September 28, 2026
September 28, 2026
Anaheim Ducks’ 2025-26 Season: The Drought Finally Breaks
The Anaheim Ducks’ 2025-26 season was the year the rebuild finally paid its debts. After seven straight springs without playoff hockey, Anaheim hired a legendary coach, trusted its young core, and clawed back into the postseason. The Ducks then toppled the two-time defending Western Conference champions before Vegas ended the run. For a fanbase that had waited since 2018, the wait was over.
Hiring Joel Quenneville changed the ceiling of the entire organization. General manager Pat Verbeek fired Greg Cronin after two seasons and a 62-87-15 record. On May 8, 2025, he turned to the second-winningest coach in NHL history. Quenneville brought three-time Stanley Cup credentials and a clear mandate to turn promise into points.
His staff added experience across the board. Former Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft joined as an assistant, alongside Ryan McGill and Andrew Brewer. Radko Gudas wore the captaincy, with Leo Carlsson, Jackson LaCombe, Mason McTavish, Alex Killorn and Ryan Strome serving as alternates.
Verbeek spent the summer trading uncertainty for experience. He sent Trevor Zegras to Philadelphia for center Ryan Poehling and two draft picks. He acquired veteran winger Chris Kreider from the New York Rangers. On July 1, he signed Mikael Granlund away from Dallas on a three-year deal.
Each move addressed a specific weakness. Kreider brought net-front scoring, Poehling offered defensive reliability, and Granlund added playmaking. Anaheim had finished in the league’s bottom three offensively for three straight seasons. That trend had to end for the plan to work.
November delivered the first real proof that something had changed. Anaheim ripped off six consecutive wins, beating New Jersey, the reigning champion Florida Panthers, Dallas and Vegas. Jacob Trouba sealed the Vegas game with an overtime winner on November 8. By the next day, the Ducks sat atop the Pacific Division.
Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier drove that surge, both ranking among the league’s top scorers in early November. Goaltender Lukas Dostal ranked near the top of the NHL in goals saved above expected. Rookie Beckett Sennecke also produced well beyond expectations while injuries sidelined Granlund, Gudas and Strome.
The middle of the season tested that early confidence. Anaheim slipped back into the crowded wild-card race over the winter. The Ducks then seized momentum with a 9-2-0 surge before the Olympic break. They entered the pause at 30-23-3, holding the second wild-card spot on a tiebreaker over Seattle.
The offense told the story of the Anaheim Ducks’ 2025-26 season at its midpoint. Through 56 games, the Ducks had scored 179 goals, their most at that stage in 12 years. Players aged 22 or younger accounted for 86 of them. The kids were no longer waiting for their turn. They were carrying the team.
The return from the break produced the season’s most historic night. Against Edmonton at Honda Center, the Ducks rallied for a 6-5 victory. That win made Quenneville only the second coach in league history to reach 1,000 NHL victories.
Comebacks became the team’s signature. Each of Anaheim’s first five wins after the break came from behind. By early March, it had 19 comeback wins, tied with Montreal for the league lead.
Verbeek then made his boldest move of the year. On March 6, 2026, Anaheim acquired John Carlson from Washington for a conditional first-round pick and a third-rounder. The 36-year-old had spent 17 seasons with the Capitals and won the 2018 Stanley Cup. Strome was moved to Calgary the same day.
The next night, a shootout win over Montreal lifted Anaheim into first place in the Pacific. The Ducks had gone 14-3-0 over their previous 17 games. The finish proved far bumpier, and the division lead slipped away down the stretch.
Still, the Ducks held on. They clinched a postseason berth on April 13, their first since 2017-18. Anaheim finished 43-33-6 with 92 points, third in the Pacific and seventh in the West. The complete statistical record lives at Hockey-Reference.
The Ducks scored 273 goals, or 3.23 per game, a dramatic leap from the league’s basement. They also allowed 288, and that leaky defense remained the season’s lingering flaw.
Gauthier’s breakout defined the Anaheim Ducks’ 2025-26 season. The 22-year-old winger scored 41 goals and led the team with 69 points. His 40th came on the power play against Vancouver in the final week. Only Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya and Corey Perry had previously reached 40 goals for the franchise.
He got hotter as the stakes rose, scoring 17 goals over a 21-game stretch late in the year. That kind of finishing had been missing in Anaheim for over a decade.
LaCombe emerged as the engine from the blue line. The young defenseman led the club with 48 assists, quarterbacking a power play that suddenly frightened opponents. Carlsson continued his rise as a two-way center, while Troy Terry posted a team-best plus-11 rating.
Dostal carried the heaviest workload in the crease. He started 56 games and won 30, though his 3.10 goals-against average and .888 save percentage marked a step back. Ville Husso added 10 wins in 20 appearances as a capable backup.
The draw looked brutal on paper. Edmonton had reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the previous two seasons. The Oilers took Game 1 at home by a 4-3 score. Anaheim answered with a 6-4 win in Game 2, then erupted for a 7-4 victory at Honda Center.
Game 4 hinged on inches. Tied 3-3 after regulation, Poehling won an overtime faceoff and slid a pass toward the crease. The puck deflected off Darnell Nurse and crept over the line off goalie Tristan Jarry’s skate. Video review confirmed the goal at 2:29, and Anaheim led the series 3-1.
Edmonton won Game 5 by a 4-1 score, but the Ducks refused to let the series slip. In Game 6, they scored three times in the first period and cruised to a 5-2 win. Carlsson, Terry and Kreider each recorded a goal and two assists, as NHL.com’s Game 6 recap detailed. The power play finished the series 8-for-16.
It was Anaheim’s first series win since 2017, when it had also eliminated Edmonton. The fans who had filled Honda Center through the lean years finally had their reward.
The second round brought the top-seeded Golden Knights. Anaheim lost the opener 3-1, then split the next four games in a tense back-and-forth. The Ducks won Game 2 by a 3-1 score and Game 4 by 4-3.
Game 5 was the series in miniature. The Ducks pushed Vegas to overtime on the road before falling 3-2. Back home for Game 6, Mitch Marner scored 62 seconds in with a between-the-legs finish. Vegas built a 3-0 lead in the first period and closed out a 5-1 win.
Gauthier led the Ducks with 12 points in 12 playoff games. Carlsson added 11 points and Granlund contributed 10. The comeback magic that fueled the regular season finally ran dry against a deeper, more seasoned opponent.
The Anaheim Ducks’ 2025-26 season will be remembered as the moment the rebuild became a contender. Quenneville delivered exactly what Verbeek had hired him to provide: structure, belief and a playoff berth in his first year. His 1,000th win gave the campaign a historic stamp.
The second-round exit stung, but the foundation looked sturdier than at any point since the Perry and Getzlaf era. Gauthier became a genuine star, LaCombe announced himself as a top-pairing force, and Carlsson kept growing. After eight years in the wilderness, Anaheim was relevant again, and this time the core was built to stay.
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