Predicting the Ducks' 2024-25 opening night lineup

Another season of hockey is almost upon us. Training camp for NHL teams begins this week as rosters take shape ahead of the regular season. The Ducks' training camp starts on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. at Great Park Ice in Irvine.

Anaheim's full array of firepower was limited last season, mostly due to injuries for some of their key players. Alex Killorn, Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry missed a combined 94 games while Leo Carlsson missed 20 games due to numerous injuries in addition to the games that he was purposely scratched for while on a game management plan.

On the blue line, Radko Gudas and Pavel Mintyukov missed time due to injuries, as did Jamie Drysdale before he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers for Cutter Gauthier. Tristan Luneau, who broke camp with the Ducks, missed the entire second half of the season due to a staph infection.

Health will be the biggest factor for the Ducks in 2024-25 and their opening night lineup will look slightly different than the lineup from their final game of the 2023-24 season and certainly different from last season's opening night lineup.

Forwards:

With everyone healthy, the Ducks have a lot of versatility in their forward group. At the start of the 2023-24 season, Zegras played on the wing once Carlsson was in the lineup but shifted back to the middle when McTavish got injured toward the end of the season. The Ducks could stack their top-6 by having Carlsson and McTavish down the middle and Zegras on the left side of either of them.

Ryan Strome is another forward capable of playing center or wing, but primarily played wing last season. If Zegras is in the top-6 as a winger, Strome would likely slot into the No. 3 center spot. Cutter Gauthier is the X-factor. A center during his collegiate career, he was Carlsson's left winger in his lone NHL game to this point.

Gauthier was back at center during the recent Rookie Faceoff Tournament and has repeatedly relayed that he is comfortable playing either position. He will be given every opportunity to succeed in an elevated role and that may come on the wing, perhaps next to Carlsson.

Having Zegras and Gauthier in the top-6 would relegate one of Killorn, Terry or Frank Vatrano to the third line. In the modern era, it's not so much a top-6 than a top-9 now as teams look for sources of offense throughout their lineup.

Putting Vatrano––who scored 37 goals last season and led the team in points––on the third line would certainly raise a couple of eyebrows. But, perhaps that allows him to provide more offense playing against other teams' third and fourth lines.

Terry finished the season on the third line, but having a $7,000,000-per-year player on that line feels a bit out of place. The same could be said for Killorn, who is being paid $6,250,000 per year and has developed good chemistry with Carlsson.

Zegras on the third line with two complementary players like Strome and Robby Fabbri––who was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings this past summer and had 18 goals last season––could help take some of the offensive responsibility off the top two lines without sacrificing a lot of defensive acumen.

With the first nine forward spots mostly set, it doesn't leave many open for the taking. The fourth line center spot is Isac Lundeström's to lose after he was brought back on a one-year deal. Brock McGinn, who underwent back surgery this offseason, was a steady defensive winger with strong forechecking ability when he was available last season.

Brett Leason, who was also brought back on a one-year deal, was the main source of secondary scoring from the bottom-6 last season and is capable of moving up and down the lineup. His ability to play on the penalty kill also gives him an edge over others.

This configuration squeezes out Sam Colangelo, who skated in three games for the Ducks last season after finishing his collegiate career. He scored his first NHL goal in his NHL debut and showed he is capable of sticking with the big club. A top-6 role in the AHL to start 2024-25 wouldn't be the worst scenario, but he will get every chance to make the Ducks out of training camp.

Others like Ross Johnston and offseason signing Jansen Harkins will be easier to pass through waivers if needed. While Johnston––who played in 68 games for Anaheim last season after being claimed off waivers––provides an element of physicality and toughness, his lack of offensive production doesn't warrant a regular spot in the lineup.

Harkins is in a similar boat to McGinn where he provides energy and forechecking ability, although he hasn't been used much as a penalty killer in his NHL career like McGinn.

Defense:

The order of these pairs doesn't matter as much as the actual pairs do. With this configuration, head coach Greg Cronin would be able to deploy any of these pairs with confidence at any point of a game. Acquiring Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken adds another veteran presence to the blue line, taking some of the pressure off of Radko Gudas and Cam Fowler––who played way too many minutes last season.

