The Anaheim Ducks hired Pat Verbeek to take the reins as the franchise’s general manager on Feb. 3, 2022 (just six weeks before the 2022 trade deadline).
The 2025-26 season is his fourth full season in the GM role. He spent the 2022 trade deadline tearing the roster down and his first two full seasons, the two worst in franchise history (2022-23 and 2023-24), stockpiling and laying a new foundation on which his potentially contending teams will one day be built.
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Grading, Reviewing Pat Verbeek’s Third Year as Ducks GM
Takeaways from the Ducks 4-2 Win over the Kraken
The standings suggested the Ducks turned a corner in 2024-25, making a 21-point leap from 59 (27-50-5) to 80 (35-37-10). Today, with 26 games remaining on the 2025-26 schedule, the Ducks have 63 points (30-23-3) through 56 games and seem to be in the process of making another sizable jump, as they’re on pace to eclipse 92 points and make the playoffs for the first time in eight years.
Tuesday marked the fourth anniversary of Verbeek’s hiring, so let’s take a look at all the notable moves he made in the last calendar year to get his club to where they are today:
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2025 Trade Deadline
Ducks acquire goaltender Ville Husso from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for future considerations
This wasn’t a needle-moving move at the time, but Verbeek was able to get a third-string goaltender for free, with John Gibson dealing with various injuries throughout the course of the 2024-25 season. He fit in well down the stretch, both in Anaheim and with the San Diego Gulls in the AHL. Enough so that the Ducks elected to sign him to a two-year contract extension with an AAV of $2.2 million.
Husso has performed at an adequate level for a backup in Anaheim, appearing in a total of 16 games and posting a 7-6-2 record and a .895 SV%.
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Grade: C+
Ducks acquire forward Herman Traff and a 2025 second-round pick (Lasse Boelius) from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for defenseman Brian Dumoulin
Just eight months and 61 games after Dumoulin was acquired for a fourth-round pick, Verbeek flipped the veteran defenseman on an expiring deal for a player taken in the third round of the 2024 draft (Traff) and what became the 60th overall pick in 2025 (Boelius). Both players acquired for Dumoulin seem destined for the NHL in the not-too-distant future.
Traff is a big power forward with a heavy shot that he gets his entire 6-foot-3, 198-pound frame behind, and is having an excellent 2025-26 D+2 season for IK Oskarshamn in HockeyAllsvenskan (Sweden’s second-tier professional league), where he’s tallied 38 points (22-16=38) in 42 games.
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Boelius is a smooth, puck-moving, yet defensively sound, 6-foot-1 defenseman eating second/third-pairing minutes in his first full season in Liiga (Finland’s top professional division) for Assat, where he has seven points (1-6=7) in 39 games and represented Finland at the 2026 World Junior Championships, where he tallied seven points (2-5=7) in seven games.
Grade: A
2025 Offseason
Ducks Fire Greg Cronin and hire Joel Quenneville
It was somewhat shocking to see Verbeek let go of Greg Cronin just two years after he was hired and following a season in which the Ducks made a 21-point jump in the standings from 2023-24 to 2024-25. However, most metrics, underlying or traditional, indicated the lack of growth from the roster Verbeek was looking for with Cronin behind the bench, and he was the first NHL head coach let go following the end of the season.
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Cronin was let go on April 19, and the Ducks found their next head coach on May 8: Joel Quenneville. Quenneville carried with him an impressive resume as a three-time Stanley Cup winner and the second-winningest coach in NHL history, but also a checkered past as the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks during their 2010 sexual assault scandal.
The Ducks under Quenneville have been a roller coaster to this point in the season. After a scorching start, they’ve scored the 15th-most goals per game in the NHL (3.20), and they’ve allowed the fourth most goals per game (3.48). They have the 24th-ranked power play (17.9%) and the 22nd-ranked penalty kill (78.1%).
With him, Quenneville has brought a steady presence on and off the bench and seems to be a good manager of personalities and environment. He’s allowed his youngest and most talented roster players, from Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger to Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Beckett Sennecke, and Cutter Gauthier, to work through their mistakes and learn from failure rather than fear failure.
The system he’s implemented, along with the new coaching staff that includes Jay Woodcroft and Ryan McGill, has shown flashes of how successful it can be when all cylinders are firing. Still, Quenneville’s next step will be to ensure those cylinders fire with greater consistency moving forward.
