The NHL Draft is in the books, and we are four days removed from the opening of NHL free agency. Every significant unrestricted free agent is off the board, leaving the trade market as the only option for teams looking to meaningfully improve before the start of the 2025-26 season.
The Anaheim Ducks are among those teams, as their stated goal is to make the playoffs in 2025-26 and end the NHL’s third-longest playoff drought.
Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek had been busy between the end of the regular season and the opening of free agency. He replaced Greg Cronin with Joel Quenneville behind the bench, acquired Chris Kreider from the New York Rangers, traded Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers, and traded John Gibson to the Detroit Red Wings.
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Between the end of the draft on June 28 and the opening of free agency on July 1, most of the free agent class had been signed to new contracts, leaving a slim inventory for GMs to choose from.
Heading into the offseason, the Ducks had $38.69 million in cap space (the third-most in the NHL), a mandate to make the playoffs, and the green light to spend as much as it took to achieve that goal.
Around the NHL, two of the most common needs were top-nine centers and goaltenders. With the benefit of hindsight (foresight for most) and the ability to see how the free agent and trade markets have played out to date, it’s more than fair to question Verbeek’s timing and leveraging when it comes to some of the biggest moves and lack of moves he’s made this offseason.
The Trevor Zegras Trade
On June 23, the Ducks traded Zegras to the Flyers in exchange for depth center Ryan Poehling, a second-round pick, and a fourth-round pick.
Trevor Zegras’ name had been featured in every media outlet’s list of potential trade candidates for a year and a half, since Jamie Drysdale was traded in Jan. 2024, with varying reported degrees of actual interest expressed by Verbeek to move on from the talented forward.
Zegras followed up back-to-back 60-plus point seasons to start his NHL career with three major injuries, a difficult contract negotiation, and two seasons of less-than-stellar point-per-game totals, leaving Zegras’ value at its lowest point.
It’s become abundantly clear that Zegras was never in Verbeek’s long-term plans for the Ducks organization. If the goal was to maximize potential value in a return, allowing Zegras to play…