Trade Deadline Primer: Anaheim Ducks
With the All-Star break approaching, the trade deadline looms large and is about a month and a half away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We start our look around the league with the Anaheim Ducks.
At this point of the season, there aren’t many teams that are going to be sure-fire sellers. The Ducks are one of the exceptions. GM Pat Verbeek’s squad is right in the heart of a full rebuild and after a surprisingly good start, they’ve fallen off as of late and are well out of the playoff picture. Of course, they at least have some strong core pieces to build around and while they likely won’t be able to add any of those in the coming weeks, they should be able to add to their prospect cupboard and pick up an extra draft pick or two.
Record
16-30-2, 7th in the Pacific
Deadline Status
Seller
Deadline Cap Space
$35.446MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 47/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2024: ANA 1st, ANA 2nd, BOS 2nd, ANA 3rd, PIT 3rd, SJ 3rd, ANA 4th, ANA 5th, ANA 6th, ANA 7th
2025: ANA 1st, ANA 3rd, ANA 4th, ANA 5th, ANA 6th, ANA 7th
Trade Chips
The likeliest Duck to move is Adam Henrique. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see him be dealt last season but an injury put an end to that fairly quickly. The 33-year-old is believed to be drawing strong interest already, understandably so in a center market that isn’t particularly deep at the moment. Henrique has been one of the top scorers for Anaheim this season with 15 goals and 15 assists in 45 games while being an all-situations player who also is winning over 53% of his faceoffs. This is the type of player who ticks off a lot of boxes for what a contender is typically looking to add at this time of season. At $5.825MM, the cap hit is going to be somewhat prohibitive, even with 50% retention so some creativity might be needed but there will be a strong market for the veteran that should net Verbeek a solid return.
When Frank Vatrano signed a three-year, $10.95MM contract with Anaheim back in 2022, it raised some eyebrows as he had only reached the 20-goal mark once. However, it proved to be a worthwhile move as he had a career year last season and should beat those numbers in the coming weeks to set new benchmarks. His value might not get any higher while whoever gets Vatrano would also have him for next year so if the opportunity is there to cash in, Verbeek could look to take it. Trevor Zegras was in trade speculation before he broke his ankle and while a move could be the eventual outcome, it feels like that might be more of a summer swap over trying to move him as he’s just coming back.
One possible under-the-radar candidate to move could be Isac Lundestrom. The center just came back from a torn Achilles tendon and has been quiet, producing at a similar level to last year, one that was a big step back. With Anaheim’s depth down the middle and a $1.8MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights looming, it’s fair to wonder if the Ducks might consider going in a different direction. If that happens, he could be moved for another young player in a change of scenery type of move.
On the back end, Ilya Lyubushkin might be the only one to move (with Jamie Drysdale having already been dealt). The 29-year-old was added as a rental player two years ago by Toronto and fit in well on their third pairing and it’s fair to think teams will be looking to add some grit once more. The return might not be the highest as he’s on an above-market deal but they should be able to pick up a draft pick and perhaps even beat the fourth-rounder they gave up to get him.
Then there’s John Gibson. The netminder has been in trade speculation going back a few years now and frankly, until one happens, he’s going to likely continue to be in that speculation moving forward. The 30-year-old has shaved nearly a full goal off his GAA this season while a .900 SV% on a rebuilding squad isn’t bad the way that stat is trending. However, a $6.4MM cap hit through 2026-27 will be an issue. Sure, the Ducks can retain 50% but in terms of real money, that’s more than $10MM in salary they’d owe to someone not playing for them. How much is that worth in a return? Couple that with a goalie market that has teams mostly bargain-hunting and it would be a bit of a surprise if a deal gets done although teams will certainly call.
Other Potential Trade Chips: F Sam Carrick, F Jakob Silfverberg (a $5.25MM AAV will limit his market though), G Alex Stalock
Team Needs
1) Young Wingers: With Mason McTavish, Leo Carlsson, and Zegras in the mix, Anaheim is set down the middle for a while. They have a young core group of defensemen and while odds are all won’t pan out, they should have a good core group. On the wing, however, it’s a bit thinner, even with the Cutter Gauthier acquisition. If there’s an opportunity to get a young winger in any of these moves, it would certainly help to shore up that portion of the prospect pool.
2) Draft Picks: While Anaheim has ten picks so far this season, they only have six for 2025 and between the two years, they don’t have any extras in the first or second round. Some rebuilding squads have a multi-year surplus of selections and the Ducks aren’t there yet. They can at least take a step in that direction before March 8th.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Anaheim Ducks Recall Olen Zellweger
The Anaheim Ducks have recalled defenseman Olen Zellweger from their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls, per a team announcement. Even though the Ducks already have six defensemen ready and able to play this evening, Eric Stephens of The Athletic reports that Zellweger could make his NHL debut tonight, as he was a full participant in practice this morning.
