Division rivals play a huge part in determining the success of an NHL team. Throughout the rest of the off-season, we’ll take a look at how the Calgary Flames stack up against each one of their division rivals heading into the 2024-25 season, starting with the Anaheim Ducks.
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Not too long ago the Anaheim Ducks were seen as the Pacific Division’s biggest regular season powerhouse. The Ducks finished atop the Pacific Division for five seasons straight from 2013-17, but since then success on the ice for the Southern Californian club has been scarce. The Ducks haven’t made the playoffs in six years and even though they are an extremely young team there hasn’t been a lot of improvement in six years standings-wise.
The Calgary Flames have had their fair share of struggles against this Ducks franchise in the past. From 2004 to 2017 the Flames dropped 29 straight games to the Ducks at Honda Center. During their reign over the Pacific Division, the Flames only managed one win in nine games in the playoffs against the Ducks. In 2015 the Ducks defeated the Flames in five games in the second round and in 2017 they swept the Flames in the first round.
<h1>Current state</h1>
Both the Flames and the Ducks are in a position where they are trying to improve. Right now, based on the makeup of their rosters, they aren&#8217;t in a state to compete for a playoff spot.
The Ducks have been in rebuild mode for more than a few years now and should be nearing the end of their time at the bottom of the Pacific Division, probably just a couple of seasons away from contending for a playoff spot. The Ducks are loaded when it comes to highly skilled prospects and young players and they arguably have one of the best prospect pools in the league right now. 
The Flames are just at the start of a similar path and although they have made sure to continue calling it a “re-tool” the moves they have made over the past year say differently. The Flames are at the beginning of a rebuild. This past draft was the first time since 2016 that they had a top 10 pick in the NHL Draft. While the Flames don&#8217;t have as many highly touted prospects and young guns already in the NHL as the Ducks do, Zayne Parekh is a start and a very good one. While the Flames might not possess the same calibre of prospects the Ducks have let&#8217;s not forget about players like Connor Zary, Matt Coronato, Dustin Wolf, and Jakob Pelletier who are young skilled players on the path of emerging into regular NHLers.
<h1>2023-24 season series </h1>
The Flames have sometimes had trouble sticking to their game against teams that are below them; for some reason, they love to play down to their opponent, but that wasn&#8217;t the case against the Ducks last season. They played the Ducks three times last season and won twice, going 2-1-0. 

