Cam Fowler is the longest active tenured Anaheim Duck. He made his debut in 2010-11, the season following Scott Niedermayer’s retirement, when the likes of Francois Beauchemin, Toni Lydman, and Luca Sbisa were patrolling the Ducks’ blue line. At the mere age of 32, he has already logged 14 seasons of NHL play, six of which have included 70 or more games played (plus an additional two of 67 and 69). He has never averaged less than 20:26 in ice time for a season. As the team’s best skater, defender, and power play quarterback, he has been the indisputable top dog on Anaheim’s blue line every minute since Niedermayer’s departure.
Fowler is one of a few veterans on the roster with plenty to offer, but the emergence of several young Duck defenders with a similar or more diverse skill set likely means that Fowler’s days as the team’s top option on defense are numbered. It may not be the 2024-25 campaign, but it will be soon. Today, we’ll look at his run as the team’s top defenseman, what and where he can still bring value to the Ducks, and how much he has left.
Fowler Has Two Distinct Careers in Run as Ducks’ Top Blueliner
Fowler joined the Ducks’ defensive ranks at the start of a new decade in Ducks hockey in 2010-11. Teemu Selanne remained the face of the franchise, but the aforementioned Niedermayer retired, Ryan Getzlaf was named captain, Beauchemin was their top defenseman, and Corey Perry was their best goal scorer. The Ducks were all aboard the Getzlaf-Perry-Fowler-Beauchemin train in the early part of the decade, and picked up passengers along the way in Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, Brandon Montour, Shea Theodore, Sami Vatanen, Sbisa, and many others. Players who, at one point or another, were expected to co-lead alongside Fowler. However, Fowler quickly became the best of the bunch with his ability to skate, move the puck, and use his offensive instincts, so much so that he outlasted literally every single defenseman the Ducks brought in over the course of his career in Anaheim. How has it played out?
We know well the Ducks’ successes of the mid-2010s. Fowler was a key cog of a true Stanley Cup contending roster for a majority of those years, but he and the team never got over the hump because the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks, and Nashville Predators were all just a little bit better. Each of those teams was remarkable defensively, and boasted top-pairing defensemen like Drew Doughty, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Roman Josi, PK Subban, and others. Norris Trophy candidates and winners.
Though Fowler is an Olympian and a dynamic multi-faceted defenseman, he probably falls one rung below these names. What he shared with them all was the ability to be an effective, all-situations workhorse. He quarterbacked the power play, ate up even-strength minutes against the best-opposing forwards, and was constantly on the ice for penalty kills. He brought a different look to the defensive side of the game than Beauchemin and the other Ducks defensemen did. To this day, he has a calming presence about him, not unlike Niedermayer, in the way he skates, moves the puck, and defends with his feet and stick, and not so much physicality.
However, we still arrive at the reality that the Ducks, with Fowler at the defensive helm, didn’t reach the pinnacle. Is that because he didn’t reach that elite, Tier-1 level that those other guys did? No. The Ducks were good enough on paper to reach another Stanley Cup Final, but lost the battle of attrition on a couple of occasions and never quite had a potent enough offense.
Phase two of Fowler’s career in Orange County has been far less glamorous. While he has still served as a top-pairing defenseman, he has done so for an aging team that rapidly lost its competitiveness with each passing season. From 2018-2022, he co-led a defensive unit alongside Manson, Montour, and Lindholm. They were supported offensively by aging veterans Getzlaf, Perry, and Ryan Kesler, and young forwards including Rickard Rakell, Nick Ritchie, Andrew Cogliano, Jakob Silfverberg, and others. Over the course of those seasons, it became increasingly clear that that combination of players was not going to work. Fowler, despite playing the bulk of his prime in these years, not unlike John Gibson, was effective, but not enough to push them over the hump. Ipso facto, the Ducks turned over a majority of their assets, and accumulated draft capital, and that’s where they find themselves today.
