saskduckfan

Dont worry, they have tons of potential.

Probably with how scared you have been to share your thoughts on the season and must way until the seaon concludes you still think there is hope the Ducks will make the playoffs and win the Stanley Cup.

That looks better. The only change I would make is Fantilli/Bedard on the 2nd line instead of Vatrano and Vatrano down to the thrid. The skills and ability of Fantilli/Bedard are wasted on the 3rd line. Not sure why Vatrano is considered for 2nd line. That's still playing the guy higher in the lineup then he should.

So it was best to bring Dostal up and play him behind our horrible defense and let him get 40 plus shots against and have 6 or 7 goals against on some nights? That was best for his development? Sorry the arguments just dont work.

I'm not referring to Tracy or Perrault. There would have been no shame bringing up Helleson for a rew games to see whaf we got. Couldnt have done worse then the 4 pylons we were playing.

I dont know why people are so caught up on you need veterans in the lineup for leadership to teach the young guys. Yes maybe you need a veteran or two for leadership but you need the right ones. Something this team doesnt have and didnt get. By the time these kids get drafted to the NHL they know how to play hockey. They dont need some veteran to teach them how to play, even the leadership. Guess who the leaders are in juniors? The guys that were just drafted. They spent time in junior learning leadership. It should be able to translate over. Then there is the whole "if they play and lose then mentally it takes a toll". I dont buy that either. That's like saying we shouldnt call out someone for their mistakes on social media as it might affect them mentally. I'm sorry you are pros. You learn to deal with criticism and losing. Just because you are on a losing team guys arent going to terrible for their careers. If that's the case we better trade Terry and Zegras. They had two years of losing bad, guess their careers are over. Oh and if the Ducks somehow get Bedard we better send him back to junior for 2 more years and then the AHL for 2 years. We dont want him to lose all the time. He might turn into nothing then. Give me a break. One team must win and one team must lose. That's sports. If the players cant handle losing and it hurts them to muchbl mentally then they better not be playing anymore.

Either or. If you are going to suck with lazy veterans then you might as well suck with young kids who might actually try hard to earn a spot in the league.

I can tell you all you need to know about his ability to acquire impact forwards for next year. Free agents, there are none, just a bunch of former impact forwards that are over the hill. Trades, wont happen we dont have the assets needed to acquire one. That 2024 first is going nowhere as it is likely in the top 10 again, so if it does it would have to be protected. And the 2nd's would get you mid 6 players, but not any impact forwards. And do we want to trade our defensive prospects without knowing what we have. Those would be mid 2010's again where Ducks trade all the good ones and ended up keeping the trash.

I sure hope the Ducks dont select Bryan Berard, though I wouldnt put it past Verbeek. Berard's age and one eye would make him the worst first round pick ever. Now if they lose all their games and get Connor Bedard now that would be historical. I actually saw someone here the other week in a Ducks jersey with Bedard on the back.

Whqt young guys? The hesitancy and reluctant is on the coaches and GM for not allowing more of the young guns to play and instead playing with horrible filler players. I would rather have the struggles and take the lumps with the young guys getting meaningful playing time, not vetran heavy guys that shouldnt even be on a team.

Verbeek can always resign them. Just because they have no contract now doesnt mean they wont have one in the end.

Honestly Klingberg was more so just to add the salary to meet the cap minimum. Ducks needed him to get above the floor which is why the $7mil and a one year contract was just to trade him. Verbeek never had intentions for him to be here long term our for him to be successful.

The Ducks will make 0 draft day trades. Most trades anyways are just pick for pick.

He will not trade next year's 1st round pick. That will be off the table as there is no guarantee that it is top 10 - 15. Could be #3 again.

You see it the same why I see it. Verbeek saw a shot at a generational player and a team he acquired that was nowhere near competing for anything. So he set out to attempt to get the best odds he could at this generational talent (2nd best odds right now). That's the only explanation for the moves he made and players he brought in this year. He can say that he didn't want to tank and he thought his team would be above .500, but what he says in the media and what he actually wanted to do can be two different things.

Not exactly buddy. They could also bring in competent defensemen that dont give up so many high danger scoring chances.

Here's the bigger question, which makes someone wonder if there is a bigger picture or something behind it. Fine, Verbeek extended Eakins to give him "a fair shot", but how has he survived not being fired during the season? Surely giving up 40 shots or more almost every game and 6 goals or more would have been enough for any team to fire the coach and move on to someone else. The big question is how is Eakins still here? Makes me think there is something else going on besides the "fair shot" statement. Best option for tanking as he is a horrible coach? Owners saying he has to stay? Somebody knows. But any other team and he would have at least been fired by January as that would have been enough of a fair shot.

The reference is during one of the games after the trade deadline Ahlers and Hazy mentioned that Verbeek has told Gibson that he wants Gibson to be part of the rebuild and he will not be traded unless Gibson was to ask for a trade. That is the reference. It was said on live tv during a game.

