The past few seasons have not been kind to Jakob Silfverberg, the 32-year-old Swede and second-most active tenured member of the Anaheim Ducks. After exiting the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons early with significant injuries or health problems, he has safely returned to play all but one game of the 2022-23 season, collecting 10 goals and 16 assists in the process. With his performance this season, he has crept into Anaheim’s top-10 ranks in a variety of categories, including but not limited to appearances, shorthanded goals, and game-winning goals.
He has displayed all the professionalism, leadership, and effort necessary to earn the nomination he received for the 2023 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy annually awarded to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Winning the award would be a sweet top-off to his comeback season and career thus far in Anaheim. Before the award is announced at the NHL Awards on June 26 in Nashville, let’s rewind and take a look back at his time in a Ducks sweater.
Arrival in Anaheim
Silfverberg, Stephen Noesen, and a first-round draft pick were traded to the Ducks from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Bobby Ryan on July 5, 2013. If you were like me, then your immediate reaction was, “We traded Bobby Ryan for who?” After all, Ryan was a four-time 30-goal scorer in his first six seasons in the NHL.
However, the Ducks were in a salary cap crunch and weren’t realizing playoff success in those years. So, they made the trade and brought over Silfverberg as a young prospect, a player former-general manager (GM) Bob Murray had liked for years, calling him “[a] very smart hockey player with a great shot.” He made the team that first season and soon became a half-point-ish per-game player, where he has hovered for most of his healthy years. While that didn’t replicate Ryan’s offensive outputs, that’s not what he was expected to do. He isn’t the same player. He also brought a defensively sound game to the table that made him a key part of the team in its contending years.
Silfverberg the Shooter
Another way Silfverberg won people over? With that lethal shot of his, both in games and especially in the shootout.
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Early on in his career, it was like clockwork. The same exact shot, the same exact result. Goalies knew what he was going to do and still couldn’t stop it. Take a look here at the compilation of shootout goals he scored in 2014-15, his second season in Anaheim.
Silfverberg picks up the puck on his backhand, skates to his left after crossing the blue line, stickhandles a few times as he cuts back in toward the hash marks, and quick release. Boom. Goalies rarely stood a chance. You don’t often see the same shot from the same player work with such high efficiency in the shootout, but Silfverberg was one of the few that made it work. And it was pretty to watch.
The Silfverberg-Kesler-Cogliano Days
I mentioned earlier that his defensive instincts as a forward made him an integral part of the team during its days as a Stanley Cup contender in the mid-2010s. Those instincts made him a natural fit with Ryan Kesler and Andrew Cogliano, two players who shared those traits. They formed a dynamic line that could score but also focus on shutting down the opposition.
The trio effectively utilized both their common and differentiating qualities as a complement to Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry’s scoring punch. Kesler’s competitiveness and finishing ability and Cogliano’s speed complemented Silfverberg’s responsibility and hockey sense. Together, they formed one heck of a unit that gave all sorts of Western Conference stars – Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Toews, Ryan Johansen, and Connor McDavid – fits in the playoffs. It reminded me, and I’m sure many others, of the days in 2007 when Samuel Påhlsson, Rob Niedermayer, and Travis Moen would wreak havoc while Getzlaf, Teemu Selanne, Andy McDonald, and company provided the offense.
Silfverberg Deserves This Recognition
While he developed into a fan favorite over the years, Silfverberg’s run as a top-six forward for the Ducks effectively ended when they faded from Cup contention in the late 2010s. Kesler became a shell of himself, and Cogliano was shipped away in 2019. Since then, he’s played throughout the lineup and in all situations, but hasn’t had the same on-ice impact that he did while playing with Kesler and Cogliano.
Despite this, Silfverberg has always been a respected player by his teammates, organization, and his peers for the commitment and integrity with which he plays the game. His long-time alternate-captaincy role in Anaheim, 2020 All-Star Game nomination, and 2023 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy nomination proves that. Winning this award would be the ultimate way to cap off his first healthy season in three years. If he does, he would be the first Duck to win it since Teemu Selanne took it home in 2006.
