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Leo Carlsson, the No. 2 pick in 2023, has 15 points in 10 games this season. Carmen Mandato / Getty Images
Troy Terry is the longest-serving Anaheim Ducks player who has yet to experience Stanley Cup playoff hockey. The only taste of it came from a distance as a black ace in 2018 while watching the Ducks get swept out by the San Jose Sharks after making his NHL debut.
This offseason, Terry welcomed the heightened expectations for the Ducks after years of revamping a roster and the bushel of losses that came with rebuilding. And as they finished a winning trip with a shootout victory over the short-handed but still imposing two-time Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, Terry was hardly satisfied.
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“I’m glad we won, but I don’t think we should have let them back into that game,” he said.
That attitude is where he feels the Ducks are now. Not just trying to be competitive. A team that’s no longer just hoping its best efforts will result in a win. One that can win when it doesn’t have its “A” game.
The Ducks have been resilient, and a 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Friday showed they can hold a lead and build on it. But their 6-3-1 start isn’t just about gaining victories and points. Look under the hood, and you find a team much better at driving play, putting consistent pressure on the opposition and becoming very dangerous offensively.
“It just seems sustainable, I think is the word,” said Terry, now in his eighth full season as a pro. “There isn’t games where we’re getting outshot by 35 shots. Even the ones we’ve been losing, I look up at the scoreboard, and we’re outshooting teams.
“It’s not like we haven’t been in every game this year. Our records obviously indicate that. We’re still young. As much as guys have been around, myself included … it’s not like it’s just going to happen overnight.”
To his point, the Ducks can still manage games better and their execution can ramp up further. And they can improve their assignments when defending against it. But as an entertainment district surrounding Honda Center starts to take some shape, its NHL tenant is also doing so, 10 games in.
Joel Quenneville’s hockey is a different deal, and Ducks fans should be energized by that, if they aren’t already by the mere presence of a decorated coach with the second-most victories in NHL history. Scheduling a game on Halloween night made for more empty seats than there should have been, but the arena could fill up more often as the word gets out on a club that plays up-and-down hockey and scores goals.
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The shots on goal (31.6 average) are way up. The shots allowed (30.7) are still too many. But it reflects what the Ducks have been, a skilled skating club thriving offensively under Quenneville and still processing his zone defensive system. “A lot’s going on both ends, both ways,” he said. “I think that offensively we know that we play the right way, we’re going to get our chances, and defensively, the other team’s going to have their turn as well. I just think that we got to make sure that we don’t want to have a fair exchange of up and down A-plus qualities at both ends.”
“He’s a freak. I don’t know what else there is to say.”
That was Chris Kreider’s simple summation of Leo Carlsson after his second career 4-point night in Friday’s 5-2 win. With 29 points in his final 31 games to end 2024-25, it was tempting to imagine what was possible for the 20-year-old center this season. Fitted for the No. 1 center role since the Ducks took him second behind Connor Bedard in 2023, Carlsson came into this year with the confidence of someone who belonged with the NHL’s best players after the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
In 10 games, Carlsson has points in all but two. A current five-game point streak and Friday’s outburst gave him 15. Now, hockey in the doldrums of January or the pressure of March and April in a playoff push is different from hockey in October, and maintaining a 1.50 points-per-game pace will be a challenge. Though Olympic roster discussion is dominated by who’ll play for Canada or the United States, Carlsson will be working with the motivation of playing for Sweden.
When asked about Carlsson’s progression as he plays the schedule, Quenneville said, “At least leaps and at least bounds. He’s been that good. He’s been the ‘wow’ factor.”
Not sure who needs to hear this but Leo Carlsson has 15 points in 10 games this season. 👀
Still only 20 years old. pic.twitter.com/OJHEZA4kAE
— NHL (@NHL) November 1, 2025
Jackson LaCombe’s eight-year, $72 million contract extension raised eyebrows after his second-year breakout. It doesn’t kick in until next season, but the expectations are heightened anyway for the team’s No. 1 defenseman. LaCombe isn’t playing badly, but he’s off to a slow start offensively with just three assists. The Ducks are seeing others on the blue line step up and contribute.
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Jacob Trouba’s great start is the most surprising element. Trouba, per Natural Stat Trick, has an early 73.33 goals-for percentage in five-on-five play and a positive 51.51 Corsi-For percentage, play-driving rating. He also has two goals and four assists, even though he probably tops out at 25-to-30 points nowadays. Drew Helleson also has 6 points while averaging 18:52. Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov are earning minutes and have offense with them. Even rookie Ian Moore has ably filled in for injured captain Radko Gudas.
With six more shots on goal Friday, Cutter Gauthier tied the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead with 51. Gauthier’s 190 shots on goal and 410 shot attempts were second on the Ducks as part of his rookie season, but he’s on a pace to crush those marks. He’s leading Anaheim with 80 shot attempts, which reflects the mindset he has carried from his two seasons at Boston College, or even before that with the U.S. Under-18 team.