Honestly with this group of players and a new coach, the Ducks still are not even close to making the playoffs. They probably improve to Vancouver levels, the next tier of the bottom teams. Coach is one major problem for the Ducks, but so is player personal. This is one of the worst defenses in NHL history, and that is just putting the names on paper, not based off what they actually are doing, which is nothing. Shattenkirk, Benoit, Beaulieu, White, Harrington are no better then bottom pairing/7th defensemen, yet they are filling out our top pair with these guys. Vatrano and Strome are 3rd line players, yet they are in and out of the top line. That's a major problem too, not having guys playing where they actually would slot in, and then not being able to handle the bigger role. That's more then a coaching problem. Improve the coach, Ducks get to the next level of bad teams. Improve coach and personal, Ducks compete again. And yes we do have riches in defensive prospects, but honestly I would love to see these guys actually play and then decide who can be used in a trade, instead of filling the d with useless players, lets use what we have.

I guess that all depends. If you bring in a new coach and continue to run a defense that contains Harrington, Beaulieu, White, and Benoit, then yes, you can expect the team to be just as bad. All of those players are liabilities. If the 12 forwards still contains 11 players that are no better then bottom 6 players, then the offense will be just as bad too. Goaltending is the only place that is not an issue, but looks bad this year because of who is playing in front of them and the lack of a defensive system. A new coach could bring better results, but the team needs better players too. Guys like Megna, Leason, Carrick, Jones, and the previous 4 defensemen are nothing but warm bodies to fill a line up. If Verbeek continues this offseason with his questionable moves then there is something to worry about. I still would have rather not waived Mahura then pick up Leason or use any of the 4 defensemen that made the team ahead of him.

I love the comment "wait to see how Verbeek turns this around with trades and free agent signings this year". It's like people expect him to completely turn this team around via trades and UFA. Sorry to burst the bubble but this team will be fighting to stay out of last next year again. The UFA group is horrible this year and I doubt any of the "decent" players sign with a rebuilding group. Kane, O'Riley, Taresenko, JVR, those are the "top 4" forwards. None are worth signing in my opinion. Then you got guys like Klingberg, Lucic, Bertuzzi, maybe Bertuzzi. Graves, Sverson, Soucy are the top defensemen, and will likely sign elsewhere. Then there is the trade market. Ducks only have a handful of players that would bring anything valuable back and those guys are not getting traded. Zegras, Drysdale, Fowler, McTavish, Terry, Henrique, Gibson. Only one that will likely move is Henrique and closer to the trade deadline when the Ducks are out of it yet again. The others are not being traded. Verbeek has told Gibson he is going nowhere unless he wants a trade. Guys like Comtois, Leason, Megna, Lundestrom, Jones, etc are not going to fetch anything that will turn the team around, just similar players. I personally would like to see the Ducks not go dumpster diving next year and let the young guys play. Everyone says that the Ducks have one of the strongest prospect groups, so lets see them play. It would be nice to add a Graves on defense, but with guys like Zellweger, Lacombe, Minty, and others coming, then lets just fill our holes with the talent that we are looking forward to seeing. Or we bring in UFA's that are aging out of the rebuild group and watch the young guys walk or demand a trade like Thrun. The forwards is a different take, but I'm sure a Perreault can be just as effective as Leason or Megna are.

Yikes, such high expectations with such a horrible roster. Ducks were never going to be that high with the team they put together. Anyone could see that.

My expectations were low, very low. Klingberg was a signing that was made just to trade away. Kulikov was a trade made because it came with an extra pick. Neither guy really fit our lack of system. Team didnt know how to play defense and neither does Klingberg so he was going to be a liability unless he got the offense going. Kulikov was decent and would have been better for a 3rd pairing guy like he is on Pittsburgh, not the second guy on the top pair. Again, part of filling the roster out with guys playing above where they belong. Strome and Vatrano never had me excited. Both contracts made me cringe. Strome was the wrong one and is not worth $5mil for 5 years. Overpaid by $2mil per season. And Vatrano, those college UFAs are never that good. Yes he had 20 goals last year but playing with a team with more offensive talent. Again both guys belong on the third ljne but we were asking them to fill top 6 roles, spots that are well above where they should be. Had the guys been playing proper roles in the lineup then maybe there was more to get excited about, but seriously we were replacing Ryan Getzlaf with Ryan Strome and Rickard Rakell with Frank Vatrano. Which two of those 4 would you rather have on your team? Not the two we got. Yes one retired but there was a lot of leadership lost there and never replaced. And the other was a former 30 goal scorer replaced by a guy that will never hit 30. Coaching wont change that either unfortunately. My take was based on how good this team was after last years trade deadline and they were awful, giving up 40 plus shots and getting blown out, much like this year. Then seeing the guys they brought in, I did not expect anything to change in terms of results.

Seriously dude, if you expected and hoped for a playoff spot or Stanley Cup run with this roster back in September then I want some of what you have. From the free agent signing to replace the guys lost last year this was a team destined for failure in September. We lost too much talent and replaced them with garbage AHL players or 3rd or 4th lines playing way above their heads. This season has gone just as expected for me. Sorry but I never got excited about Strome, Vatrano, Beaulieu, White, Gawdin, Klingberg, Harrington, Leason, or Megna when they were replacing Getzlaf, Rakell, Lindholm, Manson, etc. And then the moves Verbeek made were highly questionable. Waive Mahira, who would have been better then half of our current defensemen, go waiver diving for Leason and Megna and pass up on Tulvainen. I'm scared that the Ducks are actually going to be in for some horendous seasons with Verbeek at the helm. Questionable waiver moves and free agent signings and trades were it seems he isnt getting maximum value for players.

Who is Zwelleger by the way? Is he the FA signing you are hoping to get?