Anaheim Ducks Acquire Jacob Trouba
3:34 PM: The Ducks organization has made the deal official through a team announcement.
1:28 PM: According to Arthur Staple of The Athletic, the New York Rangers are working on a trade that would send Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks. Staple’s report comes shortly after TSN’s Pierre LeBrun indicated that Anaheim had quickly become the front-runner in acquiring Trouba’s services. ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan shares that Anaheim will send depth defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a draft pick to the Rangers, completing the trade.
This brings an end to a tumultuous saga for Trouba in New York. The oft-mentioned trade candidate had been in the rumor mill for a year as he was reportedly nearly dealt to the Detroit Red Wings this past offseason before using his modified no-trade clause to nix the deal. It wouldn’t be the last time either as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports Trouba also used his trade protection earlier today to prohibit a move to the Columbus Blue Jackets organization.
The former ninth-overall selection of the 2012 NHL Draft will now join the third organization of his 12-year career, albeit in a different environment. Trouba is only a year removed from captaining the Rangers to President’s Trophy honors during the 2023-24 NHL season but will now join a team that hasn’t qualified for the playoffs since the 2017-18 season and is sitting 29th in league standings. In the end, it was his choice, as Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff reported Trouba waived his no-trade clause to facilitate a deal with the Ducks.
He’s certainly fallen off in recent seasons which surely influenced New York’s desire to move on. He’ll finish his Rangers’ tenure with 31 goals and 136 points in 364 regular season games with a +16 rating. Most of Trouba’s lack of success in recent seasons can be seen from his possession metrics. He averaged an approximated 47.0% CorsiFor% through his first four years in New York but has fallen to 42.6% and 40.0% in the last two years, respectively.
Still, Trouba provides value via his physicality from the blue line. For better or for worse, Trouba’s massive hits have become well-known throughout the league and that kind of toughness will be received well in Greg Cronin‘s system in Anaheim.
The Ducks already boast one of the league’s most rugged defensemen in captain Radko Gudas and will now add Trouba to the equation. The Rochester, MI native has totaled more than 100 hits over the last six years and eclipsed the 200 mark twice from 2021-23.
New York will receive a mild return for their now-former captain in Vaakanainen and Anaheim’s fourth-round pick in 2025 (as per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun). Vaakanainen, who is currently on injured reserve, is a former first-round pick of the Boston Bruins from the 2017 NHL Draft and is a year removed from playing in a career-high 68 games for the Ducks. He won’t provide much on the offensive side of the puck given his career 25 points in 141 games but his $1.1MM expiring contract will give the Rangers increased financial flexibility moving forward.
That’s largely what this deal was about from the Rangers’ perspective. They have now cleared $12MM from their salary cap table after sending Barclay Goodrow through waivers this past offseason and now have the financial freedom to retain key pieces and be aggressive on the trade and free agent market. General manager Chris Drury has stayed adamant on his desire to reshape the Rangers roster and trading Trouba was one of the necessary steps toward that goal.
Ducks Activate Cam Fowler, Place Urho Vaakanainen On IR
Anaheim will welcome back the organization’s longest-tenured player this evening. The Ducks announced they’ve activated defenseman Cam Fowler from the team’s injured reserve and have placed defenseman Urho Vaakanainen on it in a corresponding roster move.
There was an expectation that the Ducks would make a formal roster move after Derek Lee of The Hockey News reported earlier that Pavel Mintyukov would be a healthy scratch for tonight’s contest for Fowler. Lee also mentioned that young forward Leo Carlsson wouldn’t play tonight due to an upper-body injury.
Anaheim has a few reasons to be thankful that Fowler is back in the lineup. First, he gives the team another veteran presence to a blue line that’s struggled this season. The Ducks are 26th in the league in shots against and their shortcomings have largely been covered up by the phenomenal play of Lukáš Dostál. Fowler won’t have much to give on the offensive side of the puck but he is in his 15th straight season averaging more than 20 minutes a night and has a career on-ice save percentage in all situations of 90.3%.
The other reason Anaheim is thankful to have Fowler back is to showcase him to the rest of the league. It’s public knowledge that the Ducks and Fowler hope for a trade to materialize and it would be better for inquiring teams to see how he’s continuing to handle top-four minutes.
