The Anaheim Ducks have sucessfully traded for future Franchise Defenceman Moritz Seider, who comes from Hockeytown in return for Jamie Drysdale. On the very same day GM Mohr drafted another promising defenceman in Aron Kiviharju (10th overall) who might become a future version of the migrated Drysdale.

Seider is the second "Mannheim Boy" on the Ducks team, after GM Mohr traded for fellow German forward Tim Stützle in late March. The 23-year-old spent the last four seasons with the Detroit Red Wings (289 GP, 24 G, 69 A, 84 PTS) and is on a new 4-year-contract, earning him a total of $12,400,000 and $3,100,000 per season. "We're very happy to have Mo on our team now, and we're looking forward to keep pushing him to the next level. Not just defensive-wise.", GM Mohr told the media.

Just hours later Anaheim picked another defenceman at the 2024 Entry Draft, with there lone and 10th overall Pick: 18-year-old Aron Kiviharju from Finland. Scouts say, that Kiviharju could wind up being a bit better than Jamie Drysdale is right now, and that he has the potential to become a top player in the league. "We won't rush Aron here. Give him time to develop two more years in his native Finland.", GM Mohr said shortly after drafting Kiviharju.

The Ducks made another change sending Swedish Prospect Defenceman Carl Lindvall to the Boston Bruins, in return for Prospect Winger Andreas Ahokainen - another kid from Finland. So it seems Anaheim is already working on making Kiviharju feel home once he is ready to come overseas to Orange County. (MM)

With just a  week left in the 2023-24 campaign the Anaheim Ducks take stock after missing the playoffs for the third straight season under GM Mohr. The team decided to take a step back when trading away some veterans and huge contracts.

"We reached a point in the season, where we had to make a decision: Do we want to be buyers and hope for a short boost making the playoffs or do we want to be sellers and give our young guys another year. At the end of the day we felt we made the right decision and both team and ownership agreed with me.", GM Mohr told the media. Now, let's look at the most important trades. 

Jonas Rondbjerg (from Pittsburgh) - The 24-year-old Danish winger came in exchange for Maxime Comtois, who struggled this season in Anaheim with just 6 goals and 8 assists in 44 games. Not good enough for a guy with a cap hit of $4.5 million until the end of the 2026-27 season.

Jonas Rondbjerg (with Anaheim): 33 GP,  4 G, 17 A, 21 PTS, GR 59

Maxime Comtois (with Pittsburgh): 32 GP, 7 G, 5 A, 12 PTS, GR 60

Kaiden Guhle (from Pittsburgh) - The 22-year-old Canadian defenceman came together with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick in exchange for starting goalie John Gibson, who also struggled over the past few seasons in Anaheim. Knowing that GM Mohr went full youth, giving both Dostal and Eliasson a chance to fight for the starting job in the future - and had another huge $6.7 million contract until the end of the 2026-27 season off his list.

Kaiden Guhle (with Anaheim): 21 GP, 2 G, 3 A, 5 PTS, GR 62

John Gibson (with Pittsburgh): 9 GP, 3 W, 5 L, 1 SOL, 3.81 GAA SV% .903, GR 74

Ryan Johnson (from Buffalo) - The 22-year-old US-born defenceman joined the Ducks together with a 2nd round pick in exchange for veteran defenceman Hampus Lindholm, who had quite a good season but GM Mohr felt his team could get younger on the D for the right price. And as already mentioned above, Lindholm has a huge $8.1 million contract until the end of the 2026-27 campaign, giving the Ducks a lot of options now on future contract negotiations with their young and promising core players.

Ryan Johnson (with Anaheim): 18 GP, 1 G, 2 A, 3 PTS, GR 62

Hampus Lindholm (with Buffalo): 16 GP, 2 G, 4 A, 6 PTS, GR 64

Tim Stützle (from Vegas): The 22-year-old German winger came together with forward Carl Grundström (now with Los Angeles) and Vegas' 1st round pick in 2025, in exchange for winger Trevor Zegras, youngster Luke Tuch and the Ducks' 1st round pick in 2025. The deal came pretty much out of nowhere and if there was one player to trade Zegras for it's Tim Stützle, one of GM Mohr's most wanted players in the PSHL (Greetings go to Detroit!). And at least for next season Anaheim will have another huge cap relief when Zegras' new $5.4 million contract kicks in until the end of the 2026-27 season, while Stützle will still be on his ELC.

Tim Stützle (with Anaheim): 18 GP, 4 G, 12 A, 16 PTS, GR 64

Trevor Zegras (with Vegas): 18 GP, 8 G, 9 A, 17 PTS, GR 64

Everyone in Anaheim and Orange County is excited how that bunch of promising players will perform in a full season, after they have already shown their talent with a very impressive and unexpected 7-4-1 record in February. Can't wait for the 2024-25 season to begin! (MM)

Ducks GM Matthias Mohr today announced that the team will rest its First Line  starting into the 2023-2024 Pre Season.

Forwards Trevor Zegras, Marco Rossi and Troy Terry will be healthy scratches, same as defencemen Hampus Lindholm and Jackson Drysdale. Instead young forwards Dylan Duke, Cole Huckins and Anton Zhernosek will get top-line minutes, same as defencemen Sean Behrens and Martin Koudelka. Also Jesper Eliasson will be listed as Starting Goalie, with fellow Griffins teammate Lukas Dostal backing him up.

"We want to give those kids a taste of what it's like to play in an elite league. Hopefully they take this experience as additional motivation into the upcoming season and become really good players for the Anaheim Ducks in the near future.", GM Mohr told the media earlier today. (MM)

Projected lineup for the 2023-2024 Pre Season:

Dylan Duke - Cole Huckins - Anton Zhernosek - Sean Behrens - Martin Koudelka

Brayden Tracey - Sam Steel - Ondrej Kase - Joel Edmundson - Jake Bean

Maxime Comtois - Liam Arnsby - Rickard Rakell - Jackson Lacombe - Chris Tanev

Nick Ritchie - Boone Jenner - Jakob Silfverberg

Jesper Eliasson - Lukas Dostal

The Anaheim Ducks have signed Unrestricted Free Agent Chris Tanev to a three-year contract for $2.0 million per season.

The 33-year-old Canadian is meant to be a third-pair defenceman on Anaheims roster. Tanev so far has played a total of 737 games (39 goals, 147 assists) in the PSHL for the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins. In the 2022-2023 season the Defensive Defenceman scored a total of 3 goals and 10 assists in 40 games for the Canucks, before being dealt to the Bruins - where he didn't manage to score any point in another 13 games.

"Chris is a veteran in this league and brings a lot of toughness to our team. He's expected to strengthen our defensive core and protect our future star players from getting hurt or being involved into dirty fights.", GM Mohr said. (MM)