Pat Verbeek is in charge of a team ahead of schedule.
The Anaheim Ducks were supposed to continue a slow and steady rebuild this season toward an eventual playoff return further down the road. The club’s general manager has instead watched his young group, led by a veteran bench boss back from the NHL wilderness, get shot out of a cannon.
“They’re working hard, they’re competing,” Verbeek said this week at the league’s annual November meeting of GMs in Toronto. “The goal going into the season was to play fast, and I think we’re starting to get to that level of playing fast.”
Tied for second in the overall standings with a surprising 11-4-1 record, Anaheim saw an impressive seven-game winning streak snapped Tuesday in a 4-1 road loss to the league-leading Colorado Avalanche.
But the Ducks have hung with the big boys through the first 16 games of the schedule, including two victories against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, and triumphs over the New Jersey Devils, Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Winnipeg Jets.
Anaheim centre Leo Carlsson and his 26 points entered Wednesday’s action tied with Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks for second in the scoring race — six back of Colorado superstar Nathan MacKinnon.
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Verbeek saw a different player after the six-foot-three, 208-pound Swede suited up for his country alongside elite talent at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament last February.
Set to turn 21 next month and a pending restricted free agent next summer, Carlsson had 26 points in 28 games to close out the 2024-25 schedule. He’s found the scoresheet in all but two games this season, and extended his point streak to 11 contests with Anaheim’s only goal Tuesday in Denver.
“You’re looking at a kid that really got confident,” Verbeek, who ranks 37th all-time in the NHL with 1,424 regular-season games played, said of Carlssonâ€s demeanour after the 4 Nations. “It was kind of an understanding from him of, ‘I guess I can play with these guys.'”
Winger Cutter Gauthier is another young piece of the roster whoâ€s taken a significant step on a team that sits second in the league behind Colorado with 3.94 goals per game.
The 21-year-old struggled with the uptick in speed at the NHL level last season, but has found a rhythm in his second full campaign with 20 points (11 goals, nine assists) out of the gate.
“They went through their growing pains,” Verbeek said of both players. “It’s just maturity, it’s experience. They were very good players in junior. It’s a process. It’s just getting comfortable.”
The Ducks also have a couple of former New York Rangers veterans in defenceman Jacob Trouba and forward Chris Kreider pitching in, solid goaltending from Lukas Dostal, and offensive punch from rookie winger Beckett Sennecke.
But perhaps the most credit for Anaheim’s start should go to Joel Quenneville as the club looks to end a seven-year playoff drought.
The second-winningest head coach in NHL history was hired in May after almost four years out of the game for his role in the Chicago Blackhawks’ sexual assault scandal. Quenneville took responsibility, acknowledged his inaction, and said he was a changed man when he got the job with Anaheim.
Verbeek has seen an immediate impact on and off the ice.
“Instant credibility with his resume,” he said of the three-time Cup winner in Chicago. “All the things that he’s preached to the team during training camp, practices … the players have done it and they’ve been rewarded for it. Now there’s the belief and the buy-in.
“For any good team, that has to be.”
The Hockey Hall of Fame welcomed Joe Thornton, Zdeno Chara, Duncan Keith, Alexander Mogilny, Jennifer Botterill, Brianna Decker, Jack Parker and Danièle Sauvageau as its class of 2025 this week.
Names potentially in the running for next year’s roll call include Patrice Bergeron, Carey Price, Eric Staal, Patrick Marleau, Henrik Zetterberg, Rod Brind’Amour, Bernie Nicholls, Keith Tkachuk and Meghan Duggan.Â
The Canadiens took a big step with their playoff return last spring. And much like the Ducks, they have exceeded expectations a month into the new season.
Montreal tops the Atlantic Division at 10-4-2 thanks in large part to the top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky.
“We’re happy with the way the team is playing,” GM Kent Hughes said in French following Tuesday’s meeting of NHL executives at a downtown Toronto hotel. “They’re playing a more mature game than what we’ve seen since I’ve been here. That comes with experience, and we know that every year the players gain experience. But there’s a lot of work to do.
“It will be important to manage our consistency, to be able to handle the downs — when they come — in a better manner than in the past year. I’m confident that they’re in position to do so.”
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