The NHL.com Fantasy team continues to cover the latest league trends and storylines through the lens of NHL EDGE Puck and player tracking statistics. Today we look at the metrics behind the Anaheim Ducks’ victory. small group season.
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A month into the season, the Anaheim Ducks have become a high-flying offense and lead the Pacific Division standings in many leading indicators. Anaheim extended its winning streak to seven games against the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, the longest active streak in the NHL and its longest winning streak since 2021-22 (eight games).
The Ducks, who are 11-3-1 through their first 15 games and have the second-best points percentage in the NHL (.767) behind the Colorado Avalanche (.781), have combined their elite young core with veteran leadership and coaching under three-time Stanley Cup champion Joel Quenneville.
Anaheim leads the league in goals per game (4.13) this season, a drastic turnaround after finishing near the bottom of the league last season (2.65; 30th out of 32 teams). Led by recent top five picks Leo Carlsson (2nd pick in the 2023 NHL Draft), Gauthier cutter (Philadelphia Flyers’ No. 5 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft), Beckett Sennecke (3rd pick in the 2024 NHL Draft) and Mason McTavish (3rd pick in the 2021 NHL Draft), the Ducks have the most combined points (76), goals (33) and assists (43) by players 23 or younger in the NHL this season.
Adding a goal-scoring wing Chris Kreider (nine goals in 11 games; most among players who played in the offseason), acquired from the New York Rangers on June 12, sparked an offensive explosion; The Ducks have two of the top six players in the NHL in goals per game in Kreider (0.82; second) and Gauthier (0.73; tied for sixth). Anaheim also already set a franchise record for most seven-goal games in a single season with four, becoming only the second team to do that in its first 13 games in the last 30 seasons (other: Pittsburgh Penguins in 2019-20).
Here are three underlying reasons why the Ducks can maintain their surprising start and end their six-year Stanley Cup Playoff drought this season:
1. High Danger Objectives
The Ducks have scored 33 high-danger goals, second in the league behind the Toronto Maple Leafs (34). Kreider is tied for fourth in the league in high-danger goals (seven) this season and leads that category since the start of the puck and player tracking era (123 since 2021-22). Forwards Sennecke (five; 94th percentile) and Troy Terry (four; 88th percentile), Kreider’s frequent teammate, also ranks among high-danger goals this season.
Anaheim leads the NHL with five players in points per game this season: Carlsson (1.67), Gauthier (1.33), Terry (1.27), Kreider (1.09) and Mikael Granlund (1.00), who signed with the Ducks this offseason but is currently out with a lower-body injury. Carlsson scored two of Anaheim’s four goals against the Jets on Sunday, becoming the second Swedish-born player in NHL history to have a 10-game point streak before turning 21, joining William Nylander (12-game point streak in 2016-17). Carlsson (15 games) also became the fastest player in Ducks history to reach 25 points in a season, breaking the previous mark held by Teemu Selanne (17 games in 1995-96).
