The Anaheim Ducks are poised to overtake the Colorado Avalanche

Unfortunately for Ducks fans, the Vegas Golden Knights are moving on to the Stanley Cup Final to face off against the Carolina Hurricanes. But before the puck drops on Tuesday night, let's take a moment to reflect upon the concept that the Ducks are poised to overtake the Colorado Avalanche. And before the Avs fans raise their collective torches and pitchforks to burn down pucksofafeather.com, let's work through this logically.

The Avalanche got swept

The NHL's best team in the 2025-26 regular season and President's Trophy winners, lost four games in a row in the Western Conference Final. While injuries to both Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar were major factors in the Avs defeat, the results speak for themselves; 4-2 loss in Game 1, 3-1 loss in Game 2, 5-3 loss in Game 3 (when the Avs were up 3-0 after the first period), and the penultimate 2-1 loss in Game 4.

Likewise, you know what the Ducks didn't do? That's right, lose four in a row. The Ducks at least made it a competition against the Golden Knights, pushing the series to six games. The Ducks alternated losses and wins the Golden Knights, with the real backbreaker coming in the Game 5 overtime loss, before getting steamrolled in the clincher of Game 6.

The Ducks had more offense

The Ducks were able to score 13 combined goals against the Golden Knights, with eight different skaters at least registering one goal, while Beckett Sennecke (4 goals) and Mikael Granlund (3 goals), led the team in the series.

Only six Ducks skaters did not register a point in the series, while the young core of Leo Carlsson (3 points), Troy Terry (3 points), Cutter Gauthier (5 points), Mason McTavish (2 points), Jackson LaCombe (1 point), and the aforementioned Sennecke (5 points), helped to carry the brunt of the offense for the team.

Conversely, the Avalanche were only able to muster up a combined 7 goals against the Golden Knights with five different skaters registering a goal and the veteran Gabriel Landeskog leading the pack with 3. MacKinnon and Martin Necas registered just 2 points apiece, and while Makar did not register a single point against Vegas, nine different Avalanche players joined him in the pointless column.

The Ducks are younger

Terry is the oldest member of the Ducks core at the age of 28 and Sennecke is the youngest (20), while Carlsson, Gauthier, LaCombe, McTavish, and Lukas Dostal fall somewhere in between that range. Some of the Ducks better veteran skaters like Granlund (33) and Alex Killorn (36) are on the wrong side of the aging curve; they at least contributed to the team's postseason success. But on the whole, the Ducks best players are either in their prime playing age or just entering that range.

While Makar (27) is right in the middle of his prime years, MacKinnon (30) may have a lot more left in the tank, but he is one the wrong side of the aging curve now. Most of the better ancillary skaters for the Avs are also on the older side, such as Nazem Kadri (35), Brock Nelson (34), Landeskog (33), and Devon Toews (31).

In a league where youth is leading the way, the Ducks have that in spades, not including their robust prospect pipeline headlined by Roger McQueen and Stian Stolberg. The Avalanche has rightfully moved assets to chase down that elusive second Stanley Cup with MacKinnon and company, and while that has been the right play, the team has also sacrificed three years of first round picks in the pursuit.

Final thoughts

Despite how the Western Conference Final shook out, the Colorado Avalanche are better than the Anaheim Ducks and should be heading into next season. After the 2026-27 season though, the Ducks are primed to supplant the Central Division superpower and if this series of postseason matchups against the Golden Knights was a precursor for the future, the Ducks are trending in the right direction.

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