History of the Anaheim Ducks

After initially struggling in their first two seasons, the Mighty Ducks improved under the leadership of center Paul Kariya, who led the team to their first two Stanley Cup playoffs appearances in 1997 and 1999 while forming a potent line with Teemu Selanne, and later rode the strong goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Giguere to a Cinderella run to the franchise's first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2003, losing to the New Jersey Devils in seven games.

An entrance fee of $50 million was required, half of which Disney paid to the Los Angeles Kings as compensation for sharing the Southern California NHL market.

During the subsequent off-season, the Mighty Ducks made a trade that paid major dividends in later years—the team sent a second-round draft pick to the Calgary Flames in exchange for goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Late in the season, on March 5, 2001, fan-favorite and prolific scorer Teemu Selanne was traded to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Jeff Friesen, Steve Shields and a second-round draft pick.

During the off-season, the team signed unrestricted free agent Adam Oates, also trading Jeff Friesen and Oleg Tverdovsky to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for Petr Sykora, Mike Commodore and Jean-Francois Damphousse.

This time, Anaheim shocked the hockey world as they swept Detroit in the series, with Steve Rucchin's series-clincher on goaltender Curtis Joseph coming in overtime of Game 4.

During the off-season, the Mighty Ducks were dealt a major blow after their captain Paul Kariya opted to sign a free agent contract with the Colorado Avalanche.

However, the Mighty Ducks did fill Kariya's gap by signing star free agent Sergei Fedorov from Detroit and Vaclav Prospal from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

During the summer of 2004, as the NHL and the National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA)'s labor dispute was headed towards a season-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 for a reported US$75 million.

The team also made their first big free agency splash under Brian Burke when he signed defenceman Scott Niedermayer—the 2004 Norris Trophy winner and older brother of Ducks forward Rob Niedermayer—to a four-year contract.

[23] On July 3, 2006, the Ducks traded young sniper Joffrey Lupul, defensive prospect Ladislav Šmid, a 2007 first-round draft pick, a second-round choice in 2008 and a conditional first-round selection in 2008 to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for star defenceman Chris Pronger, who had publicly requested a trade from the Oilers ten days earlier citing personal reasons, with many speculating his wife was unhappy living in Edmonton.

[1] With stars Pronger and Scott Niedermayer on defense, the Ducks were picked by several publications as a favorite to win the 2007 Stanley Cup,[24] and they began the 2006–07 season on fire.

As a result of this indecision, general manager Brian Burke was active in the free agent market, eventually signing two veteran players in high-scoring defenseman Mathieu Schneider and gritty forward Todd Bertuzzi to two-year contracts to replace both Niedermayer and Selanne should the pair retire.

The Ducks began their Cup defense against the Los Angeles Kings for a two-game set in London, United Kingdom, without Niedermayer and Selanne (who were still pondering retirement) and an injured Pahlsson and Giguere, splitting the series.

Later, Corey Perry and Scott Niedermayer were named as injury replacements, setting a Ducks franchise record for players representing the team at an All-Star Game, with four.

With nine games to go in the regular season, Chris Pronger was suspended for the third time in an Anaheim uniform, receiving an eight-game ban for stomping on the leg of Vancouver's Ryan Kesler.

Later on, the Ducks placed Todd Bertuzzi on waivers, where he failed to be claimed by any team and subsequently became an unrestricted free agent, eventually signing with the Calgary Flames.

However, despite all the off-season moves, the Ducks were still in a vice cap-wise, and in turn dealt Mathieu Schneider to the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for Ken Klee, Brad Larsen and minor-leaguer Chad Painchaud.

Moving Schneider to Atlanta freed-up enough cap room to re-sign Teemu Selanne, who was previously signed to a professional tryout contract in the pre-season to ensure no team would send a counter offer in his direction.

Veteran defenseman Sean O'Donnell was dealt to Los Angeles for a conditional third-round draft pick a few days into the pre-season in what Brian Burke called a cap-related move.

Three Anaheim Ducks players, Ryan Getzlaf, Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Scott Niedermayer, were all named starters for the NHL All-Star Game, held in Montreal.

In the end, neither was ultimately dealtm but the Ducks did make one move before the deadline; Chris Kunitz, as well as prospect Eric Tangradi, was sent to the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 27 in exchange for defenseman Ryan Whitney.

The team finished with a 42–33–7 record with 91 points to place them second in the Pacific and eighth in the West, earning them a matchup with the Presidents' Trophy-winning San Jose Sharks.

Even though the Ducks had a great season led by Perry, Hiller, Selänne, Lubomir Visnovsky and Ryan Getzlaf, they lost 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.

The 2013–14 season was a record-setting one for the Ducks, but one which began with a 6–1 mauling at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche, which saw respective head coaches Bruce Boudreau and Patrick Roy almost come to blows at the game's conclusion.

Anaheim faced the eighth-seeded Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Quarterfinals, and were victorious in six games, marking the first time since 2009 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.

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