The way to judge whether Anaheim Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek improved his team after a return to the playoffs this spring won’t be based on Friday night.The NHL Draft is always a time at which teams wheel and deal. In a frenzied week of trades, Verbeek jumped into the fray with a trade before the first round kicked off and another as it went down at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center.Sending out Mason McTavish and Olen Zellweger for returns that won’t be immediately slotted right onto the Ducks roster is not the answer on its own. The Ducks are not a better team today. It also doesn’t mean they can’t be a better team tomorrow, or by the end of next week.Or when July has turned into August, and their offseason business is mostly complete.That is when Verbeek’s work can be fully assessed. It also puts him on the clock in terms of building a true contender, because the returns of four prospects for McTavish and Zellweger won’t help them now.“Free agency is coming up, so certainly we’re going to be very active in trying to fill our holes through free agency and/or possibly through trade,” Verbeek said Friday as the Ducks conducted their business from a Newport Beach hotel. “There’s going to be multiple scenarios that we’re going to be exploring and looking at, and so I see us very active and trying to make our roster as strong as it can be.”As predicted, Gavin McKenna goes No. 1The Athletic Hockey ShowTake the long-percolating McTavish deal. Reports surfaced Thursday that the Ducks had tabled offers from the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues.At one point, it felt as if McTavish would only be moved if it would bring Anaheim a proven upgrade, perhaps in the second-line center role that the 23-year-old would lock down for years. However, his disappointing season and healthy scratches were a hit to his value.McTavish instead became Verbeek’s way of getting the Ducks back into the first round; the Ducks had lost their pick to the Washington Capitals when they made the playoffs after acquiring John Carlson.The Ducks took the Blues’ offer of the No. 15 and No. 29 picks — St. Louis had an excess of four picks in the first round — and while they are enamored with Nikita Klepov as the first of those two selections, there isn’t an immediate replacement for McTavish on the roster.Verbeek parted with another young NHL player in Zellweger, who also fell out of favor but could thrive elsewhere.Earlier in the day, the 22-year-old defenseman was sent to the Buffalo Sabres for forward prospect Anton Wahlberg and the No. 45 selection in Saturday’s second round. Though that trade could be more about providing either Tyson Hinds or Stian Solberg a path to winning a regular job on the left side of the defense, it’s another deal in which the return is a couple of NHL uncertainties for a club whose paradigm has shifted after snapping its postseason drought and getting to the second round.The optics aren’t great when two young regulars are traded without an upgrade coming back, even if the shine had worn off on those two players. Verbeek said they did look at roster players in trade discussions, but pivoted to filling their pipeline with future talent. Other means are now necessary to plug their holes.“Looking in the free-agent world or through a trade market, I think there’s going to be chances for us to make those moves that we need to make to, you know, deepen the NHL team,” he said.According to CapWages, the Ducks now have more than $49 million of salary-cap space for 2026-27, after subtracting McTavish’s $7 million and without the need to re-sign Zellweger, who was to become a restricted free agent.The next contracts for Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier — and, to a lesser extent, Pavel Mintyukov, their third notable RFA — will likely take up more than half of that space. Still, they will have money to play with when free agency opens on Wednesday.Speaking of Carlson and Gauthier, Verbeek said talks with their camps are “ongoing” but added nothing more. The McTavish trade may be a sign that either or both will sign without holding out, as McTavish and others, including Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale, did when they came off their rookie deals.“It certainly gives us a lot of flexibility,” he said. “In regard to Leo and Cutter, it certainly allows us to kind of be more open-minded. But at the same time, we want to keep pushing ahead and address some spots that we think where we can make improvements in our roster.”The UFA market is decimated. Verbeek acknowledged the lack of talent available, even if he didn’t use those exact terms. However, he exuded confidence that there will be finds once teams reassess their rosters and where they stand in their evolution.“There’ll be some opportunities that we’ll keep looking at, and we’ll keep discussing over the next couple of weeks,” Verbeek said.As for his own UFAs, Verbeek is looking at the possibility of losing all three of his veteran right-shot blueliners.Carlson told him he won’t re-sign, as he’s interested in returning to the Eastern Conference. Jacob Trouba and Radko Gudas could also go to free agency, though Verbeek said on Friday that the door remains open on both. Verbeek also said they’re open to giving Tristan Luneau the chance to win a job.The key player coming to the Ducks in Friday’s trades is Klepov, a dual citizen who was born in Florida but grew up in Russia before returning to the United States to develop his game. After a season with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers, Klepov blew up as a rookie with the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit. He had 37 goals and a league-leading 97 points.A left-shot right wing, Klepov said he watched Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov this past season. Verbeek said Klepov is “equal part goal scorer, equal part playmaker” with a talent level that could bring him to the NHL sooner rather than later.Klepov will play for Michigan State next season, and Verbeek said he wouldn’t have traded McTavish if the 18-year-old wasn’t on the board for them at No. 15.“When you’re playing hard competition, I feel like that’s when we start to develop the most,” Klepov said. “I think that’s what I’m going to have at Michigan State. We have a great team, and it’s only going to be making me a better player every day, I feel like. That’s what I’ll try to do.”The Ducks would later make another deal with Vegas to move up one position and grab Swedish left wing Marcus Nordmark, another player they targeted. These two players could help a future playoff club, but the jury is out on whether Verbeek can take them to the next level.