Anaheim, CA—Which sounds better: The Anaheim Ducks stood pat at the NHL Trading Deadline, or the Anaheim Ducks did nothing at the NHL Trading Deadline? Doing nothing, in fact, seems to be their GM’s modus operandi. And to look at him, you would have to say that he’s quite confident in his decisions.
Did they need to do anything? Because there’s certainly a tendency for teams to go out and do something just to be a part of the party. Pat Verbeek will never fall to that peer or fan pressure. He’s got a plan, he’s working it, and no, he’s not going to justify it to anyone save his boss, the team’s owner.
So what did the Ducks’ trade deadline look like? Well, on the official day, March 7th, Anaheim made no deals. The day prior, they got Oliver Kylington from the Islanders. That same day, they traded Brian Dumoulin to New Jersey for Herman Traff and a second-round pick this year.
Never heard of these acquisitions? Traff is a Swede playing in Sweden’s Junior ranks. He was born in 2005 (shocking most readers) and was picked up in the third round, 91st overall, by New Jersey in 2024. Kylington is also from Sweden, a 2015 draftee of Calgary in the second round. He has played up and down between the AHL and NHL, logging lots of time in the A early in his North American pro career then mostly sticking “up.” This year, he played 13 games with the Colorado Avalanche, notching 1-3-4 points. He signed with the Avs last August 4th, and was traded with Callum Ritchie to the Isles for Brock Nelson and William Dufour. He got flipped to the Ducks hours later. The return? “Future Considerations.” His NHL career as a left-shooting defenseman is 214 games with 18-41-59 points.
But forget these guys. The real action in Ducks-land right now is one Sam Colangelo. He is a 6’2”, 211-pound right winger. Drafted in 2020 in round two, he spent four years at two NCAA universities. His first season in pro hockey was last year, where he got into a handful of games with the San Diego Gulls and dipped into the NHL waters with three games.
This year, he’s had several call-ups with the Ducks while playing at almost a point-per-game pace in San Diego—35 points in 38 games, with more goals, 19, than assists, 16.
He has played 18 games so far this year with the Ducks, and his scoring pace was slow, until the past week. Now, he’s on a five-goals-in-four-games pace, including two against the Islanders on Sunday.
Each was notable in its own way. The first was a beauty, and I’ll describe it below. The second was an empty-netter, not scored in the last 100 seconds, as is so common, but with 8:18 gone in period three. Yes, that’s right—Patric Roy had his goalie out with 12 minutes to go. Is this a record? That’s being investigated.
But let’s get back to the first of Colangelo’s goals, his fourth in four games. First, his description of it, given in the locker room after the game. “It was a nice play by Mac-T [McTavish] to get It over to Cutter {Gauthier], and Cutter has a hell of a shot, and he could have shot, but he gave it to me for a breakaway. Very unselfish play.”
And a too-modest description. Here’s how I saw it: The goal saw him accept a pass while going left to right across the crease, and holding it to out-wait the goalie, Marcus Hogberg, and wristing it hard into an open cage, getting a piece of the reaching keeper’s arm as it flew.
Colangelo gave an evaluation of what this says about his stage of development: “Last week or two weeks ago when I was first called up, I would have just chipped that in and forechecked. But with time and plus more confidence, I have the ability to make more plays. That’s a play that I’ve made in San Diego all year, and I’m just starting to gain the confidence to make those plays in this league.”
In response to a later question, he reiterated, “The first few times I was called up, I was just getting [the puck] and getting rid of it too quick, and not letting plays develop, but in the past few games, I’ve been able to hold onto it more.”
After the game, he would tell Inside Hockey that “the plays being made in the NHL are unmatched to any league in the world. It’s the best league in the world, and if you’re open, good players will find you.”
Coach Greg Cronin, after the game, largely shared his player’s point of view about what the goal says about Colangelo’s game, as prompted by IH’s question: “When they come up, the game’s going super-fast. People who don’t play or aren’t on the ice level don’t realize how fast the game is. When you go from the American League to here, it’s way, way higher caliber hockey. And early when guys come up, they just get hurried and throw the puck away. I call them survival shifts. Then if they keep doing what we’re asking them to do, which is play with structure to their game, the game slows down, so they start to feel more comfortable, and there’s more space on the ice for them. I think what he did tonight is a reflection of that development.”
Four straight games with a goal is second-most in Ducks’ history. The team hopes Colangelo makes it five on Tuesday against the Washington Capitals.
Notes
Don’t tell me that Roy invented the early goalie pull. I remember Andy Murray doing it in around 2001 with the Kings when Roy was still guarding the nets for the Avalanche.
