The last time Anaheim reached the second round of the playoffs, the year was 2017.
The Ducks beat Edmonton in a Game 7 on May 10, 2017, then moved on to the Western Conference Final, where Nashville ended the run in six games.
It was the second time in three seasons that Anaheim had reached that stage, and it remains the most recent deep playoff push in franchise history.
That memory matters again now because Anaheim has finally forced its way back into the conversation.
The Ducks closed out Edmonton with a 5-2 win in Game 6 of the 2026 first round, earning their first playoff series win since 2017 and setting up the next chapter of a run that has already changed the feel around the team.
Anaheim advanced for the first time since 2017, while the NHL’s own playoff roster page said the club’s last series win came in 2016-17, when it reached the Western Conference Final.
The 2017 standard still hangs over Anaheim
That 2017 team did more than get by. It survived a tight first round against Edmonton, then finished the job in the second round to reach the Western Conference Final.
The NHL’s Game 7 recap from that year showed how hard the Ducks had to work just to get there, ending a streak of four straight home Game 7 losses with a 2-1 win over the Oilers.
That run set the standard for everything that followed, because it marked the last time Anaheim looked like a team capable of pushing deep into May and June.
This year’s Ducks entered the postseason with a younger look and a different kind of pressure.
NHL listed Anaheim at 42-33-6 and third in the Pacific Division heading into the playoffs.
The current roster page also made the drought clear: the last series win before this spring came in that 2016-17 campaign.
The 2017 benchmark is useful because it shows how rare this kind of run has been for Anaheim.
Since then, the Ducks have spent years outside the picture, and the gap between playoff appearances has been large enough that the current group is still being measured against the old one.
That is why this spring feels like more than a single series win. It is the first time in years that the Ducks have been able to point back to 2017 and say the club is once again moving in that direction.
The matchup with Edmonton also added weight to the moment. The Oilers had come in as a proven postseason team, but Anaheim answered with offense in the series and then closed it out on home ice in Game 6.
The Ducks scored three goals in the opening period in the clincher, then held on to finish the job.
That kind of finish is exactly what the 2017 team used to build its own identity, which is why the comparison keeps coming back around.
For Anaheim, It has reopened a memory of what a real playoff run looks like.
The last time the Ducks were this far along, they were two wins from the Stanley Cup Final. The current team is not there yet, but the fact that 2017 is back in the conversation tells you how much this series win means.
