tommer-1

If they watched that playoff sweep at the hands of the Sharts they would have.

It’s basically 4 generations of Ducks players. Four 4-year windows, more or less Gen 1 to Gen 2 was a success (Selanne to Getzlaf) Gen 2 to Gen 3 was mixed (Getzlaf to Rakell) Gen 3 to Gen 4 was a disaster. (Rakell to Jones) Now it’s Gen 4 (which is paper thin) to Gen 5 (which looks fairly stacked).

Can Sanderson? He’s played 77 NHL games.

A bridge is only a problem if the team sucks/the culture sucks. And if those things are true, a 7 or 8 year deal won’t matter. Same if he is already of the mind that he wants to play somewhere else. Nothing you can do about it. I would think he looks at this team and the young players already on the team and in the pipeline, and he can see a bright future. But no way to know that at this point.

That was arbitration, and was gonna be a 1-year deal. When it came time to negotiate, Terry wanted $8 mil AAV, probably for 8 years, and got $7 mil for 7 years. Apples and oranges

4 goals and 28 assists in his first season. Exact. Same. Stats. as Jaime Drysdale after his first season.

Matthews, Tkachuk, Kucherov, Pettersson, Pointe, Kaprizov, Aho, Boeser, Laine, Guentzel, Kempe, Robertson, McAvoy Plenty of young studs taking less than 6 years on their first deal out of their ELC. It swings both ways.

I don't think I would have flipped out if the rebuild started then. They fraking sucked ass in that playoff demolition. That team, at that point, needed to be blown up.

If they somehow manage to get him for 7 or 8 years at around $8 mil AAV, to me, that would be a sign from him that, while still getting filthy rich, he is also about the team. This team. A bridge deal would not mean he is anti-team, I'm just saying if he takes a "fair" deal at term - again, if it is even offered - to me that speaks to him wanting to win. Wanting to get paid, too, obviously, but not just being about max money.

I've said before, if I was close to him - not his agent, or maybe even if I was his agent - I would advise him to take the security of an 8-year deal, as long as it was somewhere in the ballpark of $8 mil AAV. Same if he was my son or brother or close friend. The one caveat would be if he did not see himself in ANA long-term, for any number of reasons. No idea what advice he is getting. No idea if GMPV is even offering 8 years, or how far apart the two sides are. My guess? GMPV is offering 7 years at $7.25-$7.5 mil Zegras wants 8 years at around $9.25 mil There are currently 30 guys making $9.25 AAV and up, for reference.

Why? They are always gonna hold the 8-year option. Not easy to outbid a team offering 8 years when you can only offer 7 years. If he wants to play somewhere else, well, maybe that die has already been cast. Nothing to do about that. If they bridge him for 3 years at $7 mil, his QO will be big, and they will have plenty of cap. If they are trending the right way, they will be able to offer him the best $$$. That's the bet. That's the gamble. I think right now he wants to gamble on himself, the cap increasing, his value increasing. They would have to massively overpay him at this point to sign an 8-year deal, and it still might be less than what he could get in AAV in three years. I think that is where his camp is. The other possibility is that Auston Matthews could be changing common thinking on contracts. Three year ELC (MASSIVE bargain), 5 years at $11.6 mil AAV (slight discount to market value), 5 years at $13.25 mil AAV (market value). No one would argue that either TOR or Matthews was doing it wrong, at this point.

Strome, Killorn and Vatrano are basically bridges for the gap that Henrique, Getzlaf, and Silf have/soon will have left behind. You gotta have NHL proven players, you're gonna have to get them in the market, they are not always gonna be guys you drafted. They ran out of proven NHL players that they drafted, because: These guys got dealt: Lindholm, Manson, Vatanen, Theodore, Montour, Pettersson, Rakell, Palmieri - that's SIX Dmen out of 8 guys And these guys didn't pan out: Holland, Etem, Karlsson, Kerdiles, Sorenson, Ritchie, Larsson, Jones, Steel, Mahura, Comtois - that's NINE forwards out of 11 guys The oldest guys listed there are Holland, Palmieri, and Vatanen, none of whom will turn 33 until 2024. All first and second round picks (outside of Vatanen {4th round} and Mahura {3rd round}). All they have left from the draft from 2009-2017 is Fowler, Gibson, Terry, and Jones. That's it. That's bad.

I think it points to this season being critical.

