Training camp is still in its earliest phases for the 2025-26 Anaheim Ducks, who will begin preseason games on Sunday when they’ll take on their rival Los Angeles Kings, in Ontario, CA.
Barring injury, the majority of the Ducks’ opening night roster seems somewhat set between players with experience, pedigree, and/or lacking waiver exemption.
Report: Teams Have Called the Ducks on McTavish, Verbeek said ‘Get Lost’
Anaheim Ducks Training Camp: New Defensive Zone System
Still, there are some lineup spots up for grabs between a relatively inexperienced blueline and a vacancy left in the top nine of the forward group due to Mason McTavish’s ongoing contract negotiations that are keeping him from participating in camp.
The most glaring position battle to focus on at Ducks camp is on the right side of the blueline, where three players of similar age and draft pedigree will be vying for regular playing time: Drew Helleson, Ian Moore, and Tristan Luneau.
Helleson (24) has the inside track, as he’s the oldest and has the most professional experience, with 153 games of AHL action over two-plus years with the San Diego Gulls on top of 59 career games in the NHL, where he spent most of the 2024-25 season.
“I think that’s a good way to look at it. You don’t want to be too comfortable,” Helleson said when asked about having to potentially compete for regular ice. “You want to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward out there and try to play as good as you can. There are a lot of guys; it’s a competitive position. So, just keep playing as good as you can; that’s all you can really do.”
Helleson provides a stable brand of defense and has the capability of killing penalties at the NHL level. Early in camp, he’s been paired with long-time friend and 2024-25 breakout star defenseman Jackson LaCombe, who elevated his offensive involvement and activations last season.
His spot next to LaCombe, the team’s current number-one defenseman, is a good early sign for Helleson, and he could be a quality long-term fit next to LaCombe, as their styles complement each other well and they fill in gaps in each other’s games.
Helleson was also awarded the opportunity to change his jersey number from his high rookie number (43) to a lower one (14).
“I always liked the number four, but obviously I’d never wear it after Cam wore it, with what he did here,” Helleson said of the number switch. “I was just kind of hoping to get a four in there and maybe a little lower number. That’s all I was looking for.”
Luneau (21) had an extremely successful rookie campaign in the AHL with the Gulls in 2024-25, earning All-Rookie honors while scoring 52 points (9-43=52) in 59 games, and after coming off a significant knee injury that sidelined him for the majority of the 2023-24 season.
Luneau had made the Ducks’ opening night roster out of camp in each of the previous two seasons, but has only totaled 13 NHL games between those stints.
“It’s the same mindset. You’re always trying to make a name for yourself and trying to learn the ways on how to defend like a pro,” Luneau said of his mindset and trying to make the team again out of camp. “It’s a little tougher for a defenseman to be reliable on both sides of the ice. That’s still the main focus.”
Luneau’s game is the most dynamic, and he’s the most offensively talented of the group he is in with Moore and Helleson. However, that makes his skill set the most redundant, by default, if he were to be paired with one of the dynamic left-shot defensemen currently on the roster: LaCombe, Olen Zellweger, or Pavel Mintyukov.
To this point in camp, he’s been paired with Moore, perhaps indicating they’re the two players who are most vying for the role of “seventh defenseman” when opening night comes.
Moore (23) had a long road to professional hockey since he’d been drafted in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft, which included a season in the USHL during the ECAC Covid-canceled 2020-21 season, followed by four full seasons playing NCAA hockey.
Moore captained the 2023-24 and 2024-25 iterations of Harvard’s teams before making the jump to the professional ranks, where he scored five points (1-4=5) in nine games for the Gulls and played the final three games of the season for the Ducks, where he tallied his first career assist.
“Just trying to do my best, just trying to do the things that I know I can do well. Play to my strengths,” Moore said, with a more wide-eyed approach to training camp. “And just trying to enjoy it as well. This is my first experience at training camp, so it’s been a lot of fun, and I’m just trying to soak it all in, but work every day.”
For having the least amount of NHL experience among the three, Moore is relatively polished and can use his outstanding four-way mobility and powerful stride to impact plays on both sides of the puck and in all three zones.
Between these three right-shot defensemen and the plethora of talent they’d project to be paired with on the left, the Ducks have an embarrassment of riches on their present and future bluelines.
This will be one of the most entertaining and intriguing battles to monitor as camp rosters thin out and the landscape of the team becomes clearer.
Ducks Head Coach Joel Quenneville Speaks at Training Camp
Ducks GM Pat Verbeek Speaks on Day 1 of Training Camp
4 Questions for Anaheim Ducks Training Camp
Read the full article here
