Here’s a big clue about the origins of the team’s nickname: They once were the Mighty Ducks. That’s what the Walt Disney Company, based in Burbank, Calif., decided to name the NHL expansion team that it launched in 1993, a year after the release of “The Mighty Ducks” movie. The Disney comedy about a youth hockey team was such a hit, it led to a cinematic trilogy. After Disney sold the team in 2006, the new owners decided that one way to distance itself from the movies was to drop “Mighty” and just go by “Ducks.”
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