ANAHEIM, Calif. — The future of the Anaheim Ducks’ blue line is Jackson LaCombe, freshly minted with a rich eight-year contract extension that begins next season. It is Olen Zellweger, the sweet skater who can carry the puck out of his own end just as well. And it’s Pavel Mintyukov, who hardly lacks mobility or offensive instincts himself.
Of course, those three are also very much part of the present. When you look beyond them, the future could include Drew Helleson and Ian Moore, increasingly impressive with each game, and there are Tristan Luneau and Stian Solberg, the Ducks’ top defense prospects who are refining their games in the American Hockey League. Others have performed well in training camp, like Tyson Hinds and Noah Warren. None are older than 24.
Does Jacob Trouba, a battle-worn 31-year-old on an expiring contract, have a role in Anaheim’s future corps?
With the way he’s playing now, he just might.
Trouba remarkably has emerged as a back-end centerpiece for a surging Ducks team that’s won four straight games and six of its last seven, off to its best start in 11 years at 8-3-1. It is the grizzled, hard-hitting veteran of 837 regular-season games who is second only to LaCombe, Anaheim’s No. 1, in time on ice while leading the blue line in goals and points (and the entire team in plus-minus) over the first 12 games.
And no penalty minutes. Yes, Jacob Trouba, who earned 670 of them across 13 seasons and has on occasions been in hot water with the NHL Player Safety. None.
How long can that last?
“You mean, I’m not in the running for the Lady Byng?” a smiling Trouba said with mock incredulity. “I don’t bring it up. Don’t jinx it. I’ll be looking right at you after the game.”
Jacob Trouba is off to a fantastic start in his first full season with the Ducks. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
An early-season sample size doesn’t always foretell what a player will do over an entire season, but if Trouba continues playing at the level he’s at now, the Ducks and his agent, Kurt Overhardt, may need to have a serious conversation about extending his stay after general manager Pat Verbeek traded for him last December.
So far, Trouba is reversing the narrative that his game was on the decline. Never a possession monster, his 51.97 Corsi-for rating in five-on-five play is among the highest in his career. He’s been on the ice for 15 goals and just six against (a 71.43 percent rate) at even strength, a flip of last season’s 42.68 percent rate – including 70 goals against – combined between the Ducks and New York Rangers.
“He’s effective in his own way,” Zellweger said. “He’s physical. He moves the puck. He doesn’t overcomplicate the game much. Yeah, he’s playing really well. It’s easy to play with him. Everyone enjoys playing with him.
“He has a lot of experience so he’s a good guy to kind of watch with certain things. If we’re down, he’s playing more aggressive. If we’re up two late in the third, he knows how to play in the situation. He does a great job leading through his play that way.”
The pairing with Zellweger has been fruitful and the goaltending of Lukás Dostál has been beneficial as Dostál has made Trouba’s actual defensive metrics — really, the entire blue line — look better than the expected rates. But with this being a contract year, Trouba is looking like an essential piece as the Ducks take some initial promising steps toward snapping a seven-year playoff drought.
“I want to prove that,” Trouba said, digging into changing the perception of his play. “I want to keep playing. I want to play at a high level and contribute to a winning team. I want to be here. I’m here. This is the place I think has a great future and was built from when I got here, even from before I was here.
“We’re moving in the right direction. This is the start we wanted. This is kind of how we wanted to get this thing going. And these are big points to bank and we’re looking to make the playoffs.”
In another surprising element in his start, Trouba notched his third goal Tuesday when he jumped up in the offensive zone to punch in a rebound created when Mason McTavish directed the puck at the net. Cutter Gauthier got a touch on the shot in front of Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, creating the loose puck for Trouba to pounce on.
🚨 Trouba 🚨
We lead 5-3!! #FlyTogether pic.twitter.com/B6WGRMhIv2
— Anaheim Ducks (@AnaheimDucks) November 5, 2025
That’s not what Trouba is known for. As he ventures further into the second half of his career, the Michigan native is the stay-at-home archetype that cuts loose big shots from the point when in the offensive zone. But he’s had those moments where he sees some extra room in the opponent’s zone and snaps in hard shots from the right circle. It’s a welcome bonus for a dynamic Anaheim club that tops the NHL in goals per game.
Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said Trouba is particularly thriving in a leadership role while team captain Radko Gudas has missed the last two weeks of games due to a lower-body injury. Quenneville is finding that the more Trouba plays, the better he gets. Trouba played a season-high 28:34 in an Oct. 23 win at Boston and is averaging 25 minutes while Gudas is sidelined.
“He’s got the example of exactly being in that position right now and he’s feeling it,” Quenneville said. “He’s adding some offense to the back end. … He’s doing a lot of things out there for us. He’s been really good for us.”
More than a few Ducks are flourishing with Quenneville on board. Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier are grabbing much of the attention, with Carlsson on a seven-game point streak and fast becoming a star first-line center while Gauthier’s first career hat trick Tuesday against Florida put him among the NHL’s top goal scorers.
Like Chris Kreider, whose trade from the Rangers to the Ducks in June made them teammates again, Trouba has embraced the move to Anaheim. Playing for Quenneville came with some initial adapting to the coach’s zone defense coverage system, a departure from the straight man-to-man or hybrid structures he’s operated in with other coaches through his career.
“I think Q’s come in and kind of simplified things a bit for the guys in what we’re doing in the D-zone,” he said.
The transition to zone has had a positive effect. Trouba hasn’t been perfect in his own zone, occasionally turning the puck over in his end or seeing a forward get behind him when caught up ice. But he’s had far more pass breakups than missteps and has effectively delivered hard hits without taking penalties or crossing the line of legality. The Ducks, as a unit, are spending less time in their end.
“There’s only a couple reads you really need to make,” Trouba continued. “You’re kind of playing center field a lot of the time and helping out wherever you can and doubling the (player with the) puck. You’re just kind of reacting instead of thinking. As a defenseman, that’s kind of what you want to do. Just play and really not overthink anything. And we’ve been doing a good job.”
Plenty of eyebrows were raised when Verbeek took on all of Trouba’s remaining contract ($8 million salary cap hit, $6 million in actual salary for 2024-25 and 2025-26) for defenseman Urho Vaakanainen and a draft pick for the Rangers to rid themselves of their captain. Trouba’s play suffered in his final years with New York, particularly when his relationship with Rangers GM Chris Drury deteriorated.
The remaining few months with the Ducks were a transition after being in a city he loved. Now he’s at home in Southern California and while it’s too early for him and the Ducks to discuss a new contract, he is very open to an extended residence.
“Personally, last year was honestly tough,” Trouba said. “I don’t know. Try to move past that. Forget about it. There’s still more I want to do and feel I have a lot more to play. Off to a good start but got to keep it going.
“I guess I kind of view it as I finished two chapters and I’m on chapter three. I’m trying to focus on chapter three.”
Jacob Trouba’s goal is to serve as a role model for younger Ducks the same way other players did for him with the Jets. (Mike Carlson /Getty Images)
The Ducks have a defense filled with core performers in their 20s moving into their prime years together. But none of them have experienced Stanley Cup playoff hockey. This franchise is building toward becoming a consistent contender, and one of the ingredients that can go into a successful blue line is having a physical veteran who knows the pressure of playing games with much at stake.
That might not be Gudas, who’s also in the final year of his contract but is 35 and has dealt with knee issues. But it could be Trouba. For now, he’s just eager to be an exemplary model for the youngsters around him like Mark Stuart, Zach Bogosian, Blake Wheeler and Andrew Ladd were for him when he came up with the Winnipeg Jets.
The 2025-26 season is just one month old, but Trouba’s first full season in Anaheim may signal a renaissance for a proud player out to refute suggestions that he’s on the downswing.
“That’s what he does,” Kreider said. “It’s a lot more fun playing on his team than playing against him. Super physical out there, obviously. You got to know where he is on the ice at all times. Finishes his check, plays super hard but makes simple and hard plays to make sure the other team doesn’t get opportunities or second chances. And he’s just a really smart player, too. Even some of the stuff he’s doing in the O-zone, keeping plays alive.
“I think he’s having fun and he’s feeling it right now. It’s been good.”