Many believe coaches win championships. Coaches are important, but they do little leading once the puck is dropped. A successful team needs a good captain. We present the top five Anaheim Ducks captains in franchise history.
The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Anaheim Ducks have had their share of great captains during their 24-season history. There have been seven Anaheim Ducks captains since 1993. Here are the top five.
Troy Loney
Troy Loney won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships on Mario Lemieux’s Pittsburgh Penguins. Then he was selected by the Mighty Ducks in the expansion draft. That must have been tough. Back then, expansion drafts didn’t yield the treasure chest the Vegas Golden Knights were able to discover in their draft last season. Instead, it was filled with grinders and guys at the end of the line in the NHL.
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Loney took the news in stride. He led the first-year Mighty Ducks to a ninth-place finish in the Western Conference. The top eight made the playoffs. His team bucked the odds. They laid the foundation for Anaheim Ducks hockey. They finished ahead of the defending Western Conference champions, the Los Angeles Kings.
Loney had his career best year that season with 13 goals. He scored only 87 goals in his 12-season career. He even won the first team Cy Young Award, adding six assists to those 13 goals. His impact was sudden and brief. He left the Mighty Ducks the following off-season for New York and retired shortly thereafter. If you want to see what type of player Loney was, watch this beauty of a goal he scored against Brian Hayward.