s episode of the “32 Thoughts” podcast.

[Fowler’s] a little bit older. They’ve got a lot of good young players, and eventually what you’ve got to start doing is you’ve got to say, ’You know what, Cam, we have to start taking some of your ice time so that these other players learn what it’s like to play in the important situations’… Fowler knows that when they’re good and they’re really ready to contend, it’s going to be their team and not his team.

Fowler, 32, has been a staple on the Anaheim blue line ever since they made him the 12th overall pick in the 2010 draft. He hit the NHL full-time the following season, stepping into a top-four role on a team in the throes of playoff contention.

While never cementing himself as a true star defender, he’s been remarkably consistent across a 974-game NHL career that’s spanned 14 seasons. He’s averaged over 20 minutes per game in every year of his career thus far, and his offensive production never varies too much from his career average of 0.47 points per game.

Fowler has only received outside Norris Trophy consideration once. It was in 2017 after he scored a career-high 11 goals, averaged another career-high 24:51 per game, and played a pivotal role in the Ducks advancing to the Western Conference Final. That performance spurned Fowler’s big payday – an eight-year, $52MM extension he signed immediately upon becoming eligible in the 2017 offseason that kicked in for the 2018-19 campaign.

He’s now entering the final two seasons of that deal, which carries a $6.5MM cap hit. The Windsor, Ontario native is still Anaheim’s undisputed top defender, averaging north of 24 minutes per night over the last three years. His offensive output has remained at, if not slightly above, his career average as the Ducks tore down their roster in the late 2010s in anticipation of their ongoing post-Ryan Getzlaf rebuild.

The past two campaigns have been difficult for the club, especially in their own end. That’s led to some pretty eye-popping numbers for Fowler, who’s posted a combined -59 rating in 163 games since the start of 2022-23. He may be logging the most ice time among Ducks defenders, but he’s not receiving the most challenging matchups. His offensive and defensive zone starts at even strength have remained relatively even, as they have for most of his career.

Poor goaltending doesn’t drag down that rating too much. His possession numbers have been legitimately bad, controlling only 46.1% of expected goals at even strength over the past two seasons, per Hockey Reference. However, his shot attempt shares were above team average during that time, a fact that the Ducks’ front office will likely point out in trade talks to prove that reports of Fowler’s defensive demise are exaggerated.

Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek will likely need to retain a small amount of Fowler’s remaining salary to move him. Only nine teams have the cap space for Fowler’s full $6.5MM hit if a trade were to happen today, per PuckPedia, and nearly all of them are in rebuilds themselves or still have a significant financial commitment to make this offseason to one or more unsigned restricted free agents. But doing so wouldn’t be an issue for Anaheim, which is only $2.1MM above the cap floor and has all three of its salary retention slots open.

Fowler largely has control over where he ends up as talks advance. The defender has a modified no-trade clause that allows him to submit a list of four teams to which he’d be willing to accept a trade. However, Friedman reports he’s willing to give the Ducks more teams to work with outside of the list, which he already submitted to the team over the summer.

Injuries For Beckett Sennecke And Tomas Suchanek

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  • The Ducks announced (Twitter link) that third-overall pick Beckett Sennecke suffered a fractured foot during offseason training that will keep him out for six to eight weeks. Meanwhile, the team also revealed that goaltender Tomas Suchanek had successful surgery to repair a ruptured ACL and will miss six to eight months.  Sennecke was a late-riser heading into the draft with his selection coming as a surprise to many.  The injury will derail any outside chance he had at making the team but he should be good to go by the time the World Juniors come around.  Suchanek, meanwhile, posted a 2.92 GAA and a .910 SV% in 29 games with AHL San Diego last season and was in position to likely be Anaheim’s third-string option this year.  This injury likely led to today’s earlier signing of Oscar Dansk to a one-year deal.

Ducks Sign Oscar Dansk To Two-Way Deal

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The Ducks have added free agent goaltender Oscar Dansk, signing him to a two-way deal, the team announced today in a press release. Financial terms were not disclosed by the team but PuckPedia reports that the contract pays $775K in the NHL, $150K in the minors, and has a guarantee of $200K.

Dansk, 30, has made just six NHL appearances, all for the Golden Knights, and hasn’t seen NHL ice since March 2021. He hasn’t been out of the NHL pyramid, though. He spent the last two seasons on two-way deals with the Flames, recording a 3.04 GAA, .900 SV%, and a 19-18-5 record in 44 AHL games for the Calgary Wranglers while backing up top goaltending prospect Dustin Wolf.

