The club was founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a name based on the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks.

Led by captain Troy Loney, the Ducks finished their inaugural season 33-46-5, a record-breaking number of wins for an expansion team.

Nicknamed "The Finnish Flash", Selänne used his elite speed to evade opposition defenders. He is the highest scoring Finnish-born player in NHL history.

Before the start of the 1994 season, Todd Ewen was traded to the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, where he spent the next three seasons protecting the team's star players, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selänne. In 1995-96, he racked up a franchise-record 285 minutes in the sin bin.

Five times in the history of the Conn Smythe Trophy, it has been awarded to a member of the team that lost the Stanley Cup Finals, most recently in 2003 to Jean-Sebastien Giguere of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who backstopped his team's surprise run to the Finals, where they pushed the New Jersey Devils to seven games.

The first mascot in NHL history to descend onto the ice from the rafters of an arena, Wild Wing is known for his daredevil stunts. During the team's home opener on October 18, 1995, he nearly caught fire attempting to jump through a ring of fire, after his skates caught on a trampoline.

In the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, the Ducks made their second Finals appearance, defeating the Ottawa Senators in five games to claim their first Stanley Cup.

In 1995-96, Paul Kariya won the Lady Byng Trophy with just 20 penalty minutes in 82 games. In 1996-97, he claimed the award again with just 6 penalty minutes.

Ryan Getzlaf led the Ducks in assists twelve times, including a franchise record 66 assists in 2008-09.

In 2010-11, right winger Corey Perry led the NHL with 50 goals, winning the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the league's leading scorer and the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP.