Trying to improve their scoring depth and not relying too much on Kariya and Selanne, the Mighty Ducks signed German Titov and acquired Andrej Nazarov who had a career year in goals (10) and points (31).
To make matters even worse, center Steve Rucchin was hit in the face by a shot on November 15 and missed the rest of the season.
On January 10 the Mighty Ducks waived Dominic Roussel, resulting in J. S. Giguere becoming their new backup, believing him and Hebert would carry the team into the playoffs and pass on the torch carefully to a new number one during the season.
Shields' acquisition ended Hebert's tenure with the Mighty Ducks getting waived and picked up by the New York Rangers on March 7 to replace the injured Mike Richter.
While Selanne enjoyed much success with San Jose, the same could not be said about Anaheim as the Ducks went 2–6–3 after their five-game winning streak, which had fans and experts worried whether the deal with the Sharks was actually worth it.
The Mighty Ducks went 11–22–5–1 in the second half with a lot of open questions about the team's future identity with longtime players Hebert, Marshall and Selanne gone.
Their goaltending was heavily effected by that, too as Guy Hebert and Dominic Roussel recorded a save percentage below .900 which was the first time in team history.
The season marked the start of a new era: in goal, the team waived goaltender Guy Hebert (the last remaining original Mighty Duck from the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft) while focusing on Jean-Sebastien Giguere as their new starter.