32 Teams In 32 Days: Anaheim Ducks

They are finally interesting again....

• In Today’s 32 Team outlook we examine the Anaheim Ducks who are finally starting to look like an interesting team.

• Be sure to check out yesterday’s look at the Winnipeg Jets and their slow, methodical approach to team building.

• Thank you again to everybody that has subscribed ($5 per month, $30 for the year) and enable me to continue writing for now. It is greatly appreciated. Also thank you to those of you that have given it a trial run to see if you like it. I hope you do!

The biggest problem with the Anaheim Ducks the past few years has not just been the fact they have been bad. Because they have definitely been that with four consecutive non-playoff seasons.

The problem has been a combination of being bad, being painfully dull to watch, and not really having much of a direction. They were unwilling to commit to a rebuild and just kept floundering around in the lower half of the league’s standings and not really doing much to get out of it. They were short on talent, had nobody that could be a difference-maker, and were rapidly getting older.

It was not pretty.

That all started to change a little bit during the 2021-22 season with a breakout year from Troy Terry and the arrival of some potential cornerstone players in Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, and (very briefly) Mason McTavish.

Add in some solid offseason additions and suddenly the Ducks are looking pretty damn interesting and well worth your time and effort to watch.

Let’s dig into them a little.