Two Holes, One Season

The goaltending note I filed two days ago still stands — Laurent Brossoit, no backup, full stop. But the right wing situation deserves its own mention, because it's a different kind of thin. Beckett Sennecke is the starter there and produced well enough last season, but the drop-off behind him is steep: Sam Colangelo is next in line and hasn't shown he can contribute at a starter's level, and Nikita Klepov, the first-round pick signed in July, is a project. Troy Terry plays the right side too, and his 33 assists last season were the connective tissue of this offense — but he's months away from returning from hip surgery, and there's no guarantee he's back before December at the earliest.

So the Ducks open 2026-27 with two positions that have the same basic problem: a credible option at the top and very little behind it. At right wing, one injury to Sennecke and the depth chart runs out fast. In goal, one bad stretch for Brossoit and there's no one to turn to. These aren't new observations — the roster has been bare since the McTavish trade and the Kreider release — but seeing both gaps on the same depth chart at the same time is clarifying.

My read is that the right wing hole is actually the more urgent of the two, simply because it affects every game in a way that goaltending depth doesn't until something goes wrong. Carlsson and Gauthier give this team a real top-six core, but they need functional linemates to operate. Klepov could surprise; Colangelo could step up. Camp will tell us something. For now, though, the Ducks are asking a lot of a thin group to carry the weight until Terry gets back.