ANAHEIM, Calif. – Paul Maurice could see it, as can many caught by surprise by the Anaheim Ducks this season.
Before his Florida Panthers took on the Ducks for a second time in a seven-day span last week, Maurice laid out his scouting report of an Anaheim team that is averaging a league-best 4.13 goals per game and is off to its best start start in 12 seasons (11-3-1), including a current seven-game win streak. Maurice bemoaned turnovers and forced plays that gave the talented, young Ducks even more opportunities.
“And this Anaheim team now is built off transition in a lot of ways,” Maurice said. “They play very fast. They’ve got lots of skilled young players who can make plays off your transition. They’re moving into that category. They’re going to get their offense every night, and you just can’t feed it.”
Maurice then watched the Ducks gorge by scoring seven times against future Hall of Fame goalie Sergei Bobrovsky and his two-time defending champions. Yes, the Panthers were without two of their best players, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. But then the Ducks went into Dallas two nights later and scored seven more goals to beat the Stars. They’ve now hit that total four times, something never before done in their 32-year history. This from a team that finished 30th in the league in scoring last season.
It’s just an early-season heater, right? A hot team shooting the lights out — scoring on 13.7 percent of its shots, second in the league — and playing way above its head? Possibly. But there is growing evidence the Ducks are headed toward ending their seven-year playoff drought, in large part because of their multifaceted offense.
A franchise often known more for its logo and bold uniform choices hasn’t been relevant for a while. But now, after three victories in four days against some of the Western Conference’s best — the Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets — the Ducks have a nationally televised game against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday night. It is another test to see if these Ducks simply are a fun story early in the NHL season or a future powerhouse applying the final touches to its construction.
“It’s definitely sustainable,” defenseman Jackson LaCombe said Sunday following their 4-1 win over the Jets. “I think we’re confident in each other and we’re all playing for each other and playing so selfless. That leads to success. We’re still learning and growing but confident in each other for sure.”
The league’s top two offenses will be on the ice in Denver. Colorado has scored more goals (64) but Anaheim, having played one fewer game, has a higher per-game average. Everyone expects this from a deep Avalanche lineup headed by Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. What is surprising, if not shocking, is how prolific the Ducks have been. They haven’t had a top-10 offense since they led the NHL in scoring in 2013-14.
There was no massive roster makeover this offseason. Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek acquired Chris Kreider through trade and added another veteran forward, Mikael Granlund, through free agency. Verbeek traded high-skilled, injury-saddled Trevor Zegras for a role player (Ryan Poehling) and two draft picks. He shipped out longtime starting goalie John Gibson for a backup in Petr Mrázek. But no superstar walked through the door.
So, how have these Ducks, who have scored 56 goals in their 11 victories, instantly become high-octane in the offensive end?
The first clue is with an emerging superstar.
Leo Carlsson was the No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft after the Chicago Blackhawks selected consensus top pick Connor Bedard. The Ducks opted for the Swedish center instead of Adam Fantilli, the Hobey Baker Award winner as a freshman, whom the Columbus Blue Jackets pounced on at No. 3. Carlsson was kept on a load-management plan for the first half of his rookie season. He began to take off in the second half of 2024-25, riding the confidence of playing in the 4 Nations Face-Off by scoring 26 points in 28 games after his return from that tournament.
The 20-year-old is transforming into an NHL star. Carlsson has a 10-game point streak, tying him with Toronto’s William Nylander for the longest current streak. That has propelled him onto the scoring leaderboard, where his 25 points are tied with Bedard for second place, four points behind MacKinnon. Carlsson has four consecutive multi-point games, and he scored two goals in each of his last two games.
“Carlsson has looked great,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “They had him on a rest sort of thing his first year … It obviously paid dividends. He’s strong and you’re seeing the results this year.”
The plan, concocted by Verbeek and Carlsson’s agent, Matt Keator, to have him sit out some games as a rookie and focus on strengthening and shaping his 6-foot-3, 208-pound frame, is paying full dividends now.
“Just what a year can do for a young man,” Maurice said. “A little bit stronger, a little bit faster, a little bit more experience. When to make the play, when not to make the play. But he’s a half step quicker, half step more powerful. When he gets in the holes, it’s much harder to stop this year.”
But the Ducks’ firepower has been about more than Carlsson. They’re stocked with high-end young talent. Cutter Gauthier, 21, is among the NHL goal leaders with 11. Beckett Sennecke, the No. 3 pick in 2024, has unexpectedly seized a top-six role as a rookie and has contributed six goals and 11 points. Sennecke, a 19-year-old right wing, had his first two-goal game Sunday to spark their latest win.
