DRAFT - Terry, Ducks snap 8-year drought, clinch Stanley Cup Playoff berth

April 14, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

#19 RW Troy Terry and #20 LW Chris Kreider of the Anaheim Ducks celebrate a goal during an NHL game against the Florida Panthers on November 4, 2025 in Anaheim, CA.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – It was April 18, 2018 – 2,917 days ago – when the Anaheim Ducks last played a playoff game, a 2-1 road loss to mercifully end an ignominious sweep to the San Jose Sharks.

Andrew Cogliano scored the lone goal with Ryan Kesler and Jakob Silfverberg on the assists. It was the final playoff game Ryan Getzlaf ever played in and the last as a Duck for Corey Perry. It was Francois Beauchemin’s final game in the NHL entirely.

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That night was also the last time Troy Terry had an up-close view of playoff hockey.

After finishing his college career at the University of Denver, Terry made his NHL debut with the Ducks in 2018 playing two games and sticking on the playoff roster. Terry joined a squad entering its sixth straight playoff appearance and 11th in 13 seasons coming out of the 2004-05 lockout–a stretch that included four Western Conference Finals appearances and the 2007 Stanley Cup championship.

Terry was a healthy scratch in all four playoff games, but he could instantly feel what made that era as consistently competitive as it was.

“I was just there for the last month,” Terry said, “but that was a team that was kind of on the end… and you could just feel just the maturity, which is natural. I mean, we have young players in here. I've never even played in the playoffs and I'm 28.”

That will change on April 18, 2026, when the Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin, and for the first time in eight years, Terry and the Ducks will be among the field competing for the sport’s most coveted prize.

After a late-season free fall by Anaheim, which has lost seven of its last eight games, the Ducks avoided total collapse and clinched the 15th playoff appearance in franchise history and first of this new era on Monday, thanks to a Nashville Predators loss to the Sharks.

Anaheim snapped the second-longest active playoff drought in the NHL, as Nashville—the first team beyond the playoff cut line—could no longer catch the Ducks’ point total.

“It's rewarding for sure,” Terry said. “Getting to see it my first year, and I just remember thinking, like, I was excited to be more a part of it, and then you go eight years, and you don't have it. So it's been hard.”

“I've prided myself on just trying to be consistent here the last eight years, and (general manager) Pat (Verbeek) came in, and, and then, you know, I was here before Pat… Being able to really see the whole progression's been fun for me. Challenging at times, but it's just rewarding to really be there from the start, and hopefully, it's not just this year. This is what we're building now as a team that expects to be here.”

Terry isn’t just the longest-tenured Duck at that ripe old age of 28, but he’s just one of three players still on the roster to have suited up in Anaheim before Verbeek’s arrival in February 2022. The other two–Mason McTavish and Lukáš Dostál–only made their NHL debuts in that 2021-22 season.

Terry wore on every minute of the team’s fall from grace–Bob Murray’s failed retooling, the Dallas Eakins experience, Verbeek’s teardown and the worst season in franchise history in 2022-23. He admitted there were times that the idea of the Ducks clinching a playoff berth felt just so far away, especially as Vegas entered the league to immediate dominance, the Oilers surged back into contention and the Kings became a regular playoff staple.

“When you don't make it for so long, it starts to feel really hard to do, to be honest,” Terry said. “This year, just with all the steps, it just was a completely different feeling. It felt easier coming to the rink every day. It felt easier. Just winning games felt expected, not hoping to win. The whole mentality of that has changed and how I view it is also changed now. So, it's been hard, but it's honestly been rewarding to be here for the whole thing.”

It was that summer of 2023 following the franchise-low 58-point season where Terry saw the first spark of the light that would lead this Ducks club out of the darkness, when Anaheim drafted Leo Carlsson No. 2 overall.

Eventual captain Radko Gudas and veteran stalwart Alex Killorn were also signed that summer, as Verbeek continued to lay the groundwork. Cutter Gauthier was acquired and debuted later that season–the second-worst 82-game season in franchise history at 59 points, the first of Greg Cronin’s two seasons at the helm of Terry’s group–and the next season, Jackson LaCombe rocketed to the No. 1 defenseman role in his second campaign, which saw a 21-point standings jump for Anaheim.

Even after seeing all those sparks, the big-time trades for Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider and a swap for a three-time championship coach in Joel Quenneville–who helmed the Colorado Avalanche teams Terry idolized as a Denver kid–it wasn’t until September’s training camp where the possibilities became more tangible in Terry’s mind.

“Leo coming was the first time where I was like, okay, we've got these players starting to come,” Terry said, “and then, I think last year, it was a better year for us, but it was still not good enough. I felt like at times last year, you could see the potential.”

“I think training camp was the first time where playoffs didn't necessarily seem like in the distance, hope maybe we go on a run or something. It was, okay, this team definitely should be there.”

And now they are.

It was touch and go in the final stages, as Anaheim saw a five-point lead in the division evaporate to a one-point third-place deficit over the course of a six-game losing streak and losses in seven of their last eight contests.

With the hard-charging wild card pack just three points behind, the Ducks responded with a 6-1 win over San Jose and an overtime loss to Vancouver, taking three of four points to slow the slide and earn their spot back into the postseason.

“I played in a lot of big games in college and world juniors and all that stuff, and I haven't played in games like this in eight years,” Terry said. “Hopefully we've learned from a lot of the mistakes in the last week, and we can take those lessons, as opposed to learning them next week, which is maybe a positive thing.”

Terry is the link. Eight years ago, he was the young buck learning from the hardened veterans at the end of an era, and now, the roles are reversed, with plenty left in the tank for Terry and the rising Ducks, as they push into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and beyond.

“I think the way that Ryan Getzlaf and those guys taught me a lot, and that's what our team is trying to build towards,” Terry said, “A team that consistently expects to be here as opposed to just, like, well, we're surprised that we're here, you know? I think that's the mindset thing, and I think we're getting that. It’s just gonna be trying to build on it.”

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