The Ducks traded Dave Karpa and a 2000 4th round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes for Kevin Haller and Stu Grimson on June 18.
Rookies Antti Aalto and Johan Davidsson made the roster while Mike Crowley who played very well last season would see more ice time with the parent team.
For the first time since the Ducks traded Ron Tugnutt to the Montreal Canadiens in 1994 the team saw just their second change in net, losing Mikhail Shtalenkov to the Nashville Predators in the 1998 NHL Expansion Draft.
On October 27, 1998 they added Marty McInnis, a key player who gave them more scoring depth for the team's upcoming success and dominating Powerplay.
On November 8 Tomas Sandstrom suffered a broken left wrist which kept him sidelined until late December thus relying more on their star players and hoping for others to fill the void.
Anaheim stayed consistent after their streak, going 4–4–3, but registering a record of 1–5–1 in their last seven games, thus missing out on 5th place facing rather Phoenix than the Red Wings as they finished the season 6th in the west since the team was unable to maintain their amazing run in April.
Late in Game 3 Stu Grimson cross-checked Kris Draper in the face in front of the Red Wings bench which caused a brawl between both teams.