Beckett Sennecke – Anaheim Ducks (5) pic.twitter.com/ZDTRWxCJz4
— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) November 10, 2025
On the back end, the 24-year-old LaCombe leads a defense corps — with fellow youngsters Olen Zellweger, Drew Helleson, Pavel Mintyukov and incoming rookie Ian Moore — that is mobile and built to trigger the Ducks’ transition game.
“It’s huge,” LaCombe said. “The faster we can eliminate plays, the faster we can cut them off, I think just leads to more offense, and I think everyone’s doing a great job doing that. I think we’re starting to realize how good our forwards are, and what we do is give them the puck and let them go to work. I think everyone’s doing a great job doing it.”
A convergence of high draft picks — Gauthier was No. 5 overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2022, while Mintyukov went five picks later — and some deeper selections, including second-rounders LaCombe, Zellweger and Helleson and a third-round choice in Moore, have risen together.
“They’re in that mix of teams that have acquired the talent through the draft, done a really good job with it and then developed some players, and now they’re going to get the payoff from it,” Maurice said. “What you find is there’s actually less risk in their game. They create more with less risk. It’s not about the individual skill first. They move as five. They come as five.
“They play together. They play the right way together. And then that talent comes out when they get a half step break (on you) and now they can make something happen. When you bring young players into the league and they’re used to putting up a tremendous amount – and they’re exciting because you can (start) to see the skill – but it’s still an individual game and at the end that’s where the play that doesn’t get made, and that happens every night, ends up in the back of their net.
“They get the right balance between when to push offense and when not to. They defend better because of it, and they also generate more in the end.”
Verbeek also added steady veterans around the young core, which also includes second-line center Mason McTavish, a No. 3 pick in 2021. Ryan Strome, Radko Gudas and Alex Killorn initially joined the team in free agency. But the additions of Kreider and Jacob Trouba, through separate trades with the New York Rangers, have taken Anaheim to another level.
Kreider, 34, and Trouba, 31, seen renewed by the move. They are playing at a high level, with Krieder scoring nine times and giving the Ducks the net-front beast they’ve long needed, while Trouba is logging heavy minutes, contributing unexpected offense and becoming a defensive leader. The Ducks have surged even while Strome, Gudas and Granlund have been sidelined by injuries.
“(Trouba) and Kreider have helped that team I’m sure more than just on the ice,” Cassidy said. “I bet they’re great locker-room people for them. They look like the real deal. But it’s a six-month season. That’ll be something, I guess, we can answer that question later as it goes along but right now, they’re a first-place team. They’ve earned it.”
Along with the individual performances, a revamped coaching staff has encouraged the Ducks — in particular the younger ones — to engage in up-tempo hockey and maximize their offensive gifts. Joel Quenneville’s immediate impact has been undeniable, while new assistants Jay Woodcroft and Ryan McGill have sparked improvement in what were terribly inefficient special teams last season.
Quenneville has turned the Ducks into a run-and-gun team, which was evident on Sunday, when they generated multiple odd-man rushes either at even strength or short-handed, with skaters such as Carlsson, Gauthier and Troy Terry injecting a speed element on rushes up ice. But they’re also multifaceted, with Kreider giving them another big-bodied forward who can also make them dangerous off cycle plays in the offensive zone.
As Carlsson said, it’s “go-go-go,” and that has been a marked change from the previous two seasons under former coach Greg Cronin.
“Immediately, I feel we have a little bit more freedom to make plays,” Carlsson said. “If we make a mistake, it’s not really as hard, like to be on the bench and stuff. Like, that’s not my ultimate place. I feel like the young guys with skill, we just make plays. Sometimes it backfires, but most of the time this season it’s been good. Just more freedom, I would say.”
Cronin might have put down a foundation, in which the Ducks increased their work rate and were held accountable when they didn’t bring a full effort, but Quenneville has removed the reins and leaned hard into a strength that started to reveal itself during last season’s 21-point improvement over 2023-24.
“Our forwards are so skilled, and they’re spending more time hanging onto pucks and making plays,” LaCombe said. “And obviously Q sees that. I think the last few years here, we were just kind of preparing and just really being taught how to work hard and doing the right things, which is leading us to success now.
“Q sees so much potential in all those guys and is really taking advantage of it.”
Are the Ducks “contenders for real,” as Carlsson said Sunday? A national audience Tuesday may find out.
“That was something that we talked about before the season, for us as the young guys to take a step,” he said. “My third season, Beckett’s first few games, but me, Cutter, Mac and those guys. It’s just about time, honestly.”
