After missing the playoffs seven straight times, the Anaheim Ducks have finally turned the corner. <\/p>\n
The Ducks returned to the playoffs this year, won a round and gave a talented Vegas Golden Knights team a real run for its money in the second round. Now, the Ducks will be looking to take the next step toward Stanley Cup contention. <\/p>\n
Heading into the 2025-26 season, the Ducks were a team that had intriguing young talent but had largely failed to both develop those players and surround them with a good supporting cast. The good news for the Ducks is it turns out most of their young players are for real. Now they just have to figure everything else out. <\/p>\n
Before this year, the situation in Anaheim was starting to feel a little dire. During the Ducks\u2019 seven-year playoff drought, they were one of the league\u2019s worst teams at five-on-five, including a truly abysmal year three years ago where they were one of the worst teams in the analytics era. Even last year, while the Ducks were only 35-37-10, they had the third-worst expected goal share at five-on-five, and goaltender Lukas Dostal was the only thing keeping them remotely competitive. <\/p>\n
This year, while you wouldn\u2019t confuse the Ducks with the Carolina Hurricanes or Colorado Avalanche in terms of driving play at five-on-five, they were much more competitive. The Ducks finished the regular season 13th in expected goal share (50.8 percent) while also finishing in the green in actual goals. <\/p>\n
Anaheim got there by being the NHL\u2019s version of min-maxing. The Ducks generated the third-most expected goals per 60 minutes in the league at five-on-five, but they also allowed the fifth-most. It was firewagon hockey, but the Ducks had the upper hand more often than not.<\/p>\n
Between the number of exciting players on their roster and their playstyle, it\u2019d be easy to assume that the Ducks were one of the highest-scoring scoring teams in the league, but that\u2019s not quite right. Despite the chances they created, Anaheim struggled to make the most of those opportunities, and it\u2019s a big reason why it was outscored by 19 goals at five-on-five. At all strengths, the Ducks only scored 265 goals on 291.5 expected. <\/p>\n
Still, in a terrible Pacific Division, that was more than enough to make the playoffs. It just so happened that they had young players turn into stars along the way. <\/p>\n
It all starts with Leo Carlsson, the second overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. In just his third season in the NHL, Carlsson played like a true first-line center. Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard and teammate Cutter Gauthier were the only U21 regulars to score more points per 60 minutes at all situations than Carlsson. When Carlsson was on the ice at five-on-five, the Ducks had a 53.5 percent expected goals share and were plus-two in actual goals. Without him, the Ducks were roughly breakeven in expected goals and a minus-21 on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Gauthier broke out in a big way in his second year in the NHL. With the Ducks\u2019 up-and-down drafting, they basically got an almost-free re-roll when Gauthier refused to play for the Flyers, and Anaheim has hit it big with Gauthier. <\/p>\n
Gauthier is here to do one thing: shoot the puck. No forward attempted more shots per 60 minutes at five-on-five than Gauthier, who certainly made the most of those attempts. Gauthier lit the lamp 41 times overall, and 25 of them came at five-on-five Gauthier was more than just a sniper, though, as he consistently made the Ducks better. <\/p>\n