Game 1: 3-0 win on Dec. 21 

Game 2: 5-3 loss on Apr. 2 

Game 3: 6-3 win on Apr. 12 

<h1>Key additions </h1>
Since this is the first Pacific Division Preview let&#8217;s go through the important moves the Flames have made so far. 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Signed forward Anthony Mantha to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Brought back forward Ryan Lomberg and signed him to a two-year, $4 million deal.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Acquired defenceman Kevin Bahl from the New Jersey Devils as part of a trade that sent goaltender Jacob Markstrom to the Devils.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Signed defenceman Jake Bean to a two-year deal worth $3.5 million. 
</li>
</ul>
The Ducks have barely done anything so far this off-season but they have made a couple of moves that are worth noting. 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Acquired forward Robby Fabbri and a fourth-round pick in 2025 from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for goalie prospect Gage Alexander.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Acquired defenceman Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round pick.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Positional advantage</h1>
Forwards: Ducks
The forward groups these two teams possess are very different from each other. The Ducks have a group full of young players with loads of talent. The innate skill that is featured throughout their lineup makes them a very intriguing team in terms of how they could perform this season. Having guys like Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, and Leo Carlsson is just ridiculous and it&#8217;s no secret that the Flames don&#8217;t have as many young elite forwards in their lineup right now as the Ducks do.  
The Flames on the other hand have a bigger group with more grit. Lots of veteran presence throughout their forward group to go along with guys like Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Matt Coronato and Jakob Pelletier.
Neither forward group is substantially better than the other but because of the insane amount of pure skill the Ducks have they get the edge.
Defencemen: Flames 
When you take a look at both of these defensive groups the first word that screams out at you is yikes. The Ducks only have three defencemen who are proven NHLers: Cam Fowler, Radko Gudas, and newly acquired Brian Dumoulin. Young and skilled are two words that will continue to be repeated when talking about this current Ducks team and they have a couple more of them in Pavel Mintyukov and Ollen Zellweger who have already started to play important roles for this club.
The Flames went from having one of the strongest defensive groups in the league a couple of seasons ago to now only having Mackenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson as their remaining elite defencemen. 
What gives the advantage to the Flames defensively is the size of a lot of their defenceman. The Flames have bigger defencemen: Kevin Bahl stands at 6&#8217;6&#8243; and Daniil Miromanov at 6&#8217;4&#8243;. Guys like Bahl, Miromanov, Jake Bean and Brayden Pachal have more NHL experience than Mintyukov, Zellweger, Jackson Lacombe and Urho Vaakanainen. It’s also safe to say that both Weegar and Andersson are better than any of the Ducks’ defencemen right now. 
Goaltending: Ducks
Dustin Wolf will presumably get the chance at being the Flames’ starting goaltender to start the 2024-25 season. Whether it&#8217;s Wolf or Dan Vladar in the pipes or even Devin Cooley if he is ever called up the Flames don’t have a proven NHL starting goaltender. Wolf is expected to be that guy for the Flames in the future, but as of now, there shouldn’t even be an expectation for him to perform like an elite starting goaltender in his first full year in the NHL.
The Ducks somehow still have veteran John Gibson in between the pipes which automatically gives them the edge in the goaltending department. Whether or not Gibson is to remain the starter this season or if this will be the start of him passing the torch over to current Ducks backup Lukas Dostal is yet to be determined. Gibson and Dostal essentially split the load last season so it wouldn&#8217;t be surprising if Gibson took a bit of a step back. Regardless of whether it&#8217;s Gibson or Dostal, as of right now both are stronger than Wolf or Vladar.
<h1>2024-25 season series</h1>
The Flames and Ducks will play each other four times next season, all in the 2025 half of the calendar:
<ul>
<li>Jan. 7 at Honda Center</li>
<li>Jan. 30 at Scotiabank Saddledome</li>
<li>Apr. 3 at Scotiabank Saddledome</li>
<li>Apr. 9 at Honda Center</li>
</ul>
<h1>2024-25 prediction</h1>
John Gibson finally gets traded by the trade deadline and Leo Carlsson scores 20 goals in his sophomore year.

Division rivals play a huge part in determining the success of an NHL team. Throughout the rest of the off-season, we’ll take a look at how the Calgary Flames stack up against each one of their division rivals heading into the 2024-25 season, starting with the Anaheim Ducks.
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Not too long ago the Anaheim Ducks were seen as the Pacific Division’s biggest regular season powerhouse. The Ducks finished atop the Pacific Division for five seasons straight from 2013-17, but since then success on the ice for the Southern Californian club has been scarce. The Ducks haven’t made the playoffs in six years and even though they are an extremely young team there hasn’t been a lot of improvement in six years standings-wise.

The Calgary Flames have had their fair share of struggles against this Ducks franchise in the past. From 2004 to 2017 the Flames dropped 29 straight games to the Ducks at Honda Center. During their reign over the Pacific Division, the Flames only managed one win in nine games in the playoffs against the Ducks. In 2015 the Ducks defeated the Flames in five games in the second round and in 2017 they swept the Flames in the first round.
<h1>Current state</h1>
Both the Flames and the Ducks are in a position where they are trying to improve. Right now, based on the makeup of their rosters, they aren't in a state to compete for a playoff spot.

The Ducks have been in rebuild mode for more than a few years now and should be nearing the end of their time at the bottom of the Pacific Division, probably just a couple of seasons away from contending for a playoff spot. The Ducks are loaded when it comes to highly skilled prospects and young players and they arguably have one of the best prospect pools in the league right now. 

The Flames are just at the start of a similar path and although they have made sure to continue calling it a “re-tool” the moves they have made over the past year say differently. The Flames are at the beginning of a rebuild. This past draft was the first time since 2016 that they had a top 10 pick in the NHL Draft. While the Flames don't have as many highly touted prospects and young guns already in the NHL as the Ducks do, Zayne Parekh is a start and a very good one. While the Flames might not possess the same calibre of prospects the Ducks have let's not forget about players like Connor Zary, Matt Coronato, Dustin Wolf, and Jakob Pelletier who are young skilled players on the path of emerging into regular NHLers.
<h1>2023-24 season series </h1>
The Flames have sometimes had trouble sticking to their game against teams that are below them; for some reason, they love to play down to their opponent, but that wasn't the case against the Ducks last season. They played the Ducks three times last season and won twice, going 2-1-0.


