The Anaheim Ducks are a franchise with its eyes set on the future. The current six-season playoff drought is the longest in its 31-year existence, and there’s nothing to suggest it will end this season. While they have a bright and exciting future, there are still growing pains to exercise with a young roster.
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Despite a poor team outlook this season, several individual players are within striking distance of various milestones. Here’s a list of upcoming games played, goals, assists, points, and wins milestones to look forward to during the 2024-25 season, including one player’s push to 1,000 games and a goaltender eyeing a franchise record.
Cam Fowler’s Push to 1,000 Shines Among 13 Games Played Milestones
Hundred-game milestones are fairly common in the NHL, as an 82-game regular season makes most upcoming century marks attainable with enough health. Several members of Anaheim’s youth movement can reach 100 games this season, including Leo Carlsson (55 games played in his career), Pavel Mintyukov (63 games) and Jackson LaCombe (73 games). Olen Zellweger is in a bit of a no-man’s land — his 26 games played disqualifies him from Calder consideration, but the 5-foot-9 defenseman will need to have a remarkably healthy first full season in the NHL to hit 100 games.
Several veterans on the roster are also nearing various century marks. Newcomer Robby Fabbri will be the first to reach a milestone, as he’s only two games away from 400. Ryan Strome only needs 18 to reach 800 in his career and should hit the mark by late November. Frank Vatrano (564 games), Isac Lundestrom (258 games), and Mason McTavish (153 games) can reach their respective milestones in the first half of the season. Newly-minted captain Radko Gudas (748 games), Troy Terry (350 games), and Brian Dumoulin (626 games) will require a little extra time and some additional luck from injuries but are all within reach.
Cam Fowler is the biggest standout on this list as he approaches 1,000 games. The 1,000 games played club has rapidly expanded in recent years but still has less than 400 members. Even more exclusively, Fowler can be the 49th member of the club to do it all with one franchise and only the second after Ryan Getzlaf to do it with the Ducks.
Terry, Two Others Approaching 100 Goals
Most of Anaheim’s goal-scoring talent skews young, so there aren’t any lofty goal milestones to look out for. However, three different players are very close to the 100-goal mark. Similar to his games played milestone, Fabbri only needs two goals for one hundred in his career. Fowler (96 career goals) had a decent chance at 100 goals going into last season, but his production was cut in half from 10 goals in 2022-23 to only five in 2023-24.
Terry (95 goals) is Anaheim’s only top-six-caliber player approaching a goal milestone. The 27-year-old had a 37-goal breakout in the 2021-22 season but has seen his production decline in consecutive seasons.
Zegras Nearing Points and Assists Milestones
Three Ducks players are nearing assist milestones. Ryan Strome (283 career assists) is comfortably within his career average to reach 300 helpers. Fellow veteran Alex Killorn is only 14 assists away from 300 in his career as well. The 35-year-old winger had a career-high 37 assists in his final season in Tampa Bay, but he only recorded 18 in 63 games in his debut with Anaheim. Star forward Trevor Zegras’ nightmare 2023-24 campaign held him back from several milestones, but his next assist will be the 100th of his career.
For points milestones, McTavish is only 12 points from 100 in his career and an expected breakout from him suggests he’ll hit that mark quickly. Frank Vatrano (271 career points) also has a clear path to a new milestone, and Zegras only needs 46 points for 200 in his career. Fowler (453 points), Gudas (182 points), and Terry (230 points) are all within reach but will need to produce at their career-high rates.
Gibson and Dostal’s Win Totals
Goaltending wins isn’t the best statistic to measure performance, but both John Gibson and Lukas Dostal are nearing win totals that are meaningful to Anaheim’s history. At 193 career wins, Gibson is well within reach to hit 200 this season. Even more significantly, Jean-Sébastien Giguère’s franchise leading mark sits at 206. Gibson would need to match last season’s win total of 13 to match the record, which may be difficult as Dostal continues to eat into his starts.
Despite only entering his second full season in the NHL, Dostal is quickly climbing up the ranks in Ducks history. He only has 19 career wins, but a 15-win season would have him pass Mikhail Shtalenkov for sixth all-time among Anaheim netminders. A history of consistency in net is a big reason their all-time leaderboards thins out so quickly — in Anaheim’s 2,357 games as a franchise, 1,691 (nearly 72%) had one of Guy Hebert, Jonas Hiller, Giguere, or Gibson between the pipes. Dostal figures to be the next name on this list, and his climb through the leaderboards is only a matter of time.
Even in a season with minimal expectations, there will always be something regarding the Ducks worth watching. Whether it’s the development of prospects or these listed milestones, every game is still meaningful in Anaheim.