What’s impressive about Gauthier’s volume is that he isn’t just shooting indiscriminately as in his first few weeks of games last season. Greater accuracy is leading to production, as he has a team-leading six goals. Now it’s unrealistic to think he’ll stay on a pace for 408 shots — MacKinnon led the league with 320 in 2024-25 — but Gauthier’s 11.8 shooting percentage to say 300 shots on goal would make for a 35-goal season.
The 28-year-old hasn’t always been in the Ducks’ top six, but he has now earned a spot alongside Carlsson on the top line. The chemistry has been building, and Friday’s game was a prime example as they teamed up on three of the Ducks’ five goals. As a $7 million right wing, Terry needs to put up numbers, and so far, so good. He’s got 10 points in a six-game point streak and is up to five goals and eight assists.
Quenneville has shown he’ll move his forward personnel more often than other coaches, and so Terry’s being attached to Carlsson might just be contingent on how well he’s playing. But after a couple of stagnant seasons, Terry is looking dangerous again and could vault back into 60-point territory or better. The improved offense is not coming at the expense of his defense as he remains one of Anaheim’s more responsible forwards.
Frank Vatrano has 80 goals in his first three seasons with the Ducks. No other Anaheim player has scored more often. (Terry is next with 64). A regular spot on the second line and plenty of power-play minutes were something Vatrano feasted on, with 37 of those goals coming in a 2023-24 season that earned him his first All-Star game selection. A history with Quenneville — they were in Florida together for two-plus seasons — should make for a seamless fit with the new coach, right?
It hasn’t worked out that way so far. The trade for Kreider and Gauthier’s emergence have bumped Vatrano down the lineup, and he’s not featured as much in prime offensive situations. His total ice time is down by almost five minutes, and he’s getting less than half as much time when the Ducks have the man advantage. As a result, Vatrano’s shot generation is also down sharply. The 31-year-old has more of a secondary role, but he’s capable of giving them scoring depth. One assist shows it’s been a difficult transition.
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Lukáš Dostál is in his first full-fledged season as Anaheim’s No. 1 goalie, and he has been stringing along quality starts. After a winning 28-save effort against Detroit, Dostál has allowed only two goals in four of his last five outings. The workload hasn’t been egregious as he’s faced no more than 33 shots in any one game. He’s also lifted his save percentage to .909.
Petr Mrázek has started only two games. To earn more than appearances when the Ducks are playing on back-to-back nights, he’ll need to be better. The 33-year-old won his Anaheim debut despite giving up six goals on just 23 shots. A 37-save effort to beat the Boston Bruins was better, but he didn’t exactly shut the Bruins down after his teammates grabbed a third-period lead. With a back-to-back next weekend, there should be another opportunity to show he can be consistent in a backup role.
Their power play couldn’t be worse than last year, and the penalty kill in recent seasons had fallen from respectable levels throughout Anaheim’s history. Quenneville wasn’t the only new coaching hire as the Ducks also brought in new assistants Jay Woodcroft and Ryan McGill, both with strong track records in that role. Neither specialty is in the top half of the league, but they’re also not near the bottom. The Ducks have converted 20 percent of their power plays and are at 78.8 percent efficiency on the kill.
Woodcroft has designed some creative entries for Carlsson, Terry and Gauthier to hit the offensive zone with speed and get Anaheim set up on the power play. Carlsson and Terry are also part of McGill’s penalty kill, which has been very aggressive. The two have scored short-handed goals in the last two games. “Best penalty kills in the league aren’t sitting back,” Kreider said. “They’re attacking. They’re taking away your time and space in their skating. We see those guys doing that, I think that’s pretty infectious.”
Beckett Sennecke scored on his second shift as part of his NHL debut. And after two games, the 19-year-old had two goals. Four points in his first three games. The growth he had shown from an average-at-best showing in rookie camp was transformative. Was it coming together too quickly, too soon for the No. 3 pick in the 2024 draft? Possibly.
Sennecke is still being given quality minutes, and the Ducks officially showed their cards by playing him in his 10th game Friday, thereby activating the first year of his entry-level contract. But his effectiveness has waned since the first few contests. The positives are his obvious skill and some attitude when going to the net. The negatives are increasing turnovers, some lapses in defensive details, and, in the last two games, poor penalties taken. Opponents are paying him mind. This isn’t junior hockey anymore.
The Ducks’ major offseason additions were Kreider via trade and Mikael Granlund through free agency. Both are giving them exactly what they were looking for. Kreider had back-to-back two-goal games in the opening week and scored again Friday after missing time because of a contagious viral infection. His work at the net and ability to track down pucks and keep possession going in the offensive zone are already making a difference.
Granlund, who’s dealing with a lower-body injury, tied a Ducks club record with 5 points in a game and has given them the versatility they coveted. Let’s not forget Ryan Poehling. As part of the return for trading Trevor Zegras, Poehling will be no offensive equivalent to Zegras, but he has been as advertised — a strong skater with penalty-killing acumen that can solidify an improved fourth line and play up the lineup in a pinch.
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Eric Stephens is a staff writer for The Athletic NHL based in Southern California. Eric has been writing and talking about sports for newspapers and media outlets for more than 30 years. He has previously covered the NHL for The Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. He is also an occasional contributor on NHL Network. Follow Eric on Twitter @icemancometh
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