Anaheim Ducks Migration 2025

By Michael Walters

Today was the annual Orange Alliance event where Hockey Analyst  Brian Hayward sits down and asks Anaheim Ducks General Manager Pat Verbeek several questions. Hayward’s questions are in bold and Verbeek’s quoted responses are in italics.

Hayward: Can you recap the trade deadline for your club?

Verbeek: We primarily had one, well two free agents, Robby Fabbri and Brian Dumoulin. Fabbri ended up getting hurt, he broke a bone in his hand. He is probably going to be out for three more weeks. So he wasn’t available to be moved. (Fabbri told me he is week-to-week. He had a small soft cast on his left hand.)

Brian Dumoulin I had wrestled with for a long time moving him because of the stability he put in our d-core and how much of a mentor he was for our younger defensemen not only on the ice, but off the ice. It came to a point, the loss in Vancouver was a tough loss for us and obviously last night was an extremely tough loss for us. I decided to make a move that could benefit in the future, but also allow Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov regular ice time and not to be sitting in the stands. Which for a young player, having been a young player myself, it doesn’t do anything for your confidence and I think that going through where we are this season, we are battling for a playoff spot. I think I sat here last year, hoping that we would have meaningful games. Here we are, we have meaningful games that we are battling for a playoff spot. We have left not much of an error for us for the rest of the season. But we are still going to play teams that we have to catch in head-to-heads scenarios. So that allows us to gain some ground there. Having said that I wanted our young guys to go through this process, understand what it takes to be in this sort of run. The playoffs get amped up another notch. I want them in feel the pressure and understand that every little detail is important and every mistake that you make gets highlighted. It becomes an experience thing for them to have to go through. In the end that’s why I decided to trade Brian Dumoulin.

Hayward: You mentioned to me the other day that you have a similar experience as a young player in the NHL, going on run, I think you were with the New Jersey Devils at the time, and can you say what kind of an impact that had on you as a player?

Verbeek: To win a Stanley Cup is extremely hard. Obviously, there is only one team that can do it. Going through, I reminded the players yesterday part of it is to believe, if you don’t believe then it can’t be accomplished. They are believing now, they believe in one another, they believe they can win and they believe they have a chance to win every single night. And that is a huge step in my opinion for our group. As I explained to them, I played on a team the New Jersey Devils, we had to go 9-0-1 to make the playoffs and we ended up going 9-0-1 and we had to win the last game in overtime to get into the playoffs. And we ended up losing in game 7 of the semifinals. Belief can take you such a long way and going through that experience of battling every night is crucial. I just find it that these guys have to go through it.

Hayward: In what ways has this team met or exceeded your expectations and which ways do you think they haven’t met the expectations you had going into the year?

Verbeek: I think last year, accountability is a huge thing in any organization. It becomes crucial for players to understand that they have to perform and are accountable to our system, culture, and to each other in the sense that they have to perform. And I think, last year was culture shock for them. I think coming into this year they knew what to expect from the coaching staff, they had a lot better understanding of the systems we play now and they embraced it. I think if I am looking at one particular thing, I think they made really good strides in our 5-on-5 play. Where we have to improve now and it’s difficult when your special teams don’t perform, even if our special teams were average we would be in a much better position now. We would probably be five games better in our standings. It is huge for us now moving forward to continue to improve on our special teams. And I think that when you look at all the best power plays, even the best penalty killing units in the league, they are well established, they have been at it 7-8 years working and playing together. So there is a familiarity with each other, there is knowing where each other is going to be and trusting each other. So that is what are group is going through right now. And it’s going to be a process and we are going have to fight our way through it.

Hayward: Where do you think we are along the timeline of trying to put together a real championship contending team?