And that's why, for me, if they don't end up in the neighborhood of 78-84 points this season - and playing a much better brand of hockey than the Eakins era -, I say his seat is gonna get hot, and only hotter based upon what he does next offseason and how the team plays to start 2024/25. That season point goal is not some fantasy. The had 76 points in 82 games two seasons ago, UNDER EAKINS. They should all be looking at themselves individually and thinking that they got the bare minimum out of their efforts, individually and collectively, last season. And it showed. And it can't happen again this season.

You can only do that if they also want to do it. Nobody is forcing anybody in this scenario. It's negotiation and compromise. And my guess is that, while it is in the Ducks' best interests to sign him long-term, Zegras is of the mind that it is in his best (financial) interests to sign a bridge deal and then get paid.

He holds the cards. I would bet the only 8-year contract he would sign right now would easily be north of $9.5 mil AAV. And the Ducks are not going to do that at this point. Makes sense for him to ask that, makes sense for them to say "No". He'll bridge, ball out, then sign an 8-year deal worth $75 mil+.

I think his seat will start to get hot if they play next season like they have the last few. Playing better should bring a better overall record, but I think just marginally better than last season, or 2020/21, would get him on the hot seat. In other words, they better be right around 80 points this season. If they are back in the .400 winning percentage range, I think he better be worried.

I'll just say this: If they cannot find a way to be a playoff team that makes runs in the next few seasons with these guys - Zegras, McTavish, Carlsson, Terry, Drysdale, Mintyukov, Zellweger as their core, to go with vets like Gibson (4 seasons left), Fowler (3 seasons left), Gudas (three seasons left), Killorn (4 seasons left), and Strome (4 seasons left) then they are doing it wrong. They are definitely going to have to add to that from the outside, but that's a pretty good base.

The Ducks had that down last when the kids were Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Penner, Kunitz, Fowler, Hiller, Gibson, Freddie and the vets were Teemu, Scotty, Pronger, Jiggy. The problem was, not enough of Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Penner, Kunitz, Fowler, Holland, Palmieri, Etem, Vatanen, Hiller, Gibson, Freddie stuck around or turned into the vets to lead a new group of kids - Rakell, Karlsson, Ritchie, Steel, Jones, Montour, Theodore, Pettersson, Lindholm AND the new group of kids either got shipped or didn't blossom into leaders of a winning culture. They had some good guys from outside the organization over those years - Beauch, Cogs, Visnovsky, Bonino, Kesler, Silf, Henrique - and they got close a time or two, but they never had that big core group of legit guys that you need to consistently be there. There were always lots of parts moving for them, either injury or trade. The #2 C hole was the big problem, and the second biggest issue was having Fowler as your #1 on the backend. And now they are trying to build that back.

You're making the case for Rakell being "a guy", which was my point. He didn't/couldn't elevate his play, didn't/couldn't elevate the play of those around him. He was no scrub, but he also was no star. He was not part of their future. If they had kept him, and not signed Vatrano, he would have "outgoaled" Vatrano - maybe - by three or so goals. Henrique had 22 goals in 62 games last season. Rakell most likely was not even doing that. Vatrano (29) has 2 years left at $3.65 mil, Rakell (30) has 5 years left at $5 mil, and that might have been more if the Ducks tried to extend him before he hit FA. The only guy that GMPV moved his first season that he should have kept was Lindholm.

His C's in ANA were Getzlaf, Kesler, Henrique, or Zegras. I never remember him playing significant minutes with Steel and Lundestrom. He went from a 33-goal and a 34-goal season at his peak to 18 in 69, 15 in 65, 9 in 52 and 16 in 51 in his last season with the Ducks, That's 20 goals per 82 games, over 237 games. Definitely has value, but in the last five seasons the Ducks have had Troy Terry, Trevor Zegras, Adam Henrique, Max Comtois, Jakob Silfverberg, Derek Grant, Daniel Sprong and Frank Vatrano all match that pace in a season.

If Rakell needs to play with Getzlaf or Crosby or Malkin to be good, well, let's just say that there are plenty of guys who can do that. Makes him very un-special.

Eakins only coached two NHL teams. And coached the Ducks for 4 seasons.

Also, imo, neither Lindholm nor Rakell exactly grabbed the bull by the horns and led this team to be better. Maybe that was impossible under Eakins, but those guys did not stand out as guys who were being held back by a bad team. They were part of the problem. Also, in 11 playoff games for the Bruins, Lindholm has zero points. Two first-round exits, one sweep, one Game 7 loss at home, which somewhat mirrors a couple of his Ducks playoff appearances.

The only thing with Lindholm might be that GMPV had information that Hampus did not want to stay. I'm not saying that was true, just that it might have been possible.