‘The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers’ Recap: ‘Draft Day’

Written by Zeke Perez Jr.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 204 of ‘The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
 
Coaches and players fall into opposing sides of the showdown between talent and teamwork in this week’s episode of Game Changers, as player rankings lock, and the EPIC camp’s tournament draft takes place. Both the rankings and the impending tournament have been at the center of conflict and an intense draft finally creates a clear dividing line through friendships, relationships, teammates, and coaches.
 
Coach Cole and Coach Alex have been at odds all season, disagreeing about how the campers should be trained, about the intensity of camp, and even about how kids’ summers should be spent. While Coach Cole hasn’t been malicious in his treatment of the campers, he is definitely a perfectionist who prioritizes talent and expects elite effort. Coach Alex, off of a championship with an imperfect but scrappy Ducks team, places emphasis on flying together over individual skill. 
 
The two coaches now finally get the chance to battle out their competing strategies in the eight-team tournament. The random draft lottery gives Coach Cole the early edge, as he draws the first overall pick while Alex lands the eighth and final spot. But using some classic Duck ingenuity, Nick agrees to help Alex wheel and deal to move up in the draft. Using his fantasy sports experience and his knowledge of the other coaches and their personalities, he helps Alex trade up one pick at a time until she’s eventually secured the number two pick. 
 
Approaching draft night, Alex has one last trade up her sleeve. She uses Coach Cole’s competitive drive against him, suggesting that it would be pretty easy for him to put together a win with the first pick and facing no adversity. She claims that the optics of him hanging a banner and celebrating a win at his own camp don’t prove much. Feeling challenged, he claims he can beat her even if she has the advantage and swaps places with her. 
 
Armed with the number one overall pick, Alex surprises the entire camp by selecting Nick (who was dead last in the player rankings). Inversely, Coach Cole uses the number two pick to take the highest ranked player with NHL-caliber talent, AJ Lawrence. Alex goes on to take Koob, Maya, Sam, and Sofi, ultimately reuniting nearly all of the Ducks, while Coach Cole rounds out his team with more and more talent. 
 
Going against their own hopes, both Alex and Coach Cole decide against picking their kids. Coach Cole eventually picks Evan, with Evan thanking his mom for not picking him and for letting him chase his goals. As expected, Alex uses the final pick of the draft to pick Coach Cole’s son, Jace. Coach Cole admits that it was a struggle to leave Jace on the board, but Jace genuinely thanks him for the fresh start. While the draft results aren’t surprising, they are fully heartwarming. 
 
The episode winds down with the coaches each announcing their team names: Dominate; Focus; Perseverance; Hustle; Endurance; Accountability; and Intention. Once again bucking the camp’s trend and doing her own thing, Coach Alex chooses an objectively much cooler team name: The Mighty Ducks. Even though you could see it coming from a mile away, it was a tear-jerking moment (and not just because all of the other team names sounded like they came from a poster for a motivational speaker). 
 
Coach Cole criticizes Alex, accusing her of undermining everything that the camp stands for and works towards by “drafting some of the worst players here to make them feel better.” Alex counters, insisting that she picked them because she knows that winning teams are just that: teams. ‘Draft Day’ sets up another chapter in The Mighty Ducks long franchise history of underdog stories. Game Changers puts a spin on the traditional David vs. Goliath setup, with Evan and Jace playing wild cards on their respective teams. Plenty is at stake beyond the shot to take on Team Canada as tournament play kicks off next episode. 

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