Zellweger originally came to the Ducks organization as the 34th overall selection of the 2021 NHL Draft. Mostly playing for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips during his Junior career, Zellweger played parts of five seasons, scoring 50 goals and 183 points in 180 games. In the playoffs, Zellweger’s offensive prowess was relied upon even more, where he scored 13 goals and 38 points over 20 postseason games.
Outside of being productive for the Silvertips and Kamloops Blazers, Zellweger was a part of Team Canada’s U20 team in both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 World Junior Championships, winning the gold medal in both tournaments. In both of those gold medal runs, Zellweger suited up in 14 games, scoring two goals and 17 points, being one of the better defensemen on Team Canada’s roster.
Now having fully transitioned to professional hockey, Zellweger has spent the entire season up to this point with the Gulls and has played as advertised. Although San Diego is not playing well overall as a team, Zellweger has played in a total of 34 games, scoring eight goals and 25 points, which is good for second on the team in scoring.
In desperate need of defensemen even before the trade of Jamie Drysdale, the Ducks will now attempt to use one of their highly touted prospects to fill some of the gaps on the blue line. Proving to be an effective two-way defenseman in the AHL, there is a reasonable chance that Anaheim will utilize Zellweger to replace the lost minutes of Pavel Mintyukov, who was placed on the team’s injured reserve on January 11th.
Lyubushkin Scratched With Upper-Body Injury
- The Ducks announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin was scratched for their game tonight against the Rangers due to an upper-body injury. The 29-year-old has been a regular on Anaheim’s third pairing all season long, logging over 17 minutes a night in 45 games. While the pending UFA only has four assists, he also has contributed 117 blocked shots and 71 hits and is likely to attract some interest from playoff-bound squads looking to toughen up the back end of their defense corps in the coming weeks.
Ducks Receiving Strong Interest In Adam Henrique
Now less than two months before the trade deadline, teams are starting to get a sense of what might be out there on the trade front. Early indications are that it’ll likely to be a relatively thin center trade market on the trade front. Between that and his strong track record, the Ducks are receiving a lot of trade interest in middleman Adam Henrique, reports ESPN’s Kevin Weekes (Twitter link).
The 33-year-old has been a consistent second-line center for the past decade, reaching the 20-goal mark six times, the most recent of which was last season. He’s on pace to come close to that this year with 12 goals and 14 assists in 44 games; his 26 points rank fourth on Anaheim.
Of course, Henrique is also known for his two-way play as he has been a dependable matchup center and penalty killer for most of his career, a trend that has continued this season. He’s averaging nearly three minutes a night shorthanded and is over the 50% mark at the faceoff dot for the sixth straight year.
With an ability to play up and down the lineup, it comes as little surprise that the interest in Henrique has been strong. He’d slot in nicely on the third line on several contenders and could fit on the second line on a team that’s a bit more balanced while also giving a big boost on the penalty killing side. Players with the ability to do that are often coveted for the stretch run.
However, it must be noted that Henrique is on the pricey side from a salary cap perspective as his cap hit checks in at $5.825MM, an amount that matches his salary this season. While Anaheim can hold back half of that to help facilitate a trade, that would only pay down the pro-rated cap charge to $2.9125MM, an amount that would be difficult for some cap-strapped teams to take on. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Ducks get asked to take a player back to help offset the rest of the cost or to try to get a third team involved to hold back another chunk of Henrique’s contract. Either way, expect his name to be in the rumor mill for the foreseeable future as he’s a strong bet to be moved by the March 8th deadline.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Alex Killorn To Undergo Knee Surgery
Alex Killorn‘s first season with the Ducks has been somewhat of a struggle due to injury and the veteran will be out for a while once again. The team announced that the winger will undergo arthroscopic left knee surgery next week and he is expected to miss the next four to six weeks.
The 34-year-old signed with Anaheim in free agency, inking a four-year, $25MM contract, good for the highest AAV ($6.25MM) among any forward to sign on the open market this summer. However, his start to the year was delayed due to a fractured finger sustained in the preseason, one that caused him to miss nearly a month.
Since returning in early November, Killorn has played as expected. While no one should have been anticipating another career year offensively, he was brought in to be a stabilizing presence in Anaheim’s top six and play alongside some of their younger talents. He has done just that while still contributing at a reasonable clip, notching six goals and 13 assists in 34 games while taking a regular turn on both special teams units.
With the injury just being announced, the Ducks have not yet placed Killorn on injured reserve. However, with the team carrying a full-sized roster right now, he’ll likely land on IR in the near future, freeing up a roster spot to bring someone up from AHL San Diego.
