Anaheim Ducks Offseason Rumor Roundup: 6/6/26

Trade speculation swirls as Mason McTavish enters the spotlight, coaching seats remain empty, and potential deal-making with the Blues looms over the Ducks’ pivotal 2026 offseason.

Video Transcript

Nathan, how would you kinda describe your season?

The, you know, coming in the way you did in camp and then how it played out.

Yeah, I mean, obviously it was a unique kinda situation to start, obviously missing a little bit of camp at the start.

obviously not ideal.

but I thought the start of my year was actually decent, pretty good.

That’s, kinda how I thought it would go, and then obviously, you know, it kinda went up and down throughout the second half there, and, obviously in playoffs too, so.

but you know, I’m, I’m happy with the way I handled it and obviously, you, you know, you never plan on getting scratched and, you know, it sucks obviously.

But, you know, I think, I think you just gotta kinda put your head down and keep working and, kinda go about it in a positive way.

Nathan, what do you think you’ll need to do over this summer, just to, you know, to show Joel and whatsoever that you are indeed in, a fixture for this group?

Yeah, I think, you know, round out my defensive game, I think that’s, that’s probably a big thing.

I think it kinda got better towards the end.

and I think, you know, just foot speed too.

I think, you know, I think maybe coming a little lighter.

you know, I haven’t put too much thought into, you know, what my summer’s gonna look like yet.

Obviously we just, just lost yesterday, so, but obviously I think, you know, foot speed and, and maybe coming a little lighter quicker, I think that could, go a, go a long way.

Qu wants his It’s clear.

Qu wants his clubs to play at a pace that, I mean maybe not, not most play at.

I mean, is, is that one of those things that you kinda learned, you know, throughout the year that, that his pace is a lot different than maybe, say other pe- coaches’ pace?

I don’t know.

I think, I think we just have a really fast team- Mm-hmm and we wanna u- utilize that.

and yeah, I mean, t- nobody wants to play against a, a really fast team and, you know, we’re, we’re lucky enough, we have a lot of fast players and make, make plays f- fast too.

So, you know, it’s not about just, just skating fast too- Mm-hmm it’s about, you know, moving the puck fast and knowing what you’re doing it, doing with it, before you get it.

but yeah, I think playing fast is, is kinda the NHL now and everybody’s trying to get faster.

So, you know, if we have the, the luxury to play fast, we’re, we’re definitely gonna u- utilize it.

Mm-hmm.

You were playing a lot of wing towards the end there.

How did that change your approach on the ice, if at all?

yeah, a little bit.

I mean, obviously, you know, you’re more, more on the wall, you know, a lot more board battles and stuff like that.

you know, center, especially in our system, you’re, you’re skating a lot more, so it’s kind of less, less skating.

you know, you’re forward checking more, F1, you’re kinda getting up, up the ice more, more straight lines.

but yeah, it was, it was good.

I like to wing.

I mean, I think it’s easier to go from, from center to, to wing as opposed to winger to center.

So, I feel like it was a easy adjustment.

Radko said that the leadership group has grown since he’s been here.

Obviously you’re one of the guys that’s worn an A.

How have the young players taken on that role from your perspective?

Yeah.

No, for sure.

I think the, the, the older guys, the older leaders really do, did a good job kinda, you know, molding, molding the younger guys and, and, you know, kinda telling the younger guys to, to take over the team.

And, you know, I think, I think a lot of the guys did that and, you know, there’s been so much great leadership here ever since I got here and, you know, this year especially I think was, was, was awesome.

So, just a great group of guys and, you know, everybody just wants to win so, so, so badly, so it’s just kinda It’s, it’s, it’s pretty easy.

We’ve so many leaders too.

I, I mean, you know, you can see who has the A’s and the C’s, but there’s, there’s so many guys, so, you know, it makes it a little bit easier.

You mentioned getting lighter, getting quicker over the summer, but looking ahead to next season, what are your, your broad goals for yourself?

I mean, I, I haven’t really thought about that too much.

you know, I mean, we, you know, just, just got out.

But I mean, yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, I wanna have a way better year for sure.

you know, that goes without saying.

So, you know, I’ll, I’ll kinda have to dissect what, what happened this year and, and, you know, kind of plan it out and, you know, set, set my goals and stuff like that.

So, yeah, it’s just maybe a little bit too early for that I guess.

When you see the growth of the team over the season and you compare that to what happened in the playoffs, do you see anything specifically that you learned in the playoff portion of the season that, you need to take as a group to, to take forward and make yourselves a more competitive team?

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think the biggest thing in, in playoffs is just the momentum.

You know, it’s like you lose one game and it’s like, like you, you don’t, like you just gotta stay even, even keel I think.

there’s so many ups and downs I feel like, and you just try to not get sucked into, “Oh, like we’re the best team ever.

We’re, you know, we won like the first game” and, and then, you know, the first game in Edmonton we lost, and then I think we won- Three in a row three straight.

Yeah.

So it’s just, and then we’re like, “Oh,” and then we went back to Edmonton and, you know, we’re like, “Oh, we’re, we’re so good” and then it got completely didn’t kinda work.

So, I think just kinda managing that is, is the biggest, biggest thing.

All right.

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