With the addition of Dumoulin, each pair can now have a veteran coupled with a youngster. Jackson LaCombe was at his best when paired with Gudas. The duo produced an expected goals percentage of just under fifty percent in 341 minutes and 18 seconds of 5v5 time on ice (per Natural Stat Trick).

Another combination that also performed well––albeit in just a handful of games––was LaCombe and Pavel Mintyukov, with the two young defensemen using their skating and playmaking abilities to kill plays in their own zone before transporting the puck into the offensive zone.

Though Olen Zellweger skated in just 26 games last season, he was paired with Fowler in all but one of those games (Fowler missed one game due to a facial laceration). While they did have miscommunications at times, this pairing has the skating ability to cover some of their mistakes and both players are capable of playing on their off-side.

Mintyukov spent most of his rookie season paired with fellow countryman Ilya Lyubushkin. After Lyubushkin was dealt to the Toronto Maple Leafs right before the trade deadline, Mintyukov split time playing alongside LaCombe and Gudas before his season ended prematurely due to a bone bruise.

Pairing the mobile Mintyukov with Dumoulin, who is still astute defensively but doesn't quite have the footspeed for certain defensive actions, would create a duo capable of denying opponents the middle of the ice and retrieving any dump-ins with relative ease.

Both Mintyukov and Zellweger appear to be suitable partners for Dumoulin as both possess excellent mobility and have shown that they can collect the puck in their own zone and quickly transition it up the ice either with their feet or an outlet pass.

While Dumoulin hasn't played his off-side very much during his NHL career, he did so last season for the Kraken while paired with fellow lefty Ryker Evans. With Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek stating his preference to get players like Zellweger back on their strong side, it's logical that Dumoulin and Fowler will be playing on their off-sides.

The odd man out in this instance is Urho Vaakanainen, who set a career-high in games played (68) last season. The left-handed Finn formed a formidable pair with Gudas during the early stages of the 2023-24 season but found himself in and out of the lineup toward the end of the season. His best chance at a regular spot in the lineup may be to beat out LaCombe or Zellweger in training camp.

Where does this leave Tristan Luneau? In a perfect world, he's beginning the season in the AHL as one of the San Diego Gulls' top defensemen. After a long layoff due to a staph infection in January, he began skating again in April and took part in the Soflo hockey summer league in August.

The recent Rookie Faceoff Tournament in El Segundo was his first taste of competitive 5v5 play in almost a year and while he didn't appear to have any physical limitations, it was clear that some of the processing elements were still a bit rusty.

Goaltenders:

The easiest part of this exercise. Barring injury, the Ducks already have their NHL goaltenders locked in. The order here is not necessarily indicative of what will happen once the regular season starts with Verbeek stating that starts could come down to which goaltender is performing better throughout the season.

John Gibson struggled at the end of last season, losing his last seven starts and allowing 4+ goals in his last eight appearances of the season. His goals saved above expected has improved in every passing season since 2021-22, but not by a substantial amount. The defense in front of him hasn't exactly done him any favors during that span. The addition of Dumoulin should help with that.

Lukáš Dostál played in the most games of his pro career (44) in 2023-24 and ended the season on a high note with a 33-save performance against the (at the time) reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights. Dostál also had his first NHL shutout against the Chicago Blackhawks on Mar. 21 and made 50+ saves on two occasions.

This past summer, he helped lead Czechia to a gold medal in the World Championships in their home country. He had a .939 SV% and 1.58 GAA in eight games and shut out the opposition in three of those games.

The workload may look similar for Anaheim's two goaltenders this upcoming season. Gibson appeared in 46 games, the first time he's appeared in less than 40 games played since the shortened 2020-21 season and the first time in a full season since 2015-16. A lesser workload could be what Gibson needs to regain form. An improved defensive corps won't hurt either.

If Dostál is to be the next full-time starter for the Ducks, being able to handle starting 40+ games (he started 38 last season) will be the next step in his development.

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