The 2024-25 season kicks off for the Anaheim Ducks on Friday (Oct. 11) in San Jose. Expectations aren’t high for the Ducks, as the franchise continues to trudge through a multi-season rebuild. Despite the glum short-term expectations, the future is bright in Anaheim. The youth movement is in full effect, as their roster is the fifth-youngest in the NHL.
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While this season may be another difficult 82-game slate for the Ducks, there are plenty of reasons to stay invested. As Anaheim gets ready to begin the season, here’s a list of predictions for this upcoming campaign — from the player who scores the most goals, to the team’s final place in the standings.
Most Goals: Cutter Gauthier
Cutter Gauthier was brought into Anaheim to score goals. General manager Pat Verbeek said as much in the hours after the bombshell trade that saw the Philadelphia Flyers’ fifth overall pick sent to Anaheim in exchange for Jamie Drysdale. A year after torching the NCAA with 38 goals in 41 games for Boston College, Gauthier is ready for the next step in his development and already has a prominent role in Anaheim’s lineup.
How often will a rookie lead their team in goals? In Anaheim, it’s happened once — a 20-year-old Paul Kariya recorded 18 goals during the organization’s second season in 1994-95. The current version of the Ducks is desperate for goal-scoring, but not quite the same magnitude a 1990s expansion club might have felt. This likely benefits Gauthier, as he’ll get the benefits of skating alongside Anaheim’s top playmakers while facing no real competition as the club’s top left wing option.
Other potential candidates include Troy Terry, a former 37-goal scorer, though his numbers have dropped in consecutive seasons since this career-high. Frank Vatrano led the team with 37 goals a season ago. A pending unrestricted free agent (UFA), Vatrano is a likely candidate to be moved by the trade deadline.
Most Points: Trevor Zegras
Some serious consideration should be given to Mason McTavish, who seems poised for a breakout. However, the slight edge goes to Trevor Zegras, who led the team in scoring during the 2022-23 season. 2023-24 was a disaster for Zegras, but a bounce-back is the expectation for the 23-year-old playmaker.
Zegras should not only return to form, but he should be able to build upon the figures he reached in his first few seasons. His career-high is 65 points. Only two Ducks players have exceeded 70 points in the last decade — Ryan Getzlaf (twice) and Terry.
Team MVP: Lukas Dostal
Throughout their rebuild, Anaheim’s on-ice success has been measured by how far the goaltending can shoulder the rest of the team. John Gibson has been the face of this thankless task, backstopping an offense that failed to give adequate goal support. He will be missing the start of the season while recovering from emergency appendectomy surgery, and as a result, Lukas Dostal will be seeing a heavy workload in the interim.
Even when Gibson returns to the lineup, this could be the season Dostal asserts himself as Anaheim’s top goaltender — or at the very least the 1A to Gibson’s 1B. The start distribution last season was surprisingly close with Gibson having a 44-38 edge.
Biggest Leap: Pavel Mintyukov
One of Anaheim’s most impressive rookies from a season ago was defenseman Pavel Mintyukov. The 10th overall pick from the 2022 NHL Draft, he quickly asserted himself as the most gifted two-way defender on the roster. He finished with 28 points in 63 games, with 19 points in the first 40 games before suffering a separated shoulder.
Entering his second season, Mintyukov is ready to assume an even larger role. As a rookie, he logged 122 minutes on the power play, trailing only Cam Fowler. As Fowler’s responsibilities continue to diminish, Mintyukov is going to get plenty of time and scoring opportunities while on Anaheim’s top power play. His development as the unit’s quarterback is pivotal to the Ducks’ rebuild, and he’ll be given plenty of room to grow.
Most Impactful Newcomer: Robby Fabbri
We’ll consider a newcomer here to be someone playing their first game for Anaheim this season, ruling out some of last season’s late arrivals like Gauthier or Olen Zellweger. It was a quiet offseason for the Ducks, and only three new names are on the opening roster. Robby Fabbri, the only new forward, has the best chance to make a positive impact on his new club.
Fabbri is the type of player the Ducks need to integrate into their lineup to climb out of the rebuild. On a strong roster, he tops out as a third-line forward with a little bit of a scoring touch. Anaheim’s roster is still a work in progress, so he’ll likely have a larger role, especially as injuries occur throughout the season.
As a pending unrestricted free agent (UFA), Fabbri’s impact may also be measured by his return if he’s dealt by the trade deadline.
Big Transaction Not Involving a UFA: Cam Fowler
Anaheim’s vaunted defensive pipeline is starting to get clogged. This was inevitable — there are more prospects than positions available, not to mention the unlikelihood of icing (and eventually paying) a blue line of all under-23s. Eventually, the Ducks will have to make a decision regarding their prospects. In the meantime, Fowler could be the odd man out on the blue line.
Fowler leads Anaheim defensemen in most statistical categories, including games played, goals, assists and blocked shots. After signing an eight-year deal in the 2017 offseason, he’s had the unenviable task as the club’s de facto top defenseman while his fellow blueliners were traded away in the name of the rebuild. With Mintyukov, Zellweger, and Tristan Luneau expanding upon their roles with the NHL club, Fowler’s services are bound to diminish. Elliotte Friedman suggested the Ducks and Fowler could be working together to find a new home for the veteran defenseman.
Points and Standings Finish: 71 Points, 6th in Pacific
Even with individual players taking a step forward in their development, this roster is still a work in progress. Anaheim finished with 59 points last season, so a jump into the 70-point threshold would be reflected in about five extra wins by comparison. However, this won’t be reflected in a huge jump in the standings, as 71 points would have placed the Ducks 28th in the league a season ago.
A sixth-place finish keeps Anaheim out of the bottom two in the Pacific Division. The Ducks have been regulars in the cellar in recent seasons, but other teams in the division may be on the precipice of their own rebuilds. The San Jose Sharks are frequently predicted to finish at the bottom of the standings, but the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken are two bottom-10 teams from a season ago that could continue their tumble. I wouldn’t be surprised if Anaheim finishes above one of those teams.