Following that run, he’ll remain in a No. 3/4 role for a Pacific Division club. Dansk will likely land on waivers during training camp and, if he clears, report to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. There, he’ll complement a trio of young Ducks netminders: Vyacheslav Butsayets, Calle Clang, and Tomas Suchanek. At least one of those three, likely Butsayets, will be destined for assignment one level further down to the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers.

Dansk, a Stockholm native, was a second-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2012. In addition to his time in the Columbus, Vegas, and Calgary organizations, Dansk has played professionally for Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League (2015-2017) and Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (2021-22).

Evening Notes: Islanders, Ducks, Wild

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Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News wonders if the New York Islanders would benefit from bringing in a player like Filip Zadina before training camp. The Islanders badly needed a top-six forward this summer but didn’t have the cap space or assets to make a move towards improving their forward group. Zadina has been linked to the Buffalo Sabres and has potential interest from a handful of other teams. He is also reportedly close to signing with an NHL team.

The 24-year-old hasn’t been able to live up to his draft status as a sixth overall pick and will now join his third NHL team in just seven seasons. The Pardubice, Czech Republic native, scored a career-high 13 goals last season and tallied 23 points in 72 games with the San Jose Sharks. But, despite being on the worst team in the NHL, he failed to play more than third- and fourth-line minutes and given the current state of his game, it’s unlikely he would help out the Islanders’ top six forwards. However, he could carve out a depth role in their bottom six.

In other evening notes:

  • The Anaheim Ducks announced that they’ve partnered with A Parent Media Co. Inc. to stream all of their regional games this season free of charge. The games will be available on the soon-to-launch Victory+, allowing Ducks fans in the Los Angeles regional market to watch Ducks games for free. The app for Victory+ will be available for fans outside the Ducks’ television region as well, but the games will not be free. However, the app will allow fans in other parts of the country to view the extra content that the team produces outside of their games.
  • Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin spoke with KFAN FM 100.3 today and discussed the upcoming season, where his expectations are for the Wild to make the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup. Guerin has had to navigate some very rocky waters the past couple of summers regarding the salary cap, as the Wild have had to account for $14.74MM in dead cap space for two years due to the buyouts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. However, he has managed to keep the team competitive and believes that if his current group stays healthy, they will be in the mix come playoff time. Minnesota didn’t make many changes this summer and will count on many internal improvements from young players if they hope to improve on the disappointment of missing the playoffs last season.

Snapshots: Devils, Regenda, Dobson

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The Devils should be one of the early teams active on the PTO front, argues James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now. The Capitals and Lightning were the first teams to ink tryouts for next month’s training camps when Jakub Vrana and Logan Brown agreed to them yesterday.

Cal Clutterbuck, Nick Cousins and Calen Addison were among the players that Nichols identified as speculative targets for the Devils, who could still stand to ink a couple of fringe NHLers to round out their depth chart at all positions. After their offseason spending spree on defense, though, landing some depth help on the wings would likely be a more attractive proposition to general manager Tom Fitzgerald, making Addison a bit of a long shot.

To that end, Cousins stands out as the most intriguing option of the three and the one with the clearest path to a contract should he end up inking a PTO in New Jersey. The 31-year-old is coming off a Stanley Cup win with the Panthers but remains unsigned, recently changing his representation. A versatile bottom-six energy player who can play all three forward positions, Cousins had seven goals and 15 points in 69 games with Florida last year and recorded a career-high 130 hits. He was a relative non-factor in the postseason, though, averaging fewer than nine minutes per contest and only contributing one assist in 12 games.

Other tidbits from around the league:

  • Ducks depth winger Pavol Regenda will represent his native Slovakia in this month’s qualifying tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics, relays Derek Lee of The Hockey News. An RFA this summer, Anaheim brought back Regenda for his third season with the organization on a two-way deal last month. The 6’3″, 219-lb forward has appeared in 19 NHL games over the past two seasons, recording a goal and two assists. He’s been an impact player for the Ducks’ AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, where he projects to start this season after posting 19 goals and 34 points in 54 games last year. Regenda has firmly cemented himself as a fixture on the Slovakian national team, appearing for them at the last three World Championships. He was also on their roster for the 2022 Olympics, where he helped them to a bronze medal with a goal and three assists in seven games.
  • The bevy of hefty extensions doled out to defensemen this offseason doesn’t bode well for the Islanders being able to squeeze a bargain out of Noah Dobson before he reaches restricted free agency next summer, Matthew Page and Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News write. Dobson, 24, exploded for 60 assists and 70 points in 79 games last year, finishing eighth in Norris Trophy voting. With less offensively-inclined comparables like Brock Faber landing eight-year deals in the $8MM AAV range, the Isles may need to shell out north of $9MM per season to keep Dobson on a long-term deal.

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