{"id":469749,"date":"2026-09-20T05:44:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T05:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469749\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T05:44:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T05:44:26","slug":"ducks-preseason-preview-3-things-to-watch-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/469749\/","title":{"rendered":"Ducks preseason preview: 3 things to watch \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ducks will hit the ice Sunday for the first time since being eliminated in the second round of last season\u2019s playoffs<\/a>, set to dash through their exhibition schedule ahead of their Oct. 2 season opener.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s NHL regular season will span 84 games instead of 82, giving the Ducks fewer looks at a roster with plenty of potential battles for both spots and positions. They\u2019ll face the San Jose Sharks on Sunday at Honda Center and again Thursday in San Jose. They\u2019ll also host the Kings on Wednesday and visit them next Saturday to round out their four preseason clashes.<\/p>\n

After a summer of upheaval and turnover, the Ducks have plenty of intrigue surrounding their runup to their campaign.<\/p>\n

Missing persons<\/p>\n

In addition to the departure of a multitude of players from their postseason roster \u2013 John Carlson<\/a>, Radko Gudas<\/a>, Jansen Harkins, Ross Johnston, Chris Kreider<\/a>, Mason McTavish<\/a>, Jacob Trouba<\/a>, Jeffrey Viel and Olen Zellweger<\/a> all said farewell \u2013 the Ducks will be without Troy Terry until well into the winter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He played through a serious hip injury from January onward last season and was even targeted in the playoffs during their second-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights. The longest-tenured Duck and one of the team\u2019s most prolific attackers could be out until around that time this season as he recovers from his procedure.<\/p>\n

Early in training camp, defenseman Tyson Hinds<\/a> has been absent, but he should return to the fold soon. He, fellow left defenseman Stian Solberg and righty Tristan Luneau are all aspiring to become full-timers on the blue line following an exodus of free-agent veterans on the right side and Zellweger\u2019s move to Buffalo via trade. Elsewhere on defense, Ian Moore sustained an injury Thursday that could delay his start to the campaign and newcomer Nick Jensen was shaken up on Friday, per reports from practice.<\/p>\n

Fresh faces<\/p>\n

The defense corps isn\u2019t the only place where the Ducks need to integrate new players, but it\u2019s certainly the most prominent. Jensen, 35, has played 694 NHL games, 151 more than the Ducks\u2019 other seven aspirants on the back end combined. That will mean moving parts and experimentation.<\/p>\n

That could be the case up front as well, where the Ducks\u2019 past two first-round draft picks, forwards Nikita Klepov and Roger McQueen, are both stating their case. Klepov decommitted from Michigan State to sign his entry-level contract<\/a>, and General Manager Pat Verbeek said Thursday that he had a \u201creally great opportunity\u201d to make the roster. Klepov was practicing with the Ducks\u2019 orange group, which was composed primarily of established pros, while McQueen was in the black group, filled with fringe roster candidates, in each of the first two days of camp.<\/p>\n

It looked as though offseason acquisition A.J. Greer<\/a> was set to plug into the third line, replacing Viel, while former Kings winger Jeff Malott was stepping into a fourth-line spot vacated by Johnston.<\/p>\n

Money men<\/p>\n

The biggest story of the summer was Leo Carlsson\u2019s massive offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>, which the Ducks matched to the tune of $90 million<\/a> with a huge chunk due in just over a year, and how it made the Ducks\u2019 payroll, among others, hyperinflate.<\/p>\n

Pavel Mintyukov and Cutter Gauthier also fetched premium prices, as did several other players around the league. Mintyukov said he remains the same humble young player he was before he signed a $36 million pact<\/a>. Carlsson hoped to use his newfound financial stature for motivation and confidence. Gauthier, who will earn $81 million over six years<\/a>, said his standards were largely self-driven, which was in step with Verbeek\u2019s cautioning that organic growth was preferable to forcing any development because the young skaters felt pressure from their newfound wealth.<\/p>\n

Defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who took care of his extension nearly a full year before Gauthier\u2019s deal was done, and Beckett Sennecke will also be counted on more than ever. Given Verbeek\u2019s pledge to be more aggressive in re-signing players headed toward restricted free agency, this is essentially a contract year for Sennecke, who will be eligible to sign an extension on July 1, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ducks will hit the ice Sunday for the first time since being eliminated in the second round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164,404,127],"class_list":["post-469749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469749","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=469749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}