32 Teams, 32 Players: Trevor Zegras

His 2023-24 season was forgettable, his 2024-25 season can not be.

We are inching our way toward the start of the 2024-25 NHL season, and as we get closer we are going to highlight one player on each team that stands out for the season. What kind of player? Well, a player that could make a difference, be an X-factor, be on the verge of a breakout, or just simply be a player under the microscope and needing to have a big season.

Basically — which player do I think is the most fascinating on each team.

We are not going in any particularly order and continue today with Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks.

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It has been six years since the Anaheim Ducks made the playoffs, and they really haven’t been close for most of those years as they continue on with an extensive rebuild.

The good news? There is a pretty good core of young talent in place that is starting to emerge. It does not take a lot of effort to see brighter days on the horizon if they can bring this group along correctly and start complementing it around the edges.

Troy Terry isn’t a star, but he’s a really good player that is locked in long-term. Mason McTavish took a big step forward in year two (even though he missed 20 games) and looks like he is on his way to being a top-line player. Leo Carlsson didn’t play a ton as a rookie, but he seems to have the goods to be a cornerstone player. They have a really good collection of young defenders and the forward pool got even deeper with the addition of Cutter Gauthier from Philadelphia and another top-five pick in 2024 (Beckett Sennecke).

Even with all of that emerging young talent the biggest X-factor here — both in the short-term and long-term — remains the highly talented, but also somewhat frustrating Trevor Zegras.

When Zegras first arrived on the NHL scene he was an immediate star not only for his strong production, but also for the fact that he was not afraid to dip into his bag of tricks to make plays. It ruffled the feathers of old-timers, but in a league that can sometimes be uniform, boring and strictly disciplined in terms of playing styles he was doing things like this.

Now let’s be honest, that’s fun shit.

Add in the fact he was scoring 20 goals and 60 points in multiple seasons before his 22nd birthday and it was easy to see him as a key building block for the Ducks.

Then the 2023-24 season happened and everything seemed to go south for him, leaving his long-term future with the team in some question.

Let’s talk about it.