Vaakanainen’s move to the injured reserve is curious. The Joensuu, Finland native has played sparingly for Anaheim this season with his last game coming on November 13th. This leads to the idea that Vaakanainen may have been injured for quite some time and the Ducks are just now taking him off the active roster. Still, it’s a big win for Anaheim to get a top-four defenseman back in the lineup.
West Notes: Eberle, Ducks, Joseph
The Kraken will be without their captain for at least the next two games and possibly more as Tim Booth of The Seattle Times relays that Jordan Eberle won’t play this weekend due to a lower-body injury. The 34-year-old was injured in a collision on Thursday against Chicago. Head coach Dan Bylsma noted that while Eberle was feeling a little better on Friday, there still needs to be further testing and evaluation done; that will come early next week to determine how much longer he might be out for. Eberle is off to a decent start to the season, notching six goals and five assists in 17 games so far while playing a little under 16 minutes a night.
More from the Western Conference:
- The Ducks issued several injury updates late Friday. After originally being classified as day-to-day with an upper-body injury, defenseman Cam Fowler will now miss the next two to four weeks because of it. A speculative trade candidate, the 32-year-old has been limited to just 12 games so far this season where he has only two points in a little over 21 minutes a night. Meanwhile, forward Mason McTavish is day-to-day with an upper-body injury while defenseman Urho Vaakanainen’s upper-body issue is being evaluated; he’s also listed as day-to-day for now. McTavish has two goals and six assists in 13 games so far while Vaakanainen has suited up just five times and has one assist and seven blocked shots.
- Blues defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph left the road trip to have his injury better evaluated but the test results were good, relays Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link). Accordingly, the 25-year-old is listed as day-to-day. Joseph is in his first season in St. Louis after signing with them in free agency following his non-tender from Pittsburgh. He has played in 13 games so far this season, recording one assist while averaging a little under 14 minutes a night.
Ducks Re-Sign Brett Leason, Urho Vaakanainen
6:23 p.m.: Anaheim’s now finalized these deals. Per Stephens, Leason’s is worth $1.05MM, while Vaakanainen’s is worth $1.1MM.
11:33 a.m.: The Ducks have re-signed winger Brett Leason and defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to one-year deals, The Athletic’s Eric Stephens reports. The pair were briefly UFAs after being non-tendered by Anaheim yesterday.
Anaheim does a good job by bringing back two valuable depth pieces on one-year contracts for the 2024-25 season. Neither Leason nor Vaakanainen are game-breakers in their own right but they do eat up minutes as the Ducks’ prospects continue to make their way up the depth charts.
In his third season with the Ducks organization, Leason experienced a career year compared to his previous standards. Scoring 11 goals and 22 points in 68 games, not only did Leason set career-highs in goals, assists, and points; he tied for seventh in Anaheim in goal-scoring altogether.
Vaakanainen just completed his first full season with the Ducks even though he has been with the organization for two and a half. Limited by injuries at the start of his tenure in Anaheim, Vaakanainen managed a solid outing during the 2023-24 season by putting up one goal and 14 points in 68 games while being one of the three Anaheim defensemen to not produce a negative rating.
Both should factor into the Ducks’ lineup next season as the team continues to climb their way back into contention. However, with multiple prospects looking to graduate to the NHL level, neither player may be in the long-term plans for Anaheim.
Nominees Announced For 2024 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy
The Bill Masterton Trophy is awarded annually to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Nominees are selected by members of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association, with finalists being named near the end of the regular season. Previous winners include Kris Letang (2023), Carey Price (2022), and Oskar Lindblom (2021). Today, a new list of 32 nominees has been named.
