To mark the first quarter of the 2025-26 regular season, NHL.com is running its second installment of the Trophy Tracker series this week. Today, we look at the race for the Jack Adams Award, given annually to the top coach in the NHL as selected in a vote by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

Joel Quenneville has mastered the art of winning. He’s teaching the Anaheim Ducks how to do it.

For seven seasons, the Ducks have finished no higher than sixth in their division. Even at the first quarter of 2025-26 and five months until the Stanley Cup Playoffs, there are feelings tangible and intangible about a franchise absent from the postseason since getting swept out of the 2018 Western Conference First Round by the San Jose Sharks.

The Ducks are 14-7-1 with 29 points, the most they’ve had after 22 games since the 2014-15 season (13-4-5, 31 points). They won seven in a row from Oct. 28 to Nov. 9, their best run since an eight-game streak from Oct. 31 to Nov. 16, 2021. They finished that season 31-37-14, but that was then.

“Coach always says that finding ways to win is a skill, and I think we’re finding that,” forward Ryan Strome said after a 4-3 victory against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 19.

A panel of 16 NHL.com writers made Quenneville the favorite to win the Jack Adams Award with 61 voting points, including nine for first place. It’s a credit to the maturation of a young core, the guidance of battle-tested veterans and the cachet Quenneville has brought to Anaheim as a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Chicago Blackhawks (2010, 2013, 2015) and 983 regular-season wins that ranks second to Scotty Bowman (1,244) in NHL history.

Dan Muse (Pittsburgh Penguins) was second in the voting with 40 points, and Marco Sturm (Bruins) was third (36).

“We’re playing game to game,” Quenneville said after a 4-3 victory at the Vegas Golden Knights on Nov. 8 that extended the winning streak to six. “We’re only playing the game we’re in. It’s a long season, but we’re a young team. We expect to get better as we go along here. Every night, everybody is contributing.”

Quenneville has received assistance accelerating the Ducks rebuild from veterans Chris Kreider (34), Mikael Granlund (33), Strome (32) and Jacob Trouba (31), who are showing willing apprentices Mason McTavish (22), Cutter Gauthier (21), Leo Carlsson (20) and Beckett Sennecke (19) how it’s done. Carlsson, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, has a team-high 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists) and had points in 11 consecutive games from Oct. 21 to Nov. 11, the longest by a Ducks skater since Troy Terry — a 28-year-old forward still in his prime — enjoyed a 16-game run from Oct. 18 to Nov. 18, 2021.

Anaheim is averaging 3.59 goals per game, 14-2-0 when scoring at least three goals and 12-0-0 with at least four. The Ducks had 73 goals through their first 20 games, a team record, and, said Carlsson, are having fun because “‘Q’ is a great coach.”

“The guys were very eager to do well and wanting to win,” Anaheim’s Pat Verbeek said before the GM meetings in Toronto from Nov. 14-16, “and I think we’ve preached puck possession, and the guys have bought into that. We’ve scored goals, and now they’ve bought into it.

“The hardest thing for a team is to buy in and to believe, and I think our team has kind of done that.”

Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1- basis): Joel Quenneville, Anaheim Ducks, 61 points (nine first-place votes); Dan Muse, Pittsburgh Penguins, 40 (2); Marco Sturm, Boston Bruins, 36 (3); Jared Bednar, Colorado Avalanche, 34 points (2); Jeff Blashill, Chicago Blackhawks, 23; Sheldon Keefe, New Jersey Devils, 12; Martin St. Louis, Montreal Canadiens, 11; Todd McLellan, Detroit Red Wings, 5; Rod Brind’Amour, Carolina Hurricanes, 4; Andre Tourigny, Utah Mammoth, 4; Lane Lambert, Seattle Kraken, 3; Ryan Warsofsky, San Jose Sharks, 3; Scott Arniel, Winnipeg Jets, 2; Patrick Roy, New York Islanders, 1; Glen Gulutzan, Dallas Stars, 1

NHL.com columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika contributed to this report