nieder
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Some pretty bizarre comments here considering Anaheim are widely regarded to have been the biggest (or one of the biggest) winners of the trade deadline. To answer the question: No, the Ducks are not a better team today than they were a few days ago. You can't lose two of your top 4 defensemen and not replace them and be a better team. But Verbeek is doing a great job so far. I know people are sick of losing, but be glad we finally have a clear direction and leadership, and he has loaded up on draft picks, some of which will likely be packaged to bring in other players. We are in a strong position for the offseason with both cap space and picks. Re: Gibson I would not be surprised if he is moved in the offseason. The deadline was not the time for that kind of trade. Kinda like Chychrun in Arizona. Easier to facilitate that kind of trade in the offseason.
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Lol
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I think he was the top ranked European prospect. So he didn't come out of nowhere exactly, but you are right, I don't think anyone had him ranked as a top 5 prospect overall. Maybe top 10. Heck, a number of people had Puliot ranked as the second best player in the draft after Crosby, which seems insane now. I wonder how much of that is down to Canadian bias in the scouting.
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From memory I'm pretty sure the consensus top-3 prospects ranked after Crosby were Bobby Ryan (RW), Jack Johnson (D) and Benoit Pouliot (LW). I don't think any team would have taken Kopitar top 4. If anything, Anaheim should have taken Carey Price, haha. It's probably between him and Kopitar for the second best player to come out of that draft.
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If they trade Gibson and Fowler then who would you blame when they lose?
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Oh yeah, I think this is exactly how it went down. Classic old boy's club hire.
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This may sound pessimistic but I was pretty skeptical of the whole checking into rehab thing. It felt sort of like Kevin Spacey blaming all his sexual misconduct on being gay. The implication was that Murray was only an ass because he was an alcoholic. Maybe he's just an ass. Even if it's true that he was only a jerk while drinking, I find it hard to believe he's gone from a guy that fostered a culture of abuse to being ready to step back into an NHL role in less than 4 months.
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Every other team also 'passed' on Kaliyev since he was taken in the second round. I'm not saying taking Tracey was the smarter move, but there is a reason why Kaliyev dropped out of the first round. Either that or Murray thought he was Russian so automatically passed.
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We only have 1 back to back in the next 5 weeks. I am guessing they just want to give Stolarz some game.
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To be fair, Getzlaf has always been like that with the refs, lol. I don't know who our next captain would be. Despite your statement above, we definitely have veterans with leadership skills that are respected around the league (Silf being the obvious one, but his skills have declined so much that I don't know that we would want to make him the captain). I'm not sure if Zegras would ever be the captain, his personality may not gel with that. Long term it could be McTavish. Terry maybe? Honestly without being in the room it is tough to tell which of the young guys would best grow into leadership roles.
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I get the point about wanting to break up this defensive unit, but getting rid of Lindholm who is arguably our best pure defender isn't really going to make our defense any better. I would instead be looking to move on from Manson. Heck, I would consider getting rid of both Manson and Shattenkirk but they play the same side, so again that leaves a massive hole to fill.
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If they let him go then who plays those 23 minutes per game that Lindholm is currently playing? He's also often out there against the best attacking players on the other team. Those are really tough minutes to cover. I think our blueline takes a massive hit if he leaves, unless our front office have a plan to replace him from outside the franchise, because we really don't have anybody in the system ready to take over. Unless you're planning on giving Guhle/Thrun/Mahura 20 minutes per night.
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I know Hampus' possession metrics are down this season, but he's also basically teaching a kid how to play NHL defense at the same time. He's also playing 24 minutes per night. That's a pretty massive hole to fill on the back end. We don't really want Fowler playing 30 minutes per game next season. I hope our new GM is trying to get a contract done with Hampus right now. This should be priority number 1 prior to the deadline. If they can't reach a deal and don't want to lose him for nothing then I understand moving him.
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It might depend on what our new front office decide to do in the offseason. Moving all of our UFAs at the deadline likely tanks their chances this season - but if they can convince Gibby that they intend to make big moves this summer and be a real contender next season, that may be enough to persuade him to stick around.
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I agree. I would be pushing hard to re-sign Lindholm but would be fine with moving both Rakell and Manson at the deadline. The team is further along than we thought they would be, thanks in large part to the development of Terry, Zegras and Milano, but this team is still rebuilding and can't lose assets for nothing. But like I said, I would also be fine with re-signing both Rakell and Manson as they still bring value to the team - I just think they're going to get more on the open market than Anaheim should pay to keep them.