Prospect Rodwin Dionicio Signs Three-Year Deal In Switzerland
- Ducks prospect Rodwin Dionicio is having a breakout year in the OHL and had a strong showing at the World Juniors but it appears an entry-level deal won’t be coming his way anytime soon. Instead, EHC Biel-Bienne in Switzerland announced that they’ve inked the blueliner to a three-year contract which will begin next season. Anaheim has until June 1, 2025 to sign the 19-year-old who has 31 points in as many games at the junior level this season but will they want to commit two seasons of that contract to someone who will be playing overseas? That’s a decision GM Pat Verbeek will have to ponder down the road.
Ducks' Brett Leason Out With Upper-Body Injury
- Ducks winger Brett Leason is not in the lineup for today’s game against the Panthers after leaving Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Lightning with an upper-body injury. The 24-year-old has already set a career-high in points with 12 through 36 appearances this year, scoring six goals and posting a -6 rating in bottom six minutes. Entering the game against the Lightning, he had been a healthy scratch in two of the last four games. He hasn’t been given a return timeline by the team yet.
Ducks To Activate Leo Carlsson
The Ducks will activate rookie center Leo Carlsson ahead of this afternoon’s game against the Panthers, according to the team. It’s an ahead-of-schedule return for Carlsson, who was expected to miss four to six weeks after sustaining a right MCL sprain against the Flames on December 21.
Carlsson will return to a top-six role centering a line with Adam Henrique and Troy Terry as he looks to continue his strong pre-injury play. The MCL sprain, plus some load management-related scratches, have limited him to 23 out of 42 games this year, during which he’s scored eight goals and seven assists while averaging over 18 minutes per contest.
The 19-year-old has been a pleasant surprise in terms of how well he’s translated to the NHL in his post-draft season. It wasn’t the most popular choice when Ducks GM Pat Verbeek selected Carlsson over Adam Fantilli at second overall in last year’s draft, but his two-way game has shined with solid production against other teams’ first and second lines. The Ducks’ 2-7-1 record in their last ten games without Carlsson is a solid bit of evidence of how important his minutes are to the team already. More recent injuries to Pavel Mintyukov and Trevor Zegras have exacerbated the team’s struggles, though.
Already 6-foot-3 and 194 pounds, Carlsson has two seasons remaining after this one on his entry-level contract, which carries a $950K cap hit.
Anaheim Ducks Send Down Robert Hagg
Continuing with their five-game homestand this week, the Florida Panthers may be without defenseman Dmitry Kulikov tomorrow night against the Anaheim Ducks (X Link). It is unclear what exactly is plaguing Kulikov, but he only managed a tad under 14 minutes of ice time in the team’s most recent loss to the New Jersey Devils.
- Per the AHL transactions page, the Ducks have returned defenseman Robert Hagg to their AHL affiliate, the San Diego Gulls. Hagg was originally recalled on an emergency basis on January 9th, in correspondence with Anaheim’s trade of Jamie Drysdale to the Philadelphia Flyers only a day prior. Fortunately for Hagg, he was ultimately able to make his Ducks’ debut, playing in two games overall, with no points to show for.
Injury Notes: Gibson, Kochetkov, Forsberg
Anaheim Ducks goaltender John Gibson left the team’s Thursday night game with an upper-body injury, being replaced by backup Lukas Dostal. Gibson has missed time for a variety of reasons this season, being placed on the non-active list earlier in the year for the birth of his child, missing one game due to illness, and now nursing an injury that could limit him further. The absences have kept Gibson to just 26 appearances this season, with the former William Jennings Trophy-winner recording a 7-17-0 record and .900 save percentage on the season. He leads the league in losses.
While Dostal has shown promise, his stat line doesn’t fair much better than Gibson’s, with the 23-year-old goaltender setting a 7-9-1 record and .903 save percentage in 19 games this season. Dostal entered the season with just 23 NHL games under his belt, setting a combined .902 save percentage since making his debut in the 2021-22 season. The Ducks acquired Dostal in the third round of the 2018 NHL Draft. He was the sixth goalie to be taken that year and currently carries the most games played of any goalie in the class.
Other injury notes:
- The Carolina Hurricanes also lost their goaltender, with Pyotr Kochetkov leaving the team’s game after a collision with Anaheim’s Isac Lundestrom. Kochetkov was hit in the head but seemed to get his leg awkwardly stretched, making it hard to speculate what injury he could be facing. The 24-year-old has played in 23 games this season, goin 11-7-3 and setting a .900 save percentage.
- Ottawa Senators’ goaltender Anton Forsberg also joined the long list of injuries to occur on Thursday, leaving the team’s game after apparently tweaking something in his groin. The 31-year-old has managed 16 games, a 7-8-0 record, and a .889 save percentage this season.