Game 1: 3-0 win on Dec. 21


Game 2: 5-3 loss on Apr. 2


Game 3: 6-3 win on Apr. 12

<h1>Key additions </h1>
Since this is the first Pacific Division Preview let's go through the important moves the Flames have made so far. 
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Signed forward Anthony Mantha to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Brought back forward Ryan Lomberg and signed him to a two-year, $4 million deal.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Acquired defenceman Kevin Bahl from the New Jersey Devils as part of a trade that sent goaltender Jacob Markstrom to the Devils.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Signed defenceman Jake Bean to a two-year deal worth $3.5 million.
</li>
</ul>
The Ducks have barely done anything so far this off-season but they have made a couple of moves that are worth noting. 
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Acquired forward Robby Fabbri and a fourth-round pick in 2025 from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for goalie prospect Gage Alexander.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Acquired defenceman Brian Dumoulin from the Seattle Kraken in exchange for a 2026 fourth-round pick.</li>
</ul>
<h1>Positional advantage</h1>
Forwards: Ducks

The forward groups these two teams possess are very different from each other. The Ducks have a group full of young players with loads of talent. The innate skill that is featured throughout their lineup makes them a very intriguing team in terms of how they could perform this season. Having guys like Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish, and Leo Carlsson is just ridiculous and it's no secret that the Flames don't have as many young elite forwards in their lineup right now as the Ducks do.  

The Flames on the other hand have a bigger group with more grit. Lots of veteran presence throughout their forward group to go along with guys like Connor Zary, Martin Pospisil, Matt Coronato and Jakob Pelletier.

Neither forward group is substantially better than the other but because of the insane amount of pure skill the Ducks have they get the edge.

Defencemen: Flames 

When you take a look at both of these defensive groups the first word that screams out at you is yikes. The Ducks only have three defencemen who are proven NHLers: Cam Fowler, Radko Gudas, and newly acquired Brian Dumoulin. Young and skilled are two words that will continue to be repeated when talking about this current Ducks team and they have a couple more of them in Pavel Mintyukov and Ollen Zellweger who have already started to play important roles for this club.

The Flames went from having one of the strongest defensive groups in the league a couple of seasons ago to now only having Mackenzie Weegar and Rasmus Andersson as their remaining elite defencemen. 

What gives the advantage to the Flames defensively is the size of a lot of their defenceman. The Flames have bigger defencemen: Kevin Bahl stands at 6'6" and Daniil Miromanov at 6'4". Guys like Bahl, Miromanov, Jake Bean and Brayden Pachal have more NHL experience than Mintyukov, Zellweger, Jackson Lacombe and Urho Vaakanainen. It’s also safe to say that both Weegar and Andersson are better than any of the Ducks’ defencemen right now. 

Goaltending: Ducks

Dustin Wolf will presumably get the chance at being the Flames’ starting goaltender to start the 2024-25 season. Whether it's Wolf or Dan Vladar in the pipes or even Devin Cooley if he is ever called up the Flames don’t have a proven NHL starting goaltender. Wolf is expected to be that guy for the Flames in the future, but as of now, there shouldn’t even be an expectation for him to perform like an elite starting goaltender in his first full year in the NHL.

The Ducks somehow still have veteran John Gibson in between the pipes which automatically gives them the edge in the goaltending department. Whether or not Gibson is to remain the starter this season or if this will be the start of him passing the torch over to current Ducks backup Lukas Dostal is yet to be determined. Gibson and Dostal essentially split the load last season so it wouldn't be surprising if Gibson took a bit of a step back. Regardless of whether it's Gibson or Dostal, as of right now both are stronger than Wolf or Vladar.
<h1>2024-25 season series</h1>
The Flames and Ducks will play each other four times next season, all in the 2025 half of the calendar:
<ul>
 	<li>Jan. 7 at Honda Center</li>
 	<li>Jan. 30 at Scotiabank Saddledome</li>
 	<li>Apr. 3 at Scotiabank Saddledome</li>
 	<li>Apr. 9 at Honda Center</li>
</ul>
<h1>2024-25 prediction</h1>
John Gibson finally gets traded by the trade deadline and Leo Carlsson scores 20 goals in his sophomore year.

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