Below are the nominees from each team:
Anaheim Ducks – Urho Vaakanainen
Arizona Coyotes – Connor Ingram
Boston Bruins – Danton Heinen
Buffalo Sabres – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Calgary Flames – Oliver Kylington
Carolina Hurricanes – Frederik Andersen
Chicago Blackhawks – Colin Blackwell
Colorado Avalanche – Jonathan Drouin
Columbus Blue Jackets – Zach Werenski
Dallas Stars – Matt Duchene
Detroit Red Wings – Alex Lyon
Edmonton Oilers – Vincent Desharnais
Florida Panthers – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Los Angeles Kings – Viktor Arvidsson
Minnesota Wild – Marco Rossi
Montreal Canadiens – Joel Armia
Nashville Predators – Michael McCarron
New Jersey Devils – Curtis Lazar
New York Islanders – Cal Clutterbuck
New York Rangers – Jonathan Quick
Ottawa Senators – Claude Giroux
Philadelphia Flyers – Sean Couturier
Pittsburgh Penguins – Sidney Crosby
San Jose Sharks – Justin Bailey
Seattle Kraken – Joey Daccord
St. Louis Blues – Nathan Walker
Tampa Bay Lightning – Michael Eyssimont
Toronto Maple Leafs – Ilya Samsonov
Vancouver Canucks – Noah Juulsen
Vegas Golden Knights – Alex Pietrangelo
Washington Capitals – T.J. Oshie
Winnipeg Jets – Laurent Brossoit
Anaheim Ducks Assign Urho Vaakanainen On Conditioning Loan
The Anaheim Ducks have assigned defenseman Urho Vaakanainen to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls on a long-term injury conditioning loan, according to the team.
It’s a great sign for Vaakanainen and his playing future that he’s able to give it a go in the minors on a short-term basis. The young defenseman has already had an injury-plagued career, and potentially his scariest injury came in a September 30 preseason game against the San Jose Sharks. Vaakanainen left the contest on a stretcher after a collision caused his head to hit the boards.
Today, it was reported that Vaakanainen had resumed practicing. It’s unclear when he’ll play in his first game with San Diego, but as he’s just returned to the ice, don’t expect it to be right away.
Vaakanainen, a stout defensive prospect, was one of the main pieces in the return from the Boston Bruins in exchange for Hampus Lindholm at last season’s trade deadline. The 2017 first-round pick eclipsed 10 NHL games for the first time in 2021-22 and remained in the league full-time with Anaheim after the trade. He had two assists in 14 games, even working his way into a top-four role.
The Ducks weren’t great last season defensively, and they haven’t demonstrated any improvement this season either. Whether or not Vaakanainen can make a material difference to the team’s porous play remains to be seen, but he would allow the team to relieve some less NHL-ready players.
West Notes: Jets, Vaakanainen, Avalanche, Stone
Despite dealing with multiple injuries up front, the Jets enter play today sitting in second place in the Central Division thanks to a resurgent season from Connor Hellebuyck and some improved defensive play from some of their veteran blueliners under new head coach Rick Bowness. Accordingly, Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press wonders if instead of moving one of those veteran rearguards to make room for a youngster, they instead turn around and move one of those younger defensemen to acquire some help up front. Ville Heinola is just now getting his feet wet this season after starting the season in the minors while Logan Stanley has been out for a month and might have a hard time getting back into the lineup when healthy. Both players carry cap hits under $1MM which would be enticing to cap-strapped teams while Winnipeg has a little over $1.7MM in cap room at the moment per CapFriendly which would give them some extra flexibility to take on a more expensive forward in return.
More from the West:
- Ducks defenseman Urho Vaakanainen has resumed practicing as he works his way back from an injury sustained late in the preseason, relays Lisa Dillman of the Orange County Register. He was injured at the end of September when he went crashing into the boards where he had to be stretchered off the ice. There’s still no firm timeline for his return but the fact he’s now skating with the team suggests he should be back sooner than later. He’d be a welcome addition to an Anaheim back end that has struggled so far this season; the 23-year-old logged more than 19 minutes a game after joining them at the trade deadline a year ago.
- As expected, the Avalanche have recalled wingers Sampo Ranta and Anton Blidh from the minors, per the AHL’s transactions listing. Colorado has been shuffling waiver-exempt players back and forth all season long in an effort to try to bank some extra cap space, something that is harder to do with the team currently in LTIR. Ranta and Blidh have played in three and four games respectively with the Avs so far this season.
- Flames defenseman Michael Stone has been activated off injured reserve, reports Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg (Twitter link). The veteran has missed the last ten games due to an undisclosed injury after putting up two goals and three assists in his first ten contests this season. Calgary had an open roster spot so they didn’t need to make any corresponding move to activate Stone.
Injury Updates: Bruins, Ducks, Flames
The Boston Bruins issued two injury updates, one of which could have a major impact on the team’s calculations for their opening-night roster. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told the media today that top prospect Fabian Lysell was out day-to-day, with a target returning to play Wednesday against the New York Rangers. He also revealed that star winger Taylor Hall was injured and would be out with a week-to-week designation.
