Ducks Acquire Jeffery Viel From The Bruins

Photo: AP

By Michael Walters

The Anaheim Ducks announced this morning they made a trade for Jeffrey Viel from the Boston Bruins. The Ducks sent a 2026 4th round draft pick in return. The Bruins will get the higher pick between Detroit and Philadelphia.

Viel has played in just 10 games this season with Boston recording no points with a +/- rating of -1 and 30 penalty minutes. He has spent most of the season in the AHL with the Providence Bruins. He has played in a total of 64 NHL games with San Jose and Boston registering five total points (3 G + 2 A) with a +/- rating of -11 and 183 penalty minutes.

Viel is a bottom six forward who plays physical and will drop the gloves when necessary. He will go into the dirty areas and post up in front of the net. He plays with plenty of grit, which is a style General Manager Pat Verbeek is all too familiar with and welcomes on his team.

Viel is not expected to be with the team tonight.

Analysis:

This deal is a bit of head scratcher. The issue for the Anaheim Ducks all season has been their defense. The Ducks are tied with the Canucks for giving up the most goals this season at 169 (Vancouver has played one more game). Anaheim averages the most goals against per game at 3.67. The Ducks rank 29th in 5-on-5 high danger chances against. They also rank 29th in odd man rushes against and 27th in net front chances against.

Based on these numbers, we discussed how the Ducks need to improve their blue line on our recent podcast. Anaheim was out scoring their defensive issues in the beginning of the season, but the scoring has cooled especially with Leo Carlsson and Chris Kreider. The power play has also dramatically gone cold as well.

Viel offers up little to no, well mostly no, offensive upside. He hasn’t recorded a point since the 2021-22 NHL season. He does provide a hard nosed and gritty style of play, but that’s something Anaheim needs on the blue line. The Ducks have been shorthanded with their forwards due to injuries and the flu going through the locker room so they called up Tim Washe  and Sam Colangelo recently as a result. With Nikita Nesterenko being sent down to San Diego, the Ducks could have also called up Justin Bailey who has 12 goals or Judd Caulfield who has 10 goals. We discussed various players Anaheim could call up to help out at the forward situation.

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January 16th, 2026