In the NHL Network’s latest list of the ‘Top-20 players right now’, Jaccob Slavin ranked as the eighth-best defenseman. 

Around this time last year, Slavin slotted in as the 13th-ranked defenseman on the list, so he moved up five spots. 

From his time playing for Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off and obviously for his time with the Carolina Hurricanes, Slavin has gained recognition as one of most productive shut-down blueliners in the entire NHL.

“Jaccob might be the best defender in the NHL, and he has already cemented himself as one of the best players to ever put on a Hurricanes uniform,” Hurricanes General Manager Eric Tulsky said. “He is a crucial leader for our team, both on and off the ice, and keeping him in Carolina long term was a top priority.”

This past season, the 31-year-old defenseman recorded six goals, 21 assists, and 27 points in 80 games while averaging 21:34 minutes.

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The defensemen who ranked ahead of Slavin on this list include Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, Miro Heiskanen, Victor Hedman, Josh Morrissey, and Rasmus Dahlin.

With the new youth movement the Seattle Kraken are embracing, Ville Ottavainen could be a quiet contender to play several games in the NHL.

The 23-year-old completed his second season in the AHL with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and although his point totals were lower this past season, his all-around game improved, earning a call-up to the NHL when the season was concluding. In his NHL debut, he recorded an assist in 14:24 of ice time. 

Ottavainen finished the 2024-25 AHL season with three goals and 15 points in 68 games, a step down from his eight goals and 34 points in his 70-game rookie campaign. 

The 2021 fourth-round pick (99th overall) possesses a massive 6-foot-5, 210-pound frame that assists him in keeping the front of the net clear. His long reach breaks up plays in transition and when his opponents are cycling the pucks. 

His breakout abilities prior to the draft were what scouts said were holding him back. Since then, he's made improvements to that aspect of his game and has at the very least become a capable puck mover. His strengths could complement Ryker Evans' game, and Evans' strengths could complement Ottavainen's if the two were paired in the NHL. 

Currently, Ottavainen is on the outside looking in, but a strong training camp and pre-season could put him on coach Lane Lambert's radar. Lambert loves players who can kill plays, and Ottavainen does it better than most. 

On the depth chart, Vince Dunn, Adam Larsson, Brandon Montour, Ryan Lindgren and Evans are without a doubt ahead of him. Jamie Oleksiak and Josh Mahura likely are too, but plenty of rumors have circulated about Oleksiak's availability on the trade market, and Mahura was signed to serve as the seventh defenseman. 

Ottavainen may have to start the season in the AHL, but he could find himself up on the NHL roster very quickly if he continues to impress as he's done previously. 

This has been the most transformative offseason in recent memory for the Anaheim Ducks. With general manager Pat Verbeek’s contract nearing an end and a green light from ownership to do whatever it takes to end the organization’s seven-year playoff drought, the third-longest in the NHL, major surgery has been done to the makeup of team personnel. All of it in the name of making the playoffs in 2025-26.

“I think I see this team at a point to where my expectation of this team is to make the playoffs next year,” Verbeek said on April 19, following the firing of Greg Cronin as head coach. “I expect our group to take a step, and so I'm going to be active and aggressive in making our team better.”

Since that date, the roster has undergone a significant facelift, with the departures of long-time Ducks John Gibson, Isac Lundestrom, and Trevor Zegras, along with the additions of Chris Kreider, Ryan Poehling, Mikael Granlund, and Petr Mrazek.

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A brand new coaching staff will also be behind the Ducks’ bench in the upcoming season, with the newly appointed head coach, Joel Quenneville, being flanked by Jay Woodcroft and Ryan McGill and accompanied by Tim Army and Andrew Brewer.

“It has been a long, painful process, but we felt that we’ve reached a point where the rebuild is coming to an end,” Ducks co-owner Henry Samueli said following Quenneville’s introductory press conference. “It really is, and it’s time to take the step to becoming a perennial playoff contender and eventually (a) Stanley Cup contender.”

After the two worst seasons (by points percentage) in franchise history in 2022-23 and 2023-24, in which they totaled 58 and 59 standings points, the Ducks made a significant jump in 2024-25, improving by 21 points, escaping the basement of the standings, but still finishing 25th in the NHL and 16 points out of a wild card spot.

Most metrics suggest that a significant portion of that jump can be attributed to Anaheim's goaltending last season, indicating potential unsustainability.

Nonetheless, the goal is set and well-known. In most years, second wild-card teams average roughly 95 points, which would require another colossal jump in the standings. So that leaves those who follow the Ducks to ask their biggest question of the 2025 offseason: How can the Ducks improve by 35 standings points in two seasons?

The Ducks will be relying on four factors to accomplish their lofty goal: coaching, internal improvement from their youngest/most talented players, a repeatable output from the goaltending, and their veteran leaders staving off Father Time.

Coaching

The true impact of an NHL coach and coaching staff will be on full display in Anaheim in 2025-26. In Cronin’s two seasons behind the bench, the Ducks had the 25th and 32nd-ranked power play, the 31st and 29th-ranked penalty kill, and were 28th and 30th in terms of 5v5 expected goals for percentage.

