The Anaheim Ducks head into the 2025 offseason with $38.69 million in cap space and need to spend $13.79 million to reach the cap floor. Ownership has given general manager Pat Verbeek a mandate to push for the playoffs in 2025-26 and has given him the green light to spend to the cap ceiling, if it’s deemed necessary to achieve that goal.

Barring extensions signed before July 1, the 2025 free agent class will consist of one franchise-altering superstar (Mitch Marner) and a long list of quality players just beneath at every position who could provide varying degrees of their personal brand and impact to a team’s depth chart.

The Ducks currently have 16 players under contract for the 2025-26 season, with five restricted free agents under team control.

They were a team near the bottom of the league in most traditional and underlying statistical categories in 2024-25 and could use upgrades at several positions within their lineup. Verbeek has stated his priority to add goal scoring, and recently hired head coach Joel Quenneville has traditionally valued puck possession.

Three spots in the lineup the Ducks could look to address in free agency are a top-of-the-lineup producing forward, a two-way middle-six center, and a mobile defensive defenseman.

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With how the Ducks roster is constructed and the brand of hockey they’re hoping to ice on a nightly basis, who are the best fits on the free agent market?

Middle Six Center

While Verbeek has stated the Ducks’ biggest need heading into the 2025-26 season is improved goal scoring. The point-producing forwards at the very top of the free agency class are enticing (Mitch Marner, Nikolaj Ehlers, Brock Boeser, etc.), but it can be argued that the actual glaring weakness within the Ducks’ depth chart is a two-way middle-six center.

In the 2024-25 season, the Ducks allowed the 10th-most goals per game (3.18) in the NHL, the most shots against per game (32.3), and deployed the league’s 29th-ranked penalty kill (74.2%).

An improved offense will naturally lift those defensive numbers. Still, as the current roster is constructed, the Ducks don’t have a reliable option down the middle who can match up against opposing top lines, win a key faceoff, and kill penalties while providing depth scoring at the other end of the ice.

All contract projections provided byAFP Analytics

Mikael Granlund

Contract Projection: 2 years, $4,975,550 AAV

Granlund (33) enters the 2025 offseason having produced at the third-highest rate in his 13-year NHL career, when he scored 66 points (22-44=66) in 83 games. Though a natural center, he was shifted to the wing after a mid-season trade sent him from the San Jose Sharks to the Dallas Stars, where he finished his 2024-25 campaign with 21 points (7-14=21) in 31 games, and added ten points (5-5=10) in 18 playoff games before the Stars were eliminated in the Western Conference Final by the Edmonton Oilers.

Granlund is a detail-oriented center who can be classified more as a play-builder or play-connector than a driver, as his career high goal total for a single season sits at 26, and he’s only eclipsed the 20-goal mark three times. He correctly fills lanes off the puck and angles attackers to low-danger areas while seldom missing assignments in coverage.

Though his contract will likely come in at a higher dollar value and term than projected (unless he remains in Dallas), he’s the kind of center that can keep up with opposing talented centers, defensively, while buoying offense from a second or third line.

Pius Suter

Contract Projection: 4 years, $4,983,054 AAV

Suter (29) just wrapped his fifth full season in the NHL after having gone previously undrafted and garnering attention following a successful five-year career in the Swiss NL. His comfort level in the NHL has seemingly increased year after year, culminating in career highs in goals (25), assists (21), and points (46) in 2024-25 for the Vancouver Canucks.

He was the most-utilized Canucks forward on the penalty kill in 2024-25 and featured on their second power play unit. Only two of his 25 goals were scored with the man-advantage, highlighting his proficiency at 5v5. Though a capable defender who possesses a nose for the net, his face-off percentage was a poor 42.7% last season.

Despite a slight frame (5-foot-11, 174 pounds), Suter is consistently below pucks and in proper positions to support. He has the potential to be an impactful complementary player in the middle six of a forward group like the Ducks have.

Brock Nelson

Contract Projection: 3 years, $7,060,633

Nelson (33) has been one of the most consistent and healthy 50-60 point centers in the NHL for most of his 13-year NHL career, setting career highs across the board in 2022-23 with 75 points (36-39=75) in 82 games.

He made an immediate impact after a mid-season trade from the New York Islanders to the Colorado Avalanche in 2024-25, where he finished his campaign with 13 points (6-7) in 19 games and added four assists in seven playoff games.

Nelson featured on the Islanders’ second penalty kill unit in 2024-25 and has been used sparingly in that role throughout his career.

He’s surprisingly speedy and physically imposing with his 6-foot-4, 212-pound frame, which he utilizes to win battles in tight areas and disrupt plays with his length. Though not a traditional matchup and penalty-killing center, if he is to earn his projected AAV, especially with a team like the Ducks, who are in need, he would likely be tasked with taking on more defensive responsibilities.

Other potential fits on the free agent market: Sam Bennett, John Tavares, Christian Dvorak

A middle-six center with offensive capabilities but is also willing and able to assume difficult defensive roles is potentially the biggest weakness in the Ducks’ depth chart heading into next season. Listed centers on the current roster include Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, Trevor Zegras, Ryan Strome, and Isac Lundestrom.

If the team does indeed intend to make a significant push for the playoffs in 2025-26, there will come times when they need to pull out a close win and relatively shut down elite opponents like Nathan MacKinnon, Jack Eichel, Connor McDavid, etc. At this stage in their careers, none of the mentioned five centers on the Ducks roster have that capacity just yet, if they ever will.

Adding a capable two-way center will alleviate some of those responsibilities for the Ducks’ budding stars and will allow them to explore the reaches of their offensive potential.

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Photo: Apr 21, 2025; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars center Mikael Granlund (64) in action during the game between the Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche in game two of the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Marchand grateful for Stanley Cup chance with Panthers after ‘stressful' season originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Brad Marchand is now four wins away from his second Stanley Cup title, something that has eluded him for more than a decade.

He has made a seamless transition to the Panthers lineup after being sent to Florida on trade deadline day in March following 16 seasons with the Boston Bruins.

The veteran forward has played his role on the third line alongside Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen almost flawlessly. Marchand has tallied 14 points in 17 playoff games for the Panthers so far. The only player with more postseason points than Marchand since 2011 is Nikita Kucherov.

But the 2024-25 campaign hasn’t been easy for the 37-year-old left wing. The first five months of the season with the Bruins were filled with challenges.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the B’s were not a playoff-caliber team. Marchand is also in the final year of his contract, and he wasn’t able to work out an extension with the Bruins before the trade deadline.

“It was stressful in a lot of senses, just because some of them were situations I really hadn’t been in before, and I wouldn’t say I dealt with them great,” Marchand told reporters at Stanley Cup Final media day in Edmonton on Tuesday, per Sportsnet.

“The business side of it, I let it frustrate me, and then obviously our team wasn’t having the success we expected. And we were having a hard time getting back on track.

“Eventually we did, and we thought we were climbing back into a playoff position, and then we kind of fell apart. There were different hurdles that continued to get frustrating and stressful throughout the year.

“But that’s part of the game, and you’ve got to find ways to deal with it. Like I said, I wish I had done a better job at times, but something I can learn from.”

Marchand won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 — his first full season as an NHL player. He played on a lot of other great Bruins teams, including two that reached the Cup Final in 2013 and 2019, but Boston lost both series.

Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images

Now that he’s back in the Cup Final for the fourth time — with Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers set for Wednesday — he’s making sure he appreciates the opportunity in front of him, because you never know if it will ever come again.

“With the things that went on this year and how I ended up here — just so many things can happen that you don’t expect, and you never know when you’re going to have another opportunity like this,” Marchand told reporters at media day Tuesday, including Sportsnet’s Luke Fox.

“I’m just so grateful to be part of a group like this. And even if you take the finals out of it, just to be part of the group. It’s been an incredible experience, and one that I was little worried about, and didn’t know how I was going to come into the team, if I was going to be able to gel with everyone. I’m extremely grateful for it — and really, really excited about it.”

Marchand’s future is unknown. He is able to hit free agency for the first time in his career this summer. Overall, it’s a fairly weak free agent class, and Marchand could be one of the top players available if he hits the open market.

Marchand might not be a first-line player anymore, but this playoff run with the Panthers has proven that he still makes a tremendous impact on winning at the most important time of the year. He can score, defend, contribute to special teams, and his leadership is fantastic.

Marchand is, in many ways, the ideal final piece for a team that’s close to winning a championship and just needs a little more depth and experience.