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Grade: B+
Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
Ducks acquire Chris Kreider and a 2025 fourth-round pick (Elijah Neuenschwandner) from the New York Rangers in exchange for Carey Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick (Artyom Gonchar)
With this trade, Verbeek essentially dropped 15 spots in the draft and parted with a defensively inclined center prospect with a low ceiling (Terrance) to add a talented goalscorer, but a depreciated asset in Kreider, who was coming off of an injury-riddled down year at 34 years old.
Kreider’s been inconsistent for the Ducks so far in his tenure in Anaheim, but he has brought a blend of light-heartedness and professionalism to the Ducks’ locker room, producing 30 points (19-11=30) in 50 games. He has one year remaining on his contract that carries an AAV of $6.5 million.
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If there was a nit to pick when evaluating this trade, it would lie in the initial selection of Terrance in the second round of the 2023 draft, when there were several higher-ceiling players on the board in a deep draft. All things considered, this is a positive outcome for the Ducks.
Grade: B
Ducks acquire Ryan Poehling, a 2025 second-round pick (Eric Nilson), and a 2026 fourth-round pick from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Trevor Zegras
Verbeek acquired a good friend of Zegras in the form of Chris Kreider, but after spending a year and a half swirling in trade speculation, Verbeek finally traded Zegras, and the return was underwhelming. Poehling is a nice fit in the Ducks’ bottom six and is the Ducks’ best defensive forward by a considerable margin. Nilson projects as something similar down the road, and the fourth may have become a roster player already (more on that later).
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However, Zegras was sold when his value was at an all-time low, days before NHL free agency was set to open, which eventually led to a market deficiency in the style of player Zegras represents. It was clear Zegras wasn’t destined to remain in Anaheim long-term, but the ideal option seems like it would have been to play him in the Ducks’ new, offense-forward system and under Quenneville, who’d had past success with players like Jonathan Huberdeau and Patrick Kane, to recoup some value.
If that was never going to be an option, the next best route would seemingly have been to wait a week to see how many teams swung and missed on top-six forwards in free agency (it was a lot), as the pool was depleted following a myriad of players re-signing with their previous clubs. Zegras seems to have found a long-term home in Philadelphia, regained his shine, and has produced 48 points (20-28=48) through his first 55 games.
Grade: D
Ducks acquire Petr Mrazek, a 2027 second-round pick, and a 2026 fourth-round pick from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for John Gibson
In another trade felt like a long time coming, Verbeek handed Lukas Dostal sole possession of the keys to the Anaheim crease with this move. Gibson and Dostal were one of the best tandems in the NHL in 2024-25 (if not the best tandem), but each deserved to be a starter for the 2025-26 season.
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This seemed like another underwhelming return, especially given Mrazek’s cap hit and, again, how many teams were looking for goaltending help after the free agency period was underway. After a rough start, Gibson re-found his form in Detroit and has posted a 22-12-2 record, a .904 SV%, and 8.1 goals saved above expected. Mrazek has rarely been healthy for Anaheim this season, and when he has, he’s been inconsistent to say the least, posting a 3-5-0 record, a .858 SV%, and -8.0 GSAx.
Grade: D+
The Ducks selected ten players in the 2025 NHL Draft, highlighted by tenth-overall pick Roger McQueen. McQueen is a towering, 6-foot-5 right-shot center who covers vast amounts of ice, possessing surprising puck skills, a willingness to physically engage, and a scoring touch. He was a top-five talent who dropped to ten due to a fracture in his back, costing him all but 20 total games in 2024-25. The Ducks, having selected at the top of the previous six drafts, allowed them to take a calculated risk on McQueen, who’s tallied 23 points (8-15=23) through his first 25 games in his freshman season at Providence College in the NCAA.
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As mentioned, Boelius and Nilson project to play NHL games with their translatable skillsets. The Ducks took a few interesting swings later in the draft, highlighted by talented winger Emile Guite in the fifth round, who, after a down year in 2024-25, has bounced back with 45 points (23-22=45) in 41 games so far in 2025-26.
Grade: A-
Free Agency
Ducks sign Mikael Granlund to a three-year contract, $7 million AAV
A year after striking out on big offers to high-profile free agents Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, Verbeek made his biggest needle-moving free agency signing to date on July 1, 2025. Granlund’s versatility was a major selling point for Verbeek, and has proved useful during his first few months in Anaheim. He’s provided a lot of the clever, high hockey IQ plays the Ducks lost with Zegras’ departure, and picked up much of the offensive slack when the team had lost star players at various points to injury throughout the middle portion of the season. He’s scored 27 points (12-15=27) through his first 38 games with the Ducks.
