ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — When Jackson LaCombe signed a $72 million contract extension with the Anaheim Ducks last September, casual hockey fans around North America responded to the news online with countless variations of the same clueless refrain: “Who’s that?”Seven months later, anyone who still doesn’t know about the Ducks’ top defenseman clearly isn’t paying attention to this sport.LaCombe just finished dominating his first Stanley Cup playoff series, scoring nine points — second-most in the entire NHL — and tirelessly spearheading the Ducks’ defensive efforts against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl while upstart Anaheim eliminated the two-time conference champion Edmonton Oilers in six games.After agreeing to the richest contract ever handed out in Anaheim, LaCombe scored 58 points in a breakout regular season while making the U.S. Olympic team’s roster and leading the Ducks to their first playoff berth since 2018. His performance under the postseason spotlight has cemented everything Ducks fans already knew about him — and his Anaheim teammates think it’s long past time for LaCombe to be known beyond the West Coast. 2 MIN READ 2 MIN READ 1 MIN READ “It’s crazy to me that people are just now figuring it out about him sometimes,” Ducks
Lean: 0.000 · Source quality 78/100 · Factual vs opinion 80/100.