Although the Anaheim Ducks have been one of the best teams in the National Hockey League over the last couple of weeks, once star forward Trevor Zegras continues to struggle. In 2024-25, the 23-year-old has managed just seven goals and 16 points over 34 games. And according to one executive, there’s only one way to reverse the Bedford, New York native’s continued futility.
“You need to put him on a team with a star player who will outwork him,” an NHL executive told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this week. “That’s the only way you fix him.”
Wyshynski included Zegras on his NHL trade deadline 2025 Big Board, and there’s a legitimate chance he gets moved before the March 7 deadline.
“Not many NHL players have seen their stars fade as quickly as Zegras, who went from the trick-shot creating video game cover athlete to a struggling Duck (13 goals in his past 65 games) who can’t stay in the lineup,” the hockey insider wrote. “But he’s only 23, and there are plenty of people around the NHL who feel that extracting him from Anaheim and putting him in the right formative environment will unlock his talent.”
It might be time for the Ducks to cut ties with the former first-round pick, especially as the team is performing well without him contributing much at all.
Ducks surging back into Western Conference playoff race
Once an afterthought in the Western Conference, the Ducks have won eight of their last 11 games and now sit just six points back of the Vancouver Canucks for the final wildcard berth — with a game in hand.
Although the odds are still stacked against Anaheim, as the Utah Hockey Club, St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames and Canucks all stand between the California franchise and a playoff spot, the play as of late has been supremely encouraging.
The Ducks are fresh off beating the Canucks 5-2 on Thursday night, a game they trailed 2-0 in the second period. The top line of Troy Terry, Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome continues to lead the charge, while Jackson LaCombe is enjoying a breakout season on the back end.
And with both John Gibson and Lukas Dostal playing some of their best hockey of the season, the Ducks aren’t out of the race just yet. With 24 games left in the regular-season, playing at this pace might just be enough to get them in.
Anaheim hasn’t made the playoffs since 2017-18, when they were swept in the first round by the San Jose Sharks. But it looks like the squad is close to coming out of the rebuild, and that’s with Zegras barely contributing at either end of the rink.
For that reason, it might be time for Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek to finally move on from the former ninth overall pick.
It’s clear that his style of game is just not working in Anaheim, and as Wyshynski reported, it might take a change of scenery to get him back to the kind of player who managed back-to-back 60+ point seasons to begin his career.
The post NHL rumors: Ducks’ Trevor Zegras slapped with harsh reality amid trade buzz appeared first on ClutchPoints.
