Rickard Rakell, Emerson Etem and Jiri Sekac are the three depth options most likely to find themselves in key roles next season. Rakell may find it hardest to break on to one of the top two lines as he seems destined to end up in the Silfverberg role alongside Andrew Cogliano. None of these four played averaged more than 13 minutes per game so it is unlikely that any of them has a major effect this year, but of the four Etem looks like the most likely to find himself on a scoring line.

Sami Vatanen is the best option of the top three Anaheim defensemen because he gets the most power play time and the easiest minutes. He is very dependent on his power play minutes for his points as he had 18 at even strength and 17 on the power play. If the Ducks power play slips expect Vatanen's overall numbers to fall similarly. Another reason to worry is that two thirds of Vatanen's assists were secondary assists. Vatanen is the best bet of the Ducks' defensemen to hit 50 point but it is more likely that he falls short of that. Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm play very similar roles for the Ducks. They get basically even zone starts and both play against high levels of competition. The difference between the two is that Fowler gets close to 2.5 minutes of power play time per game while Lindholm gets about 1.5 minutes but was down to 20% of the Ducks total power play time by the end of the year. Lindholm balances the usage disparity by shooting more at even strength than any other Duck defenseman. While Fowler should get the edge due to the extra power play time both will get close to 40 points as the Ducks offense is good enough to support three 40 point defensemen, it pretty much did this year.

Simon Despres and Francois Beauchemin are the future and current versions of the same defenseman. They are not good enough offensively to beat out the top three for significant power play time but are too good in overall to be completely ignored. If Beauchemin returns to the team he will play more than Despres for as long as he can hack it, he may lose his power play time though if Wisniewski remains with the team. 25 points will be the maximum for either defenseman. 

James Wisniewski was brought in at the deadline but could not find his way into the Ducks' lineup. Getting beat out by Clayton Stoner does not bode well for Wisniewski's future in Anaheim. Wisniewski put up five points in 13 games, a 30 point pace, but with a cap hit of 5.5 million for the next two years he is a prime candidate to be moved. The Ducks will not be in cap hell next year but will be approaching that cap crunch for the 2016/17 season. Stay away unless he gets traded.

UFA: Tomas Fleischmann, Matt Beleskey, Sheldon Souray, Francois Beauchemin, Korbinian Holzer

RFA: Chris Wagner, Jakob Silfverberg, Emerson Etem,