Anaheim acquires AHL center Anton Wahlberg in trade with Buffalo

Anaheim turned one of the trade market’s cleaner prospect chips into a center who had already become a real Rochester piece. The Ducks acquired Anton Wahlberg and the No. 45 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft from Buffalo for Olen Zellweger on June 26, and the move immediately changed both organizations’ AHL depth charts as much as their NHL futures.

Wahlberg arrives with more than projection. The 20-year-old center put up 37 points, 9 goals and 28 assists, in 68 games for the Rochester Americans in 2025-26, then added three assists in three Calder Cup Playoff games. He had already logged 30 points as a rookie in 2024-25 and now owns 71 points in 140 career AHL regular-season games across three seasons, numbers that matter because they show a teenager who did not need a long runway to become useful. Buffalo drafted him 39th overall in 2023, and the club’s own prospect coverage earlier this year described him as a complete 200-foot player and Rochester’s top-line center alongside Noah Östlund and Konsta Helenius.

That is the real Anaheim bet: not just a scorer, but a 6-foot-4, 205-pound center who can handle the puck, move it, and stay on the ice in high-leverage AHL usage. Wahlberg also reinforced the profile with Sweden at the 2025 World Juniors, where he posted eight points in seven games. For the Ducks, who now hold seven picks in the 2026 draft including two in the top 50, he becomes a development-line centerpiece, the kind of player who can slide into middle-six NHL value or power-play help if the skill keeps scaling with age and strength.

Buffalo, for its part, made the sort of move teams make when they want more certainty and a different kind of asset mix. Zellweger brought the more recognizable name and the more established NHL résumé, with seven goals and 22 points in 76 games this season, and the trade also brought the Sabres the No. 45 pick. That gave Buffalo a chance to cash out a productive but still-developing AHL center in exchange for an offensive defenseman who is already closer to NHL impact.

The roster ripple in Anaheim is obvious: ESPN noted the Ducks had only three defensemen under contract after the deal and several more nearing free agency, so moving Zellweger was a statement about timeline as much as talent. Rochester loses a center who had already earned top-line work; Anaheim adds one who can grow into more. That is how this trade changes the pipeline below the NHL.