Anaheim Ducks

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1993
• Home arena: Honda Center, Anaheim, California
• Owners: Henry and Susan Samueli
• Team colors: Orange, metallic gold, silver, and black

Overview

The Anaheim Ducks is an American franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL), which it entered in 1993. The Ducks compete in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Originally called “the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim,” the team was the first American sports franchise to be created as part of a brand. The Walt Disney Company founded the franchise as an offshoot of the company’s popular Mighty Ducksmovie trilogy. Initially, the team’s merchandise was more successful than the team itself—Ducks’ merchandise accounted for about 80 percent of the NHL merchandise sold in America that year. Still, the Ducks finished their first season with a record of 33 wins, 46 losses, and 5 ties, enough to put the team in a tie for the most successful expansion franchise up to that time in history. The Ducks competed in the league’s championship best of seven final series for the Stanley Cup for the first time in 2003 but lost to the Minnesota Wild. The team won the Stanley Cup in 2007 during its fifth appearance in the playoffs. This championship came one season after coming under new ownership and changing its name to the Anaheim Ducks.

History

The Ducks' history began in December 1992 when the franchise was officially awarded to the Walt Disney Company. Disney Chair and CEO Michael Eisner was asked previously to consider a franchise opportunity for Anaheim, home to one of the company’s theme parks, but declined. Eisner agreed while the company was in the midst of producing a children’s movie about a lawyer who lost his own dream of being a hockey player and was sentenced to community service coaching a hockey team full of misfits. An immediate hit, the movie, The Mighty Ducks, was released in October 1992. On March 1, 1993, the real hockey team’s name was announced: the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. On October 8, 1992, the team played its first game at a new arena then known as Arrowhead Pond, near the Disney theme park complex.

Reality and movie fiction blended when the real team’s jersey was featured in the movie sequel, D2: The Mighty Ducks. The movie appeared in theaters around the same time that the real team was completing its first season with 27 home sell-out games and 33 wins, a record at the time for an expansion team. That record was shared with the league’s other new 1993–1994 franchise, the Florida Panthers (33–24–17).

The release of D3: The Mighty Ducks came early in the 1996–1997 hockey season. That year, the team won 36 games, its most ever, and played in the league playoffs for the first time. The Ducks beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4 games to 3 in the conference quarterfinals but failed to win a conference final game against the Detroit Red Wings, the team that would go on to win that year’s Stanley Cup.

Disney maintained ownership of the Ducks franchise until 2005. Eisner attempted to sell the team a year earlier when it became clear that a labor dispute between players and owners was going to lead to a prolonged lockout but was offered less than the company had paid for the franchise. In early 2005, American businessperson Henry Samueli, founder of semi-conductor manufacturing company Broadcom Corp., and his wife, Susan, bought the franchise for a reported $75 million.

The couple hired Brian Burke, former president and general manager for the Vancouver Canucks, to serve as general manager.

The Samuelis also hired a new head coach, Randy Carlyle, a former player for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Winnipeg Jets. The team ended the season with its second playoff appearance, beating the Calgary Flames 4–3 in the Conference Quarterfinals and sweeping the Colorado Avalanche 4–0 in the Conference semi-finals before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in the finals, winning only one game to the Oilers’ four.

On January 27, 2006, the Samuelis and Burke announced that the team’s name was being changed to the Anaheim Ducks. Before the next season began, the team completed the rebranding by replacing previous logos, which had included a duck-face-shaped goalie mask, with a logo that said “Ducks” with a webbed duck foot for the “D.” The new uniforms also had a new color scheme, with orange, metallic gold, black, and silver replacing the previous eggplant purple, green, black, and gray theme.

Thanks to several key acquisitions beginning in 2005, including free agent Scott Niedermayer, who was signed before the 2005 season, and standout defenseman Chris Pronger, who joined the team through a trade for the 2006 season, the Ducks were an early favorite that season to win the Stanley Cup. The team opened the season with a 12–0–4 record, breaking the previous record for remaining unbeaten in regulation play at the start of the season.

The Ducks won their first Pacific Division title in the season’s last game. They reached several milestones during the year, including their one-thousandth game in franchise history and one-thousandth point. They finished with 48 wins, 20 losses and 14 ties and a franchise-high 110 points, based on 2 points awarded for each win and 1 point for each tie.

The season propelled them to a winning performance in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Ducks began by beating the Minnesota Wild in the quarterfinals and the Vancouver Canucks in the semi-finals, taking each series 4 games to 1. They then faced off against the Detroit Red Wings and beat them 4 games to 2 to win the Conference final and a spot in the Stanley Cup game. The Ducks defeated the Ottawa Senators 4 games to 1 to earn the league championship.

However, the team struggled to reach this level of success in the following years, in part because of the retirement of key players, including Niedermayer. Its next playoff appearance was in 2012. The team’s record during a season shortened by another labor dispute was 30–12–6, good enough to win a division title for the second time. The Ducks subsequently lost in the conference quarterfinals to the Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 3. In 2013–2014, they finished 1 point behind the Boston Bruins in the overall point total for the season with a new franchise record of 54 wins, 20 losses and 8 ties. They made several additional postseason appearances, including a 2014– 2015 run that ended in a conference final loss to the Chicago Blackhawks and a 2016–2017 bid that ended with a conference finals loss to the Nashville Predators.

Notable players

Seven former Anaheim Ducks players have been inducted in the National Hockey League Hall of Fame. Niedermayer (2005–2010), inducted in 2013, and Pronger (2006–2009), inducted in 2015, were part of the team’s Stanley Cup championship team along with Teemu Selanne (1996–2001, 2005–2014), who was inducted in 2017. Paul Kariya, an early draft pick who played for the team between 1995 and 2003 and helped build the franchise, was also inducted in 2017. Other Hall of Famers who played for the Ducks include Jari Kurri (1996–1997), Adam Oates (2002–2003), and Sergei Federov (2003–2005).

Left-winger Kariya was drafted by the team in the 1993 Entry Draft and played for the first time in the lockout-shortened 1994–1995 season. He showed signs of being a great player and represented the Ducks in the All-Star game in 1995–1996 but really started to shine after the team acquired Selanne in a trade. Kariya and Selanne played together on a forward line centered by Steve Rucchin, putting together one of the most potent lines in team history. Kariya served as team captain from 1996 to 2003, when he went to the Colorado Avalanche. While with the Ducks, he won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship in 1995–1996 and 1996–1997.

In Colorado, he rejoined former teammate Selanne, who had been traded there in 2001 following a steep drop-off in performance with the Ducks. Selanne returned to Anaheim in 2005, where he became part of the Stanley Cup-winning team. Selanne holds several team records, including most goals (457), most goals in a season (52 in 1997–1998), and most overall points (1,019). He won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the league’s leading goal scorer in 1998–1999 and the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for persistence, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey in 2005–2006.

Niedermayer, a strong defensemen who was on the Ducks roster at the same time as his brother, Rob, served as team captain after joining the club in 2005 and setting team records for points (69) and assists (54) by a defenseman in 2006–2007. That same year, he also won the league’s Conn Smythe Trophy for most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs. His number was retired by the Ducks in 2019 when his banner joined Selanne’s (retired 2015) and Kariya’s (retired 2018) in the rafters at the Honda Center.

Ryan Getzlaf, who joined the team in 2003 and was part of the Stanley Cup Championship team, was a Duck since the beginning of his career until he retired near the end of the 2021-2022 season. He holds many of the team’s records. These include most assists in a single game and most assists in a single season.

Bibliography

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