Ducks could part ways with 24-year-old forward before trade deadline

With the NHL's trade deadline only nine days away, one team to keep an eye on is the Anaheim Ducks, who are currently last in the Pacific Division.

The organization's attention is fully on the future and building a strong team around a core involving Trevor Zegras, Troy Terry and Jamie Drysdale. The Ducks also have several high-end prospects on the way, including Pavel Mintyukov, Sasha Pastujov, Olen Zellweger, among others. They're also in the Connor Bedard sweepstakes and even if they don't land the first overall pick, they'll still end up with an elite player. In five years from now, we could be talking about the Ducks as a Stanley Cup contender.

But for now, the team is focused on the trade deadline and have a handful of pending unrestricted free agents that could be on the move, including John Klingberg and Dmitry Kulikov. But one other player to watch is pending RFA forward Maxime Comtois as he could be on his way out of Anaheim by March 3rd.

Comtois, 24, is not having a good season at all. In 44 games, he has nine points (five goals, four assists), 70 penalty minutes and is a minus-15. He has a $2.445 million qualifying offer this summer, but if he stays in Anaheim beyond March 3rd, there's probably a good chance he won't be issued the QO and will become an unrestricted free agent. Regardless of what may or may not happen, Comtois is a player in serious need of a fresh start with a new organization.

Source: Elliotte Friedman - 32 Thoughts

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