Multiple Factors Affect Fowler’s Grip Atop Ducks’ Defensive Depth Chart
Fowler remains a good player. He can still move well and distribute the puck. His 38 assists in 2022-23 and 34 in 2023-24 are the two best assist totals of his career. He stands to serve as an invaluable mentor for the young Ducks. But he’s also a whopping minus-59 in the last two seasons. So, when it comes to his role as the all-situations top option, the writing is on the wall for him. When that happens, it comes down to a number of factors.
First, it’s his own abilities. He’ll turn 33 in December, which is when everyone starts to wonder how much of one’s prime, if any, is left. If he is no longer in his prime, and does not have the same step, then there will certainly be a clock on his top-pairing status. Second, it’s the people behind him. There are a number of players in the Ducks’ pipeline that want (or should want, at least) what Fowler had for 10-plus years. How fast can Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintukov, two candidates primed to assume Fowler’s role, push Fowler down the depth chart? It might not be that simple, because Fowler objectively still brings a lot of on-ice skill to the table. He still needs to be out there against the team’s best players and play an active role in special teams. Pat Verbeek and Greg Cronin should make those young players earn the minutes. My guess is that is what we’ll see. It might happen in 2024-25, it might not.
Fowler Will Lose Offensive Opportunities but Remains Big Piece of Defensive Puzzle
Despite the mileage on his body and the pipeline of players behind him, Fowler has paid his dues in Anaheim and deserves the right to decide for himself if he wants to finish his career playing for the only organization he knows. Unless he is traded or decides that he wants a change of scenery when he becomes a free agent, he is likely to end up the franchise leader in games played, where he currently ranks third all-time. He will also end up holding a number of defensive franchise records and is always in the mix for a leadership position given his experience, leadership, and respect within the organization. All of this plus losing your spot on the depth chart can be true at the same time. And I’d be willing to bet that’s what we’ll see.
Related: Anaheim Ducks 2024-25 Projected Lineup
The youth movement is officially on in Anaheim, and it was evident last season. They were one of the league’s youngest teams. Full-time spots were rightfully granted to players that deserved chances. Cronin gave major ice time and opportunities to their young defensemen as the 2023-24 season wore on. Mintyukov and Zellweger, in particular, got opportunities on the power play that were previously monopolized by Fowler. They both, at this point, are quicker, move the puck better, shoot better, have superior offensive instincts and therefore more likely to build chemistry with power play forwards like Zegras, Cutter Gauthier, Carlsson, and McTavish.
This probably pushes Fowler to a secondary unit, which will likely feature some combination of Alex Killorn, Frank Vatrano, and Troy Terry. Those combinations will likely change over the course of a season, but you get the idea. Fowler probably loses some power play time. As a veteran, he’ll likely continue drawing the opposition’s best lines and command time on the penalty kill, because he, Gudas, and the newly-acquired Brian Dumoulin will have far more to offer defensively than their young counterparts.
Fowler is a Ducks Icon, but Unspectacular Prime Has Left Us Thinking ‘What If’
I’ve always been of the mindset that we never saw the best of Fowler. He has always been effective, sure. But every once in a while, he makes a play or a move that left me thinking, “Wow. I don’t know why we don’t see that more often.” Am I alone in that? Maybe it’s the nonchalance and smoothness with which he plays and moves around on the ice. Maybe it’s the fact that he never really mixes it up physically. It’s left me feeling like he has always had more to give. It’s truly unfortunate that the prime of his career coincided with the Ducks’ transition from perennial contender to basement dweller.
Anyhow, the present-day Fowler remains the leader of a defense that is slowly transitioning away from its veterans and toward its dynamic prospects. If the Ducks are to continue their climb out of a rebuild and toward playoff contention, they’ll need Fowler. His role in that transition just may not be what fans are accustomed to.
What do you envision for Fowler as he approaches season 15 in Anaheim? Let us know in the comments below!
