#Josh Duhamel to Replace Emilio Estevez in Season 2

Josh Duhamel has joined the cast of Disney+‘s The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers — opposite Lauren Graham (returning as Alex Morrow) — as a new character, filling the hole left by Emilio Estevez‘s exit. (Estevez reprised his role as Gordon Bombay from the Mighty Ducks films for Season 1.)

Duhamel is starring as former NHL player-turned-coach Gavin Cole. He’s “inspirational, charming, hardcore,” and “he’s big on the hockey metaphor that applies to life,” according to the character description. He runs a super-intense summer hockey institute, where we’ll see the Mighty Ducks in the new season.

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers is executive produced by showrunners Cathy Yuspa and Josh Goldsmith, as well as Steve Brill, Graham, George Heller, Brad Petrigala, Jordan Kerner, and Jon Avnet.

Duhamel’s TV credits include Jupiter’s Legacy, Battle Creek, Las Vegas, and the upcoming NBC limited series The Thing About Pam (premiering March 8) with Renée Zellweger.

Estevez’s departure was announced in November 2020. The first report attributed it to the vaccine mandate, while Estevez then said it “was nothing more than a good old fashioned contract dispute and not, as some would believe an anti-vaccine position,” as well as “my exit from the show was due to a myriad of creative differences — any other narrative is false.”

The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Season 2, TBA, Disney+