The Anaheim Ducks have won five straight games and will add more firepower to their lineup Wednesday against the Nashville Predators as Troy Terry will make his season debut.
Terry has been out since undergoing surgery in June to address a hip impingement and labral tear. He was given a timeline of five-to-six months for recovery at that time.
The 28-year-old winger scored 19 goals and finished with 57 points in 61 games last season. He also made his NHL playoff debut, shining with 11 points in 12 games.
Wednesday’s game will mark the first of Terry’s 10th season with the Ducks. He is in the fourth year of a seven-year deal worth $49 million that runs through 2030.
Can Terry settle Ducks defensively?
The Ducks have rebounded from a five-game losing skid with six wins in their past eight, having scored five or more goals in all eight of those games.
While Anaheim welcomes back Terry’s offensive ability, the team is also likely hoping the veteran of 488 career games can help to fix some of their defensive issues.
The Ducks sit 30th in the league in goals-allowed per game amid their 10-7-1 start to the campaign.
“At the end of the day, it’s not a recipe for maybe winning a Stanley Cup just yet,” General manager Pat Verbeek told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic Tuesday. “Certainly we’re scoring goals, but we give up as much as we get, which is not great.
“But I look at it — I think we’re the youngest team in the league right now. We’re just doing some funny things in the sense that we’re taking a penalty at the wrong time or we’ve been able to establish leads, good leads, but we make silly mistakes where a more veteran team would understand how to manage some of those scenarios better.”
Verbeek is hoping the early adversity will help the Ducks as the team looks to return to the playoffs this spring.
“But you have to learn that, and you don’t learn that unless you go through it,” Verbeek added. “We all understand this. We’re hoping we learn a lot over these first 40 games and that in the last 40 games of the season, we’ll be much better and more dialed in and have a better understanding of how to manage all those situations.”