Kreider Is Gone. The Roster Hole He Leaves Is Not.

The Ducks placed Chris Kreider on waivers Wednesday for the purpose of terminating his contract, a move that works for both sides: Kreider gets his East Coast landing spot, Anaheim gets cap relief. Clean enough transaction on its face.

The problem is what it removes. Kreider finished last season third on the team in goals among forwards, posting 15 goals and 25 points in 45 games. That is not a star line, but it is a real one — veteran production from a player who knew how to play in traffic and had won before. The Ducks already traded Mason McTavish to St. Louis in June and have Troy Terry sidelined by hip surgery until sometime deep into the fall. That is three established forwards out of the picture heading into 2026-27, and the replacements — Sean Farrell, AJ Greer, a first-round pick in Nikita Klepov not yet proven at this level — are not the same thing.

Anaheim's depth problem is not new. The late-season collapse last year, when the offense dried up and the defense allowed 4.1 goals a game over the final 10, was partly a depth problem wearing a goaltending mask. The Ducks won a lot of one-goal games during the regular season and it flattered them. When the margin for error disappeared, so did the wins. Kreider's 17 minutes a night did not fix that, but his absence makes the math harder.

Carlsson and Gauthier are the franchise. Everything else around them is thinner today than it was yesterday.