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Grade: B
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Ducks sign Lukas Dostal to a five-year contract extension, $6.5 million AAV
Lukas Dostal filed for salary arbitration on July 5, 12 days before he and the Ducks avoided a hearing and agreed to a five-year extension. Dostal had elevated himself into conversations as one of the NHL’s top young goaltenders, and this contract made him the 11th highest-paid goaltender for the 2025-26 season.
Early in the season, reflecting the entirety of the 2024-25 season, Dostal was the Ducks’ best player and the primary reason they got off to a 11-3-1 record in their first 15 games. As the salary cap ceiling continues to increase for the duration of his contract, it will likely continue to represent a bargain.
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Behind another mediocre defensive team this season, Dostal has posted a 21-13-2 record, a .897 SV%, and 3.7 GSAx.
Grade: B+
Ducks sign Mason McTavish to a six-year contract extension, $7 million AAV
Verbeek took another contract extension negotiation with an RFA coming off their ELC well into Ducks’ training camp, after doing the same with Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras in 2023. McTavish was eased back into camp (unlike with Zegras and Drysdale), and didn’t seem affected by the extended negotiations, but was relieved nonetheless that it was in the rearview and he’d remain in Anaheim for the better part of a decade.
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He continues to be a streaky 2C for Anaheim and has scored 30 points (13-17=30) through 51 games this season. In a league where every team is seemingly looking to add firepower down the middle, the Ducks are in a good place with Leo Carlsson and McTavish as a one-two for the foreseeable future.
Grade: B-
Ducks sign Jackson LaCombe to an eight-year contract extension, $9 million AAV
In a surprise preseason announcement, Verbeek locked up his top defenseman to the largest dollar value contract in franchise history. The sticker shock with this extension was real, but with the rising salary cap and the role LaCombe has played for the team in the last season and a half, this contract will likely age surprisingly well.
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LaCombe is 13th among all NHL skaters in terms of TOI/G (24:30), playing top minutes for the Ducks at 5v5, on the power play, and penalty kill. He’s scored 37 points (6-31=37) through 56 games in 2025-26 and will represent the US at the Olympics in Milan. He’s living up to the extension, and it doesn’t even kick in until the 2026-27 season, when his cap hit will take up an even lower percentage of the Ducks’ overall cap space.
Grade: B+
In Season (2025-26)
Ducks acquire Jeffrey Viel from the Boston Bruins in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round pick
Verbeek’s most recent move was to acquire a 28-year-old (now 29) winger with just 64 career NHL games under his belt, including ten in 2025-26 as the Boston Bruins’ 14th forward. He’s a no-frills, prototypical bottom-six winger who’s made the most of his elevated shot in his first nine games with the Ducks, scoring three points in his first four games with the club, but nothing since.
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Ultimately, the trade doesn’t (and won’t) move needles, and Viel’s performed adequately. However, with the injuries the lineup sustained over the last month, it felt like an opportunity to see how some of the younger players with the Gulls could have fared with some NHL experience, and it opens some eyes regarding how Verbeek feels an NHL bottom six should be built.
The fourth-round pick traded will become whichever ends up better between the picks acquired in the Gibson (Detroit) and Zegras (Philadelphia) deals.
Grade: C
Conclusion
The Ducks currently sit in a playoff position and have taken another step in their journey out of the NHL’s basement. With playoff games representing the stated goal for the 2025-26 season, it seems time for Verbeek to make a more significant needle-moving transaction or two to get his club to that point. Reports indicate he’s aiming to land a “big fish,” but his track record calls his ability to pull that off into question.
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This past year may have raised concerns about Verbeek’s reading of various markets, but credit is due when it comes to recognizing that an overhaul behind the bench was needed in order for the Ducks’ youngest, most talented, and most important players to take necessary steps in their development and to get the roster, as a whole, to where they are now: in control of their own destiny, with playoff hockey on the line every night.
Takeaways from the Ducks 4-3 Win over the Golden Knights
Takeaways from the Ducks 2-0 Loss to the Canucks
Rumor: Ducks “Out” on Panarin, Uninterested in Extension
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