The Anaheim Ducks have traded forward Trevor Zegras to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Ryan Poehling, a 2025 2nd round pick, and a 2026 4th round draft pick. The deal was announced by the club on Monday afternoon.
Zegras had been on the trade block for the better part of a season now as his offensive numbers failed to bounce back following his 65 point (23G, 42A) 2022-23 NHL campaign. The 24 year old is a former 1st round (9th overall) draft pick of the Ducks from the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.
Across 268 career games, he’s amassed 186 points (67G, 119A), but tallied just 32 points across 57 contests in 2024-25.
“I want to thank Trevor for his contributions and efforts over the last six years,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said. “While this was a difficult trade to make, we have and will continue to look at retooling our roster over the next couple of months, and this transaction is part of that process. We wish Trevor the best of luck with the Flyers.”
Coming back the other way is 26 year old forward Ryan Poehling, who has spent time with the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Philadelphia Flyers since debuting during the 2018-19 season. Across 283 games he’s notched 43 goals to go along with 52 assists, good for 95 points at the NHL level.
The Zegras deal is the 2nd major trade Anaheim and Philadelphia have completed in recent years, following the Cutter Gauthier deal made back in January of 2024. It’s also the 2nd significant trade of the offseason for Anaheim, who also recently brought on board Chris Kreider from the New York Rangers.
It’s a clear shift in focus for the Ducks, who have struggled to keep the puck out of their own end in recent years, as Verbeek and Co. aim to overhaul their roster into a more complete unit. Only 6 teams had a worse goals for, goals against differential than Anaheim in 2024-25 (-42).
Poehling, who is a 6’2″ 204lbs forward, brings a much more physical presence to the game than Zegras (listed at a generous 6′, 185lbs). However, Anaheim will likely sacrifice some playmaking ability in the deal as a result of the Bedford, NY native’s departure.
The new Duck figures to slot into the team’s bottom 6 forward group next season, whereas Zegras will likely occupy a top 6 deployment with the Flyers.
Both clubs will now turn their attention to the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, which takes place on June 27-28th. This will then be followed by the opening of free agency on July 1st. A day that both front offices figure to be fairly active given the current needs of their rosters.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.