Ducks season preview: A glimmer of hope emerges

IRVINE –– Everything surrounding the Ducks feels novel, from their uniforms to the OC Vibe construction that has engulfed the area around Honda Center, but now it’s time to ditch the stale results of recent seasons and offer fresh promise on the ice.

The Ducks haven’t made the playoffs since 2018, a year earlier than their opening-night opponents Saturday, the San Jose Sharks, whom they faced three times in the preseason and beat twice.

For the second consecutive campaign, they’ll start the year on a back-to-back set with travel, but if that turns out to be the greatest of their worries, the Ducks will be thrilled. They again enter the season with a franchise-worst mark in their rearview mirror (first it was the fewest total points, then the most regulation losses) that was the product of a penchant for finding ways to lose close games, a proclivity for the penalty box and unanswered prayers for good health.

But promise also abounds as many of the flashes shown by up-and-comers last season could become more consistent sights as one scintillating 20-year-old talent, Leo Carlsson, is joined by two more, Cutter Gauthier and Tristan Luneau.

New year, new captain

Radko Gudas signed as a free agent last summer and promptly produced a season where, between the punishment he absorbed and all he dished out, he might have used up an arctic glacier’s worth of ice packs. His remarkably consistent play inspired teammates and produced results as his plus-14 rating was the only positive one among players who played 40 or more games for a team that finished with a woeful negative-91 goal differential.

This summer, he was named the team’s first captain since Ryan Getzlaf’s 2022 retirement. He’ll also lead a defense corps that includes other veterans like mainstay Cam Fowler and trade pickup Brian Dumoulin, but will look to its younger members to push upward in terms of performance.

That includes lottery pick Pavel Mintyukov, the elusive Olen Zellweger and Luneau, who played in just seven games for the Ducks last year but will start the season in their top four. Another second-year player, Jackson LaCombe, will partner with Gudas initially. Gudas and Alex Killorn were among the veterans that, unprompted, praised LaCombe’s considerable progress. Coach Greg Cronin, who was frustrated with the former Minnesota Golden Gopher during LaCombe’s maiden voyage, apparently concurred as LaCombe will see duty on the top pairing and power-play unit against San Jose.

That sort of veteran-aspirant balance permeates the Ducks’ roster with four players 20 or younger and eight that are 23 or younger, as well as two-time Stanley Cup winners like Dumoulin and Killorn. Despite whiffing altogether in free agency in an offseason with cap space to spare, the Ducks hope to surprise the Western Conference this season.

“We want to put the right pieces in the right spots and have the right habits from Game One,” Gudas said. “We can have success in this league because we’re young, talented and hungry.”

Leo, Cutter and the future

The Ducks already had the flashy Trevor Zegras and clutch Mason McTavish (who’s in a contract year) in place before they added Carlsson in last year’s draft and another former top-five selection, Gauthier, via trade in January.

Gauthier and Carlsson have played together since Gauthier’s debut in Game 82 of last season. Gauthier peppers the net with a hair trigger on his potent shot, while Carlsson misinforms and misdirects opponents as a playmaker with guile well beyond his years.

This will obviously be Gauthier’s first full season and, in reality, it will be Carlsson’s as well. Carlsson played in 55 games last year, but missed time due to two injuries (he sustained at least two others that he played through) and also due to a load-management program designed to help his strength and conditioning in the early part of the season.

While Carlsson’s 29 points in 55 games were respectable by any objective measure, the eye test provided even more compelling reasons to stay transfixed on the Swede. His imagination seemed infinite and his bag of tricks bottomless, though the physical rigors of the best league on the planet did sometimes prove taxing. He’ll be flanked by Gauthier and Killorn, who also dealt with two serious injuries last year. With a thicker build, a full offseason of intense training, a full campaign under his belt, consistent linemates and no restrictions on his game participation, Carlsson appears to be a prime breakout candidate.

“I think (the plan worked) because I had a hectic summer [last year]. I didn’t have the time to practice so much during the summer. I had offseason training for like three weeks that summer, so it was good to get like a two-hour off-ice workout while the guys were playing in a game. It’s helped me a lot for sure,” Carlsson told The Hockey News’ Derek Lee. “(This summer was) a lot different. I went home on April 28 and started working out [on] May 5th. Four months of working out, it was different, but it’s good for me too.”

The hockey gods could be kinder

Only one player competed in all 82 games for the Ducks last year, leading scorer and All-Star representative Frank Vatrano, and even that fact as well as a high finish in man-games lost did not tell the complete story of the Ducks’ injury woes. Consider that almost every key player mentioned thus far – Carlsson, Luneau, Killorn, Zegras, Gudas, Mintyukov and McTavish – missed at least 16 games. Zegras, who led the team in points in 2022-23 and finished second a year earlier, missed a staggering 51 games and was seldom healthy when he did lace up his skates.

The Ducks were also the most penalized team in the NHL in terms of total penalties taken, minor penalties, bench minors and penalty differential, finishing nearly 50 ticks below the next worst team, San Jose.

Exacerbating the difficulties presented by shorthanded minutes and rotational disruptions – this year top players like Carlsson will kill penalties to help avoid the latter – was that the Ducks finished in the bottom five league-wide in faceoff percentage.

While it’ll be up to the players to get more assertive in the circle and stay out of the box, improved health would provide an immense boost to a group that should welcome not only rookies like Luneau and Gauthier full-time, but several more experienced skaters on a more consistent basis as well.

“There are other teams that go through that, but, for us, it was probably a little more visual in the sense that Zegras wasn’t there for a long time. (McTavish) was out for a long time, Mintyukov was out for a while. Some of the guys that were younger players and played missed a lot of time,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said. “They’re good players out of our lineup. You can overcome [it] when one’s out, but when three of them are out of the lineup, it starts making a difference.”

PROJECTED LINEUP

(Players in bold are new additions)

Forwards

Cutter Gauthier — Leo Carlsson — Alex Killorn

Robby Fabbri — Mason McTavish — Trevor Zegras

Frank Vatrano — Ryan Strome — Troy Terry

Brock McGinn — Isac Lundeström —Brett Leason

Ross Johnston

Defensemen

Jackson LaCombe — Radko Gudas

Cam Fowler —Tristan Luneau

Pavel Mintyukov — Brian Dumoulin

Olen Zellweger

Urho Vaakanainen

Goalies

Lukáś Dostál

James Reimer

John Gibson (injured reserve)