With the Anaheim Ducks celebrating their 30th anniversary this season, now is the perfect time to look back. In the last 30 years, the Ducks have made history – from the Disney days to winning the first Stanley Cup in California and the decade of contention that followed – and now is the time to look back at the players that made these moments possible.
Related: Anaheim Ducks: Counting Down the 30 Greatest Moments (5-1)
This is the third installment of the countdown. Previous entries can be found below. The countdown will conclude at the end of this week before Anaheim’s opening game on Saturday, Oct. 14.
10. Guy Hebert
Paul Kariya often gets credit as “the original Mighty Duck” as he was the franchise’s first-ever pick in the entry draft and became the organization’s first home-grown star. But Guy Hebert has a solid argument for the title since he was Anaheim’s first pick in their 1993 Expansion Draft. The American-born goaltender was the primary backstop for the Ducks throughout the 1990s, with 441 games played from 1993-2000.
As the Ducks began to improve throughout the 90s, so did Hebert. In a four-season stretch from 1995-1999, he finished in the top-10 in Vezina voting three times, including a fourth-place finish in 1997. That year, he was named to the midseason All-Star Game, and the Ducks qualified for the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
Hebert set a standard of excellent goaltending that has followed the franchise ever since. Despite the great netminders that have come through Anaheim over the years, Hebert still ranks in the top three in most franchise records, including second in games played (441), third in wins (173), and second in saves (11,813).
9. Chris Pronger
Chris Pronger didn’t have the longest tenure in Anaheim, but three years was enough for the all-time great to make a significant impact. After helping the Edmonton Oilers beat the Ducks in the Western Conference Final in 2005, Pronger was traded to Anaheim and instantly formed one of the greatest pairings the NHL has ever seen alongside Scott Niedermayer. With the help of two Hall-of-Fame blueliners, the Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007. Pronger finished third in the Norris Trophy voting with a 59-point regular season and nearly 27 minutes of average time on ice. One of the more aggressive players of his generation, he was also suspended in two separate instances during the 2007 Postseason.
Despite playing only three years in Anaheim, Pronger’s 150 points still rank sixth all-time among Ducks’ defensemen. When Niedermayer stepped away to contemplate retirement in 2008, he was named the Ducks’ captain in his absence. His captaincy only lasted a year, but it’s a notable honor. The franchise has only had eight captains in its history, and six of them have yet to appear on this countdown.
8. Cam Fowler
Cam Fowler has had an underappreciated career in Anaheim, and it’ll likely end with him rewriting much of the record book. He is one of a few Ducks players who made the roster out of camp in their draft year, appearing in 76 games in 2010-11. He’s been the model of consistency over the last decade, appearing in no fewer than 59 games and scoring no less than 23 points in any full 82-game season. Now into his 30s, he’s upped his career-high point totals in back-to-back seasons with 42 and 48 points, respectively.
Fowler laps the field among Ducks’ defensemen in games played. With 893 games under his belt, he’s played 300 more than second-place Ruslan Salei. As a result, he’s also the runaway leader among defensemen in goals (91), assists (323), and points (414). With three more years left on his contract, he has a good chance to pass Teemu Selanne (966) and Corey Perry (988) in games played and join Ryan Getzlaf as the only players to reach 1,000 games in a Ducks uniform.
7. Steve Rucchin
With Kariya and Teemu Selanne on the same line, it may be easy to overlook their center. But Steve Rucchin was the man in the middle for Anaheim’s dynamic top line for much of the late 90s. He began his career as the second overall pick in the 1994 Supplemental Draft and quickly made his way onto NHL ice.
While Kariya and Selanne had no issues filling the back of the net, Rucchin was responsible for the line maintaining its two-way play. As a result, he appeared on Selke ballots in three separate seasons, including a seventh-place finish in 1999.
Rucchin’s biggest moment in Anaheim came in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the Detroit Red Wings in 2003. His overtime winner completed one of the most remarkable sweeps in sports history as the Mighty Ducks defeated the defending champions. In 616 games for the Ducks, Rucchin scored 432 points. He may be underrated due to the star power of his linemates, but he was never underappreciated among Ducks fans.
6. Scott Niedermayer
Appearing just outside of our top five is one of Anaheim’s biggest free-agent signings in franchise history. Scott Niedermayer decided to flip coasts and join his younger brother Rob in Southern California during the 2005 offseason and helped turn the team from a feel-good surprise finalist a few years prior into a Western Conference juggernaut. With Kariya a few years removed from the organization and Rucchin heading for New York after one season as captain, Niedermayer was given the ‘C’ to start the 2005-06 season.
Niedermayer’s first two seasons were the most successful for both himself and the team. A 63-point 2005-06 season propelled him to a second-place finish in the Norris Trophy voting as the Mighty Ducks reached the Western Conference Final. The following season, he scored 69 points and once again finished second in Norris voting. In the postseason, his game-tying goal in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final is still one of the greatest moments in franchise history. The Ducks went on to win the 2007 Stanley Cup, and Niedermayer won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.
Niedermayer took some time to contemplate retirement after winning the Stanley Cup, ceding the captaincy to Pronger. He returned in December and played for two more years. In Feb. 2019, the Ducks honored him by retiring his jersey number, joining Selanne and Kariya as the only three in the club’s history.
After his retirement, the Ducks needed a new captain. His successor is obviously going to appear in our upcoming top-five. Come back on Saturday (Oct. 14) to find out where they rank.
Statistics courtesy of Hockey-Reference.
