The Anaheim Ducks are going into the March 8, 2024 Trade Deadline as obvious sellers. They have been rebuilding for several years, and the process of flipping expiring contracts in exchange for picks and prospects has become a bit of a tradition. With the amount of future speculation involved, it’s hard to evaluate these trades as they happen, though we certainly try. With the benefit of time, we’ll take a look at some of Anaheim’s recent trade deadlines. The 2023 Deadline is still recent and includes a few draft picks yet to be made, so we’ll start with 2022.
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Pat Verbeek was in his new role as Anaheim’s general manager for a month prior to the 2022 Trade Deadline. This deadline is mostly remembered for what it could have been, as Josh Manson, Hampus Lindholm, and Rickard Rakell could have been moved during the 2021 deadline at a non-rental premium. However, former general manager Bob Murray decided not to move any of them, passing the buck onto his successor. Regardless of the diminished returns, Verbeek did well to recoup assets from expiring contracts. Now that two years have passed and most draft picks have been turned into players, let’s take a look at the 2022 Trade Deadline.
Josh Manson Traded to the Colorado Avalanche
Anaheim receives defenseman Drew Helleson and a 2023 second-round pick (Carey Terrance). Colorado receives Josh Manson (50% of salary retained).
The first trade of the Pat Verbeek era saw physical defenseman Josh Manson shipped to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche for a standard pick-and-prospect deal. Manson was a former sixth-round success story and spent his first seven seasons with the Ducks. After winning the Cup with the Avalanche, he inked a four-year deal to stay in Colorado.
The Ducks signed Drew Helleson to an entry-level contract after his college career at Boston College concluded. The defensive prospect has spent most of his time playing with the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League, but he had a brief stint with the Ducks at the end of the 2022-23 season. Helleson has a bit of an uphill battle for roster time amongst a crowded prospect pool, though he does have a few valuable attributes. He plays on the right side, which is less crowded in the battle for ice time than the left. He’s also a little older (22 years old) and has a larger frame (6-foot-3) than some of the more high-profile defensive prospects in the organization.
Carey Terrance is currently playing for the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League. The 6-foot-1 center is excellent in the offensive zone with a solid work ethic. He’s registered 45 points in 44 games this season. With Anaheim investing a lot of draft capital into the center position over the last few years, it’s unlikely Terrance cracks the Ducks’ roster as a center.
Nicolas Deslauriers Traded to the Minnesota Wild
Anaheim receives a 2023 third-round pick (Yegor Sidorov). Minnesota receives Nicolas Deslauriers.
The Ducks were fortunate to get any sort of value out of Nicolas Deslauriers, who notched 33 points and 235 penalty minutes in 169 games in Anaheim. A third-round pick doesn’t feel like much to get excited about, but the Ducks may have found something in Yegor Sidorov. The native of Belarus is far from a perfect prospect — his skating needs work, his defense is subpar, and a rough first year in North America saw him go undrafted in 2022. He rebounded with 76 points in 53 games while playing for the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League, which was good enough to warrant mid-round attention for the 2023 draft.
Sidorov has since taken his offense to a new level. He’s on pace to finish with 90 points in 66 games and scoring some highlight reel goals in the process. It’s hard to know how much of this is replicable at the higher levels — even he has acknowledged his advantage playing against younger teenagers. The Ducks don’t have very many prospects that profile as high-scoring wingers, and it would be a major boon to the rebuild if he develops into an NHL regular.
Hampus Lindholm Traded to the Boston Bruins
Anaheim receives John Moore, Urho Vaakanainen, a 2022 first-round pick (Nathan Gaucher), a 2023 second-round pick (Damian Clara), and a 2024 second-round pick. Boston receives Hampus Lindholm (50% retained) and Kodie Curran.
Hampus Lindholm and the Boston Bruins negotiated a long-term deal prior to the trade, which added quite a bit to Anaheim’s return. This was Verbeek’s biggest deal of his first trade deadline, and it netted some significant names towards Anaheim’s rebuild.
John Moore was injured and never suited up for the Ducks, but Urho Vaakanainen has become one of the more interesting pieces on Anaheim’s defense. He’s 25 years old and probably too old to be considered a “prospect,” but horrible injury luck has limited him to 112 NHL games in his career. This season has been a quiet breakout, as he’s thrived on a pairing with Radko Gudas, setting a new career high in games (45) and points (9). The left side of the defense is crowded with Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger presumably occupying two spots going forward and Cam Fowler under contract for two more years, and Vaakanainen faces additional challenges from Jackson LaCombe and Tyson Hinds. He’s an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent at the end of this season, adding an extra layer of uncertainty to his future in Anaheim.
The Ducks spent the 2022 first-round pick they acquired in the deal on Nathan Gaucher. The Quebec native is one of four first round centers selected by Anaheim in the last five years, joining Trevor Zegras, Mason McTavish, and Leo Carlsson. Gaucher doesn’t have the offensive ceiling these other centers possess, but he’s a big-bodied (6-foot-3) pivot and plays a responsible 200-foot game. If he continues to develop, I expect him to be a bottom-six center that collects points from the front of the net as well as centering the penalty kill unit.
Damian Clara is a goaltending prospect playing in the HockeyAllsvenskan league in Sweden. The massive, 6-foot-6 netminder — the first Italian drafted to the NHL — has recorded three shutouts in 30 games for Brynäs IF and has a 2.33 Goals Against Average. Goaltending is a difficult position to project, and Anaheim is stocked with a few promising young goaltenders. Clara has plenty of time to develop before he comes to North America, but he’s had an encouraging start to his professional career.
Rickard Rakell Traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins
Anaheim receives Dominik Simon, Zach Aston-Reece, Calle Clang and a 2022 second-round pick (Tristan Luneau). Pittsburgh receives Rickard Rakell (35% of salary retained).
The final trade to go through before the deadline passed saw Rickard Rakell sent to the Pittsburgh Penguins. In return, the Ducks received Dominik Simon and Zach Aston-Reece, two veterans on expiring contracts who didn’t re-sign in Anaheim after the season ended. They also received Calle Clang, a goaltending prospect who was playing in the Swedish Hockey League at the time of the deal. Clang, now 21 years old, is playing his first full season in North America for the San Diego Gulls. It’s been a rollercoaster year for him, as he’s seen a brief call-up to serve as a backup on the Ducks, as well as being sent down to the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL. He’s ceding time to 20-year-old Tomas Suchanek.
The Ducks drafted defenseman Tristan Luneau with the pick they gained in the trade. Before getting selected by Anaheim in the second round of the 2022 draft, he was named the rookie of the year in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (now named the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League) for the 2020-21 season. The following year, he took a step forward and was named the QMJHL’s defenseman of the year and led all defensemen in assists (63) and points (83). This year, he turned a solid training camp into a spot on Anaheim’s opening night roster. He only appeared in seven games, but his improvement from game to game was noticeable as he adjusted to the pace of the NHL.
Unfortunately, Luneau is one of many members of the Ducks that have been snakebitten with injuries. While on loan to Team Canada for the World Junior Championship, he suffered a knee infection that has sidelined him since December. The most recent update indicates he may be done for the season as a result.
Verbeek had to hit the ground running with a busy trade deadline in his first month on the job, but the deals he made look like they’ll accelerate the team’s rebuild. Many of the prospects involved in these deals still have time to develop, so we’ll keep an eye on their progress as we evaluate the 2022 deadline again in the future.
Prospect stats courtesy of Elite Prospects. Salary Cap data courtesy of Cap-Friendly.