Verbeek: That is a hard question to answer. It’s exciting, okay, I can tell you that it took, with that New Jersey Devils team that I was telling you about, it took us six years to get to the playoffs. And we started basically the same way we have started when I arrived here, is kind of how we started when I arrived here. Now you can see that we are knocking on the door. Young players are, improvements are kind of like a roller coaster, they will take a couple of steps forward and they will take a couple of steps back. What younger players don’t understand even in their second year, it gets harder. Other teams start to focus in on them. I had talking with Leo (Carlsson) about this. Like Leo, it’s going to be harder for you because they start to see how good you are so they are going to start paying a lot more attention to you. You are going to see all the best players in the NHL play against you. So even though you are getting better it still gets harder. That’s the hardest thing for younger players to really realize and they have to go through that. So when I say we are taking steps forward, we certainly are, but it’s going to be hard steps forward because it kinds of getting harder. Now for me the magical age is 23, like Jackson LaCombe 23 years old, has taken a big step this year. I am super excited for how good he has been this year, but I see more in him. Leo probably hasn’t performed as well as he did last year. That’s because he is seeing tougher competition. Those are the things our young guys have to go through and understand and they to develop a more business-like attitude when it comes to performing on the ice. Everyday they have to come here, whether it’s studying their opponents, working on all their skills, working at the little details, offensive plays defensive plays. That’s all part of the growth that they have to continue to do.

Hayward: You took some big swings last year, (Steven) Stamkos and (Jonathan) Marchessault, they signed elsewhere. What type of player are you looking to add this offseason?

Verbeek: I think if you look at our goals for, we are need to start to improve and be a lot better club offensively. It’s a tough line to walk, in sense that I want to allow our younger players to get more traction and be the go to guys that can contribute offensively and they will take steps. There are also times when they need help, they need a little help to springboard them forward. If I am looking at next year, like I said last year, I am going to try to find another top six forward that has got some scoring ability.

Hayward: Let’s talk about the contract you signed with Frank Vatrano, I think it was very interesting. We hear a lot about the advantages the Stars have, the Golden Knights have, those teams are located in no tax states. For those of you that aren’t aware, Frank gets half of his money and the rest is deferred to 10 years down the road. The advantage being if he is not living in California he is not going to pay state tax on what is left of that contract. So it mitigates the advantage some of these other teams have. Is something we are going to see a lot more of you think in the future?

Verbeek: It is a tool we can use going forward. Part of the whole process and Franky was open to it, being that first guy to do it and talking about it. Players at time are resistant, set in their ways, as far looking into how to structure contracts differently. I really got tired of listening to agents that tell me well you pay more because you are in a high income tax state. This kind of allows us to take a different kind, use a different tool, to be able to put on us a more level playing field so when it comes to luring free agent here and/or signing our players.

Hayward: What do you see about Trevor (Zegras)’s game, his development as the type of player you think he can be?

Verbeek: Trevor has taken huge steps for me. Not only at a competitive standpoint, a work ethic standpoint, but he has added details to his game. If someone would have told me that I would have been talking to the NHL over Trevor Zegras getting suspended three games and then about a week an half later Trevor getting in a fight, I would have said you are nuts. But anywhere here we are. Trevor is a competitive guy and obviously he is very gifted skill wise, he sees the ice well, he is very intelligent player. Those skills are highly needed on ice, but it’s the other things, the competitive part, being responsible defensively, all those sorts of things which Trevor has never been asked to do prior to getting to the NHL. So it’s a process to learn those habits and take pride in those habits. Trevor is kind of going through that and he is making huge strides there.   

Hayward: What are the elements that Cutter (Gauthier) needs to work on? We know he can shoot the puck, we know he can skate, but in his development what does he need to add?

Verbeek: There are lots of things for him to add. I think Cutter doesn’t know how fast he can really skate and for me doesn’t take near enough advantage of it when he coming through the neutral zone. And trusting and having the confidence that he is able to blow around defensemen with his speed. In my opinion he doesn’t do that enough. I would like to see him do that more. The hardest thing for college players when they come out of college and come to the NHL is the schedule. They only play at max 40 games a season and going right start to the end. They go four years in college, Cutter has really played one season in two seasons. So when they start to come across the NHL schedule where we are playing almost every other night, there is so much travel. It’s not just hard physically, but hard mentally to be able to get up for that grind. I think having this break actually reenergized Cutter. I think he has implemented little things of being able to protect the puck much better. He has a great shot. Sometimes he passes when he should be shooting and shooting vice versa. But that’s just learning who you are going up against and learning what you can do in those situations. For me, Cutter Gauthier we are just scratching the surface in this first 60 some games here.