Quenneville is the second-winningest coach in NHL history with three Stanley Cup rings on his fingers. Jay Woodcroft ran very successful power plays as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers and San Jose Sharks from 2008 to 2018, and McGill led some quality penalty kill units for the Vegas Golden Knights and New Jersey Devils from 2017 to 2025.

The staff Verbeek has assembled unquestionably has the potential to be one of the NHL’s elite, a vast improvement from the one behind the bench a year ago.

Internal Improvement

The Ducks project to start the season with at least seven U25 skaters playing in impactful roles on the nightly depth chart: Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, and Drew Helleson. More could be added to that list in the form of Sam Colangelo, Nikita Nesterenko, and Tristan Luneau, with the outside possibility of Beckett Sennecke and Stian Solberg.

Focusing just on the first seven mentioned, the Ducks will be relying on all of them to take substantial leaps in their development. LaCombe had a breakout season ago, establishing himself as the team’s top blueliner, while Gauthier, Carlsson, and McTavish all displayed glimpses of how dominant they can be on a shift-to-shift basis. They will have to turn those flashes into elongated, consistent performances if the team is to realize its potential in the upcoming season.

Goaltending

Lukas Dostal has established himself as one of the best young goaltenders in the NHL, posting league-average traditional stats and above-average underlying numbers behind some of the poorer defensive teams in the NHL.

Dostal now has the reins as the Ducks' starter for the foreseeable future and the one who projects to start the team’s first playoff game, whenever that goal has been reached.

He will likely play more than he ever has and in as condensed a schedule as he’s ever experienced in his young career. The challenge will be maintaining his effort while avoiding fatigue as the season grows longer toward the latter portion of the 82-game slate.

He has the composure, skill, and drive to do so, and he will now have the opportunity. If the Ducks indeed make the playoffs, don’t be surprised to see Dostal’s name on some Vezina ballots.

Aging Veterans

The Ducks have one of the most talented young cores in the NHL. That core will be surrounded and insulated by an abundance of veterans on the opposite side of 30 years old.

Alex Killorn, Frank Vatrano, Ryan Strome, Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund, Jacob Trouba, and Radko Gudas will all play key roles in the upcoming season and will have to elevate the platform that the young players are set to launch off.

All of those veterans have shown signs of declining games at different points in their careers, but have also shown the ability to evolve and remain impactful players as well.

Gudas had such a profound impact in his first season as a Duck in 2023-24, it earned him the captaincy in 2024-25. Kreider is just one year removed from back-to-back-to-back 35-plus goal campaigns. Granlund has eclipsed the 60-point mark in three of the last four seasons, including 61 points in 2024-25, playing for a bottom-dwelling Sharks team before he was traded to the Dallas Stars. These players are more than capable of continuing or returning to these levels despite approaching the final laps of their careers.

Father Time is undefeated, but the Ducks veterans will have to keep him at bay for one more season if this is the year the playoff drought is to end.

The team is counting on a lot to go right in the upcoming season, but if it does, another 15-point jump in the standings isn’t out of the question. However, the “ifs” are plentiful and will carry a heavy load.

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The Columbus Blue Jackets have announced the signing of Daemon Hunt, the final RFA the Blue Jackets had to sign. 

The deal is a 1-year, 2-way deal and is worth $775K at the NHL level, and $80K at the AHL. 

“Daemon Hunt is a good, young two-way defenseman that plays a smart and controlled game,” said Waddell in a press release.  “His signing provides us important additional organizational depth on our blue line.”

Hunt was brought over in the deal that sent David Jiříček to the Minnesota Wild last season. He spent the entire year in Cleveland playing 48 games for the Monsters. He scored 2 goals and totaled 14 points. He also played 9 games for the Iowa Wild and had 4 points. He did play in one NHL game last season for the Wild as well.

This is a player Don Waddell won’t easily give up since he traded Jiříček for him. Still young at 23, the left-shot defenseman has a ton of upside and could take a huge step this year. Look for Hunt to be one of the first guys called this season if they’re in need. 

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Going into the 2025-26 season, Adam Fox’s stock is not as high as it once was. 

In the NHL Network’s latest list of the ‘Top-20 players right now’, Fox ranked as the 16th best defenseman.

In 2023, Fox was listed as the No. 2-ranked defenseman, while last season, he dropped down to the eighth slot. 

Fox’s fall from grace comes after an injury-riddled 2023-24 season and a regression in which both the New York Rangers’ play and his own individual play regressed during the 2024-25 campaign. 

This past season, the 27-year-old defenseman recorded 10 goals, 51 assists, and 61 points in 74 games while averaging 23:15 minutes. 

While Fox has seen a dip in production over the past year, he still leads all Rangers players in average ice time and serves a prominent role both from a defensive and offensive standpoint. 

The responsibility that Fox holds is invaluable to the Blueshirts, and it should not go unnoticed within the NHL community. 

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This offseason, the Rangers signed Vladislav Gavrikov to a seven-year, $49 million contract, which should help take some of the load off of Fox.

The defensemen that ranked ahead of Fox on this list from NHL Network include Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Zach Werenski, Miro Heiskanen, Victor Hedman, Josh Morrissey, Rasmus Dahlin, Jaccob Slavin, Roma Josi, Evan Bouchard, Gustav Forsling, Jake Sanderson, Thomas Harley, and Shea Theodore.