In 2005, Disney sold the franchise to the Samuelis, who, along with then-general manager Brian Burke, changed the name of the team to the Anaheim Ducks before the 2006–07 season.

Despite losing in 2003, the Ducks have produced two Conn Smythe Trophy winners as the most valuable player of the playoffs; Jean-Sébastien Giguère in 2003, and Scott Niedermayer in 2007.

[3] On March 1, 1993, at the brand-new Anaheim Arena – located a short distance east of Disneyland and across the Orange Freeway from Angel Stadium – the team's name was announced.

In the former, a focus on defense led to goaltenders Guy Hebert and Glenn Healy being the first picks, followed by Alexei Kasatonov and Steven King.

[9] Led by captain Troy Loney, the Ducks finished the season 33–46–5, a record-breaking number of wins for an expansion team, which the Florida Panthers also achieved.

[11] The lockout-shortened 1994–95 NHL season saw the debut of Paul Kariya, who would play 47 of the team's 48 games that year, scoring 18 goals and 21 assists for 39 points.

At the time of his selection (January 1996) Kariya was ranked 14th in league scoring with 51 points (23 goals and 28 assists) over 42 games, although the Ducks were overall a low-scoring team.

[13] Although the trade proved to be an important effort in the team, they still finished short of the playoffs, losing the eighth spot in the Western Conference to the Winnipeg Jets based on the number of wins.

Selanne was subsequently dealt to San Jose at the trade deadline for Jeff Friesen, Steve Shields and a second-round draft pick,[22] while head coach Craig Hartsburg was fired during the season.

Anaheim forward Rob Niedermayer was playing against his brother Scott, while Giguere faced off against fellow French-Canadian goaltender Martin Brodeur.

Giguere's stats subsequently declined from the previous season, as he only won half the games he did the year before, his goals-against average increased from 2.30 to 2.62, his save percentage went down from .914 to .907 and he went from eight shutouts recorded to just three.

During the 2004 off-season, as the NHL and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA)'s labor dispute was headed towards a long lockout, Disney tried to sell the team but received a low offer of US$40 million, less than the franchise's original price.

In 2005, Broadcom Corporation co-founder Henry Samueli of Irvine, California, and his wife Susan bought the Mighty Ducks from The Walt Disney Company[31] for a reported US$75 million.

On November 15, 2005, Anaheim traded Sergei Fedorov and a fifth-round draft pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for defenseman Francois Beauchemin and forward Tyler Wright.

[35] The Ducks traded Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid and a first-round draft pick to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for star defenseman Chris Pronger.

On April 7, the Ducks won their first division title in franchise history when the Canucks defeated the second-place San Jose Sharks in the final game of the season.

Scott Niedermayer, the only player on the team who had previously won a Stanley Cup, was awarded the second Conn Smythe Trophy in Ducks history.

Before the 2009–10 season, the Ducks traded Chris Pronger to the Philadelphia Flyers for Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa and two first-round draft picks.

Even though the Ducks had a great season led by Perry, Hiller, Selanne, Visnovsky and Getzlaf, they would end up losing in the first round of the 2011 playoffs to the fifth-seeded Nashville Predators.

Before the 2011–12 season began, the team mourned the loss of former Mighty Duck Ruslan Salei, who died in a plane crash with several other former NHL players of Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) club Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Anaheim faced the eighth-seeded Dallas Stars in the conference quarterfinals and were victorious in six games, marking the first time since 2009 that the Ducks had won a playoff series.

In the Western Conference semifinals, the Ducks faced their geographic rival and eventual Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings for the first time ever in the playoffs.

In the 2015 playoffs, they swept the Winnipeg Jets in the first round and beat the Calgary Flames in five games to set up a conference final against the Chicago Blackhawks.

They also traded for Vancouver Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa and adding veterans Shawn Horcoff, Chris Stewart and Mike Santorelli.

On May 10, 2017, the Ducks ended their Game 7 losing streak when they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the second round, winning the series 4–3 and advancing to the conference finals for the second time in three seasons.

[61] The Mighty Ducks' original road (later home) jersey features an eggplant and jade base, divided by silver, purple and white diagonal stripes.

The jersey has old fashion black lace on the neck and also has a unique "OC" logo on the left shoulder to represent Orange County where the Ducks are from.

While it had the elements of the original jersey, it kept the modern-day aspects of the Ducks identity such as the "webbed D" on the shoulders, black base and current lettering.

[71] In one such descent the rigging that lowered Wild Wing from the rafters malfunctioned leaving the mascot trapped fifty feet above the ice for several minutes.

A bronze statue of Wild Wing was located outside the south doors of Honda Center[73] from 1993 to 2012, until construction began on the 'Grand Terrace' addition to the arena.