Hayward: Are there other players, the Gulls, college, or juniors, Ducks properties that a may have a real good shot at making the team next season?

Verbeek: (Nikita) Nesterenko is playing well for us, we are going to call him up at some point, I am not sure when. San Diego is doing very well right now, they are winning a lot of hockey games there. You guys are starting to see Sam Colangelo who has been in the minors for half the year. Now he seems to be taking a step and understanding of how to score goals in the NHL level. There are a lot of players I can think of , Tristan Luneau is having a heck of a season in San Diego. He is probably doing something, I am not sure any rookie defenseman has been able to put the numbers that he has been able to put up as a defenseman, as a rookie defenseman in the AHL ever. That bodes well for us. Tyson Hinds has been making big steps, Nate Gaucher had been makein steps. We got these nice players coming, Beckett Sennecke, who we drafted last year is having a heck of a season in juniors. We are going to take our time with him. He is very much like Leo in the sense that a lot of strength to put on and a lot of muscle to put on. Stian Solberg over in Europe, the kid we traded for the other day (Herman) Traff is going to be a nice player and Lucas Pettersson over in Europe. So that’s some of the players we are excited about.

Hayward: I am curious to know your philosophy, are we talking bridge contracts or long term contracts for some of these kids. What in your mind makes that decision for you?

Verbeek: Part of my philosophy is I like to do bridge deals with players. It allows the players two things, it allows them to have no pressure to grow and get better before they have the long term contract. It also allows the team to access them over the three years of how good they are really going to be. From a team approach I prefer to do bridge deals, 2-3 years, and then if it warrants a 7-8 deal after that.

Hayward: Ian Moore and Artyom Galimov, both having good seasons, is there an interest to sign them?

Verbeek: Ian Moore as soon as his college season is over he is going to be joining San Diego. And at some point he could play some games with us here in Anaheim. I don’t know if he is just defensive minded, I don’t think he had been allowed to be offensive minded. I think there is more there for him and for us. He is an interesting, very smart kid, very smart hockey player. Another college kid, so he has to learn college is different than the pros. He is probably going to start with San Diego for the next three weeks and then we will see.

Hayward: Let’s talk about goaltending, obviously the name that is always out there is John Gibson. I am sure there was interest at the trade deadline who would want to acquire a guy like Gibson with the season he is having. Where do things sit with your goaltenders right now?

Verbeek: We have two really good goaltenders. We are probably, when you look at their stats, top 5 in the league I would say, not only in goaltending, but also as a tandem. So that’s exciting I think. When you look to win it’s always good to having goaltending that you can rely on even with mistakes especially with a younger team in front of them. Lukas Dostal is going to get a new contract, probably will deal with that after the season. John Gibson as you mentioned, I got calls on him, but until it makes sense for the Anaheim Ducks to trade him, we are not going to trade him. I don’t’ see the need and I am happy with how our guys are playing.

Hayward: If there was one thing you could do to make the NHL better, what would it be?

Verbeek: I am going state this and we had the goaltender interference call the other night in Vancouver. There is one rule and I am going to see if we can’t push for it, there are other GMs that feel the same way. What is unclear to me is what is goaltender interference. I don’t know what goaltender interference is, if I guess one way it’s the opposite way. There is a European rule they have at the world championships, I don’t know if you had a chance to watch it, but any time someone goes into the crease they blow the whistle down, the play stops. So people don’t go there ever because they know as soon as they go into the crease the whistle is blown down and the play stops. I have rarely seen goaltender interference ever in any of the goals that have gone in in European hockey because of that rule. I think it is something we should look at some point. We looked at (Keifer) Sherwood when he went into the crease, is he being pushed and leaned on by (Pavel) Mintyukov? Yes, but at some point you have to put the breaks on and not go in there or avoid to go in there. So he didn’t try to get out of there.  I can do that to just go there and let someone push me in and take the goalie out. I just think we have to change that rule.  

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March 8th, 2025