{"id":272652,"date":"2026-04-17T14:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272652\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T14:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T14:26:08","slug":"ducks-youth-movement-leads-to-long-awaited-return-to-stanley-cup-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/272652\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks youth movement leads to long-awaited return to Stanley Cup Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

It hasn\u2019t just been the youth moment in Anaheim that has contributed to its success. General manager Pat Verbeek has been able to surround his young talent with experienced veterans to help with the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n

Forward Chris Kreider<\/a>, 34, was acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on June 12, 2025. That deal came six months after the Ducks acquired defenseman Jacob Trouba<\/a>, 32, in a trade with the Rangers on Dec. 6, 2024.<\/p>\n

But Verbeek has also been active during free agency, bringing in over the past few seasons key players such as forwards Mikael Granlund<\/a>, 34, and Alex Killorn<\/a>, 36, and defenseman and captain Radko Gudas<\/a>, 35.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need them in a lot of ways, and one thing they do is they bring a real presence of playing the game the right way,\u201d Quenneville said of the veterans. \u201cThey\u2019re real professional guys with real good instincts and are competitive, and I think that composure pays off in important moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice having their presence and leadership around.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s also been nice to have around defenseman John Carlson<\/a>, who was acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Washington Capitals on March 5 for a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

It was a move that clearly demonstrated that Anaheim was living in the present and done dealing for the future. Carlson, 36, is in the final season of an eight-year, $64 million contract he signed with Washington on June 24, 2018, and can become an unrestricted free agent after the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It hasn\u2019t just been the youth moment in Anaheim that has contributed to its success. General manager Pat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-272652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}