It’s the Hall injury that’s most significant here, especially since the team is already without winger Brad Marchand due to injury. This leaves the Bruins without their top two left wingers to start the season, absences that could significantly alter the complexion of the team’s top-six early in the year. With Hall and Marchand out, it’s possible that players such as Jake DeBrusk and Pavel Zacha are leaned on more heavily to create offense, and this injury could also increase the odds of Lysell making the team for at least a nine-game trial.
Some other injury updates from across the NHL:
- The Anaheim Ducks issued injury updates on two of their players: Trevor Zegras and Urho Vaakanainen. For Vaakanainen, the team said that he was released from the hospital on Friday and “continues to improve.” For Zegras, the team revealed that he is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury but will be on the ice for today’s activities. This is good news for Vaakanainen, who hopefully is on the path to a safe recovery after he suffered a scary injury Friday when he was stretchered off the ice.
- The Calgary Flames issued three injury updates today, regarding forwards Emilio Pettersen and Martin Pospisil, as well as defenseman Dennis Gilbert. Per the team, all three players are considered day-to-day as they continue to battle for roles in training camp.
Urho Vaakanainen Taken To Hospital After Suffering Injury
There was a scary moment partway through the first period in Friday’s preseason contest between the Ducks and Sharks. After setting up a goal, Anaheim defenseman Urho Vaakanainen hit his head into the boards and had to be stretchered off the ice.
The team announced (Twitter link) that the 23-year-old was taken to hospital for evaluation but “has full movement in his extremities and is fully conscious and alert”. Speaking to reporters postgame, head coach Dallas Eakins didn’t have any updates on Vaakanainen’s condition.
Vaakanainen is in his first full season with the Ducks after being acquired near the trade deadline last season as part of the Hampus Lindholm trade. He signed a two-year, $1.7MM contract back in July and was hoping to land a full-time spot in Anaheim’s lineup this season. Unfortunately, it appears those plans are on hold for the time being as the team waits to see how long he’ll be out of the lineup.
Also on the injury front in Anaheim, center Trevor Zegras will be undergoing a second MRI as the team looks to get more information about the upper-body injury he sustained on Wednesday, relays Lisa Dillman of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Zegras was injured in the second period against Arizona on a hit from Jan Jenik. The imaging is happening today so the team should have an idea of how long the 21-year-old will be out of the lineup in the near future.
Anaheim Ducks Extend Three Players
The Ducks have gotten a chunk of their outstanding offseason business done, signing three of their restricted free agents to extensions. The team announced deals for defensemen Simon Benoit and Urho Vaakanainen as well as for goalie Olle Eriksson Ek.
Vaakanainen, 23, received a two-year extension, the terms of which were not fully detailed in the announcement. Vaakanainen came to Anaheim as part of the mid-season Hampus Lindholm trade, and got into 14 games with the Ducks after being dealt there. Vaakanainen was the 18th overall pick at the 2017 draft and has yet to establish himself as a full-time NHL defenseman. In that limited sample with the Ducks, Vaakanainen played in nearly 20 minutes of ice time per game and got a sprinkling of ice time on both the power play and penalty kill.
Vaakanainen may never develop into the shutdown top-four force he was drafted to be, but there is hope that he can become a defense-first bottom-pairing piece in Anaheim.
Benoit, 23, is an undrafted player who got into an impressive 53 games for the Ducks last season. Benoit got a one-year, two-way deal. A hulking six-foot-three, 200-pound physical force, Benoit steadily earned coach Dallas Eakins‘ trust and eventually saw time on the Ducks’ penalty kill. There isn’t much offense to Benoit’s game, and he had just five points in 53 games, but he’s got four seasons of professional hockey under his belt and should be in the mix for a similar role in Anaheim this fall.
Eriksson Ek, 23, is the brother of Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek and has been a developmental goalie project for the Ducks organization since he was drafted in the sixth round of the 2017 draft. Eriksson-Ek served as the backup goalie for most of the season playing for the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. He got into 26 games and went 7-15-2 with an .880 save percentage and a 3.44 goals-against-average. He got a one-year extension.