Terry Reflects on Breakout Season, Journey to Thirty Goals

Troy Terry has come a long way in seven years.
The 24-year-old originally joined the Ducks as a fifth-round pick in 2015 from the United States National Development Program. A talented player who fell in the draft after being overshadowed by a remarkable collection of talent on Team USA including Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Charlie McAvoy, Terry was known as a responsible two-way player with some impressive skill, but maybe not one with the upside to become an offensive threat at the next level.
Now, he's a 30-goal scorer in the NHL.

"I feel like my journey has been slower than most," Terry admitted after a recent practice. "Every year it's been 'You're a candidate for a breakout year' and again 'You're a candidate for a breakout year' I feel like it's taken longer than I thought and I put a lot of work in. To get an accolade like that is pretty cool. It's not lost on me."
Terry became the 10th Duck in franchise history to hit the milestone Monday night, joining a list that includes Teemu Selanne, Paul Kariya, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf, among others.

The goal looked a lot like many of Terry's previous 29, a quickly released and perfectly placed wrist shot - a shot that is increasingly becoming an opposing goaltender's chief concern when he has the puck.

The breakout season, which has included a 16-game point streak and his first All-Star Game appearance, has come as the product of a lot of dedication and perseverance, but without much at all do with anything on the ice.
"I feel like I was playing this way last year without the confidence to score on a lot of those chances," Terry said. "I just came into this year and was able to build on it. Build on my confidence to score around the net."
In fact, no one is harder on Troy Terry than Troy Terry. His early career struggles with confidence are well-documented. After a decorated college career that included guiding his hometown Denver Pioneers to the school's eighth national championship, Terry expected to establish himself at the NHL level sooner than later, but the challenges of the sport's toughest stage saw him bounce back and forth between the NHL, where he totaled 48 points across his first three pro seasons, and the American Hockey League, where he set San Diego Gulls records as one of the league's top players.
"I would get frustrated. I would start forcing things," Terry recalled. "The hardest part of pro hockey for me has been balancing the roller coaster of all that. That's what I've dealt with my whole career. Everyone is a good hockey player here and, as hard as that is, the mental side is equally hard or harder. That was something I've had to learn."
Head coach Dallas Eakins, who was with Terry in San Diego before becoming the Ducks bench boss, agreed with his self-assessment.
"Has he gotten stronger off the ice? Yeah, sure he has. But the biggest growth for him has been mentally," Eakins said. "Part of it is to keep your high expectations of your own game but understand it's not an elevator to the top. You're going to have to climb some rocks and go down into the valley and then start climbing again to get to the top. And that's OK. It's OK to make a mistake on a shift. It's OK that the other team does a really good job against you on some nights. You have to understand that's part of the game at this level. I think he's gotten to a really great spot mentally where he takes the good and the bad in the same breath. That's important."
Now that he's enjoying that long-coveted breakout season, Terry believes it's more important than ever to stay in control of that roller coaster.
"For me, what I've learned is the numbers come when I just focus on how I play and playing the right way," he said. "That's what I'm more proud of than even the 30 goals, just staying with that all year. I feel like I've done that."
As the Ducks continue to reconstruct their roster for the future, Terry wants to use his journey to help his younger teammates, both as an encouraging voice and an example of consistency through the grind.
"The next step for me is continuing to play the way I do but realize that I may have a bigger role off the ice now," Terry said. "It's an added thing I look forward to and I've looked forward to since I came out of college and was in that role.
"I think it's a testament to the standards I now have for myself. The next step is being a guy that brings it every night."
At least in the interim, every night now seems to be alongside Trevor Zegras on Anaheim's newly formed top line. In their first game together, alongside versatile veteran Derek Grant Monday vs. Nashville, Terry scored #30 while Zegras matched Cam Fowler for the most assists by a Ducks rookie, a mark he then passed on Wednesday.
It's not lost on Terry that his chemistry with his friend "Z" could become a building block of the Ducks attack moving forward.
"It's fun, I'm not going to lie to you guys. He's a fun player to watch and he's fun to play with," Terry said with a laugh. "It's no secret what Z is and what he brings. The next step for me is, there were a few times he gave me passes that I needed to be more ready to shoot. His ability to make those passes is high-end and now it's on me to be more ready for those."
The two first played together late in the shortened 2020-21 season, but Terry spent most of his time early in the 2021-22 campaign attached to Getzlaf's right hip, a partnership that paid dividends for them both early in the season. Terry, whose always viewed himself as more of a playmaker than a pure goal scorer, says the biggest challenge of playing with both pivotmen is being ready to receive the pass even when one doesn't seem possible to the average eye.
"That passing ability is the same where if one of them has the puck over there and I'm on the other flank, there might be five bodies between us and I can't even seem them, but the puck might come right through all that right to your stick. That was something I had to work on playing with Getzy for a long time was getting ready for those.
"It's funny I never used to talk about myself as a goal-scorer, and now I've turned into that. As a goal-scorer playing with Z, you have to be ready for those passes and ready to put them in the net when they come."