Puck Prose
Fansided

NHL: Each franchise’s best team ever

By Nick Villano

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 03: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates with the Stanley Cup prior to watching the 2018 Stanley Cup Championship banner rise to the rafters before playing against the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on October 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 03: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals skates with the Stanley Cup prior to watching the 2018 Stanley Cup Championship banner rise to the rafters before playing against the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on October 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 31
Next
Chris Pronger
Chris Pronger (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) /

NHL: Each franchise’s best team ever: 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks

While we love the 2002-03 Anaheim Ducks that watched Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Paul Kariya carry them to the Final, there’s no Ducks team like the 2007 Stanley Cup Champion. It all started with defense, as Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer led one of the most underrated defensive units of this generation. They are two Hall of Famers in very different parts of their careers who came together to lead their team to a championship. Can you even name the goalie of the 2006-07 Ducks? (It’s still Giguere, but there were three playoff wins from Ilya Bryzgalov.) Pronger came over in an offseason trade, and it was one of the biggest game-changing trades of the decade.

The Ducks also had a prolific offense, led by franchise legend Teemu Selanne. He put up 94 points that season. There were these two young players ready to break out behind Selanne. The two leading playoff scorers were a 21-year-old Ryan Getzlaf and a 21-year-old Corey Perry (Selanne and Pronger were tied for second to be fair).

This was the first year after the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim changed their name to the “Ducks”, showing a change to move away from its Disney roots. It didn’t take long to shed those roots, as the team broke the record for most games to earn a point to start a season (16 games). They finished the season tied with the Nashville Predators with 110 points, but they lost the number-one seed on percentage points.

It didn’t matter. They dominated the postseason. They lost two games in the first two series combined, and they beat the big, bad Detroit Red Wings in six games in the Western Conference Finals. In the SCF, it only took them five games to take out the Ottawa Senators. This was by far the best team that season, and it’s not even close when considering other great Ducks teams who are the best in franchise history.

Home/All-Time Lists