dtsdlaw

That’s 50 points in their career in a Ducks sweater, not in a single season. DSP had about 40 points spread over four seasons. I think that’s the most since Cullen’s 200pts over his 5 1/2 seasons in Anaheim.

Steve Montador too.

In the entire Ducks history, the only forward picked in the second round who went on to score at least 50 points in a Ducks sweater was Matt Cullen in 1996. My expectations are low for Myatovic.

Sad to see this news. I always liked Kerdiles.

Zegras would be out of his mind if he fired Pat Brisson.

Agree. As more news/rumors come out, I also think it reflects much more poorly on the Ducks organization to be severely lowballing an exciting 22-year-old who scored 23G/42A last season than it does to be lowballing a 21-year-old who scored 0 points and missed 74 games last season with injury.

Look, I don't like what's going on right now with Verbeek's insanely low offer to Zegras (as reported). I think nearly all but a couple of us on this board are on the same page there. The 3 x $4M that's being reported is just dumb, and I do agree that a ridiculously lowball offer like that could impact younger players. Hence why I said earlier that Verbeek should be fired if Lavoie's report is true. But I also just don't see Zegras as some kind of a generational talent who will be the savior of this franchise. He has elite puck skills, but the game he currently plays is not a Cup-winning style of play for a 1C (especially when you compare him to the other top Cs in the Pacific), and I strongly believe that he needs to improve in a lot of areas before the team hands him >$8M per year on a max contract. If it's going to be a bridge, then I'm still an advocate for something in the 3 x $6.5M-$7M range, and anything less than a 3 x $6M doesn't feel right at all to me. But you lose me every time when that number gets over $8M in the discussion, and I don't think for a moment that the younger players like Carlsson or McTavish would see a 3 x $6.5M or an 8 x $7.75M as any kind of a problem for their own futures. Carlsson and McTavish were drafted 2nd and 3rd overall, and their expectations SHOULD be that they'll be better than Zegras based on their draft pedigree alone, no?

No chance that number is accurate. If so, that’s a joke and ownership needs to step in and fire Verbeek tomorrow.

It’s absolutely not far fetched based on his pure skill level. But it’s also not far fetched that he ends up the fourth or even fifth best player on the team behind Carlsson, McTavish, Terry, and maybe even Zellweger (if he pops like I think he might). Unless he turns into a Patrick Kane type, Zegras is going to have to learn how to play at both ends of the ice to be considered the best player on this team.

I didn’t miss it, I just disagree. I just don’t really see Zegras as the mentor type at all. Terry, yes. That’s why he’s always in the conversation about the next captaincy. I’d even put McTavish (also talked about for the next “C”) above Zegras as more likely to be a mentor for younger players. Have you ever seen Zegras praised for his leadership qualities, anywhere? Maybe Z is more of a leader-type than he shows to the public, but I just don’t see it. I mostly just see an immensely skilled player who constantly shows a lack of maturity. Especially when he’s only playing a 100’ game and getting misconducts for running his mouth.

I’m about as concerned about this as Joe Sakic was when he traded Duchene and ROR and let Stastny walk to free agency so that he could build a core around MacKinnon. Zegras is also not “the man”. He’s not even the best player on the team (Terry is) and he might even be the third best center on the team within the next two years.

FWIW, Gaudreau being American and wanting to play in the US and closer to home was apparently a really big deciding factor. Just speculating here, but Hanifin is also a Boston guy and may want to get out of Calgary and back to the States too. Seems like a lot of top US players are leaning towards playing in the US these days. Lindholm is also apparently willing to re-sign in Calgary for the right price and if he feels the team can win. So he might stay.

It did seem like a first class troll job initially, didn’t it?

Missing players aside, it is refreshing to see lines/pairs that make sense on the very first day of camp. Remember what a cluster F the lines/pairs were early in camp under Eakins? There was zero effort from our old coach to develop chemistry early in. This is already a better start IMO.

What if this is the plan to start the season? Maybe we see something like Zegras-McTavish-Strome, Killorn-Carlsson-Terry as our top-6 right out of the gate?

For me it would depend on what the trade was. For example, let's say the Babcock thing tarnished the front office's relationship with their young players and made the CBJ locker room toxic, and a few of them then demanded trades. Zegras + Drysdale <--> Fantilli + Jiricek I don't stop watching after that.....

It's rare, but not like unicorn rare. Taylor Hall - Adam Larsson was a big one. Seth Jones - Ryan Johansen. Laine - Dubois. Ryan Strome - Jordan Eberle. Drouin - Sergachev. Then you have examples of more substantial trades like Hanifin + Elias Lindholm <--> Dougie Hamilton + Adam Fox. There are always players who are unhappy with their teams and teams that are unhappy with their players. You just don't hear about it until a trade is executed.

Drysdale is obviously a better prospect. No argument there. But who's to say that Cronin won't start him as a 3rd pair PP specialist after he missed an entire season with injury? He hasn't exactly shown he can handle top-4 assignments in our own zone. We could see Fowler-Gudas, LaCombe-Lyubushkin, Hagg-Drysdale to start the season. I hope we don't, but it's possible, no?

They still own his rights for another 5 seasons. What can't they afford? If he throws a tantrum and tries to force his way out of Anaheim, then trade him for another high level forward like when Columbus traded PLD for Laine. I love Zegras and hope this gets figured out soon, but the Ducks are in a great spot in his negotiations thanks to the drafting of McTavish and Carlsson. The Ducks certainly need scoring, but nobody is sitting around worried that the team's prospect pool lacks a true #1C or #2C without Zegras.

He didn't play at all in the AHL last season (3G/26A in 62 NHL games) and he's been projected as a top-4 D-man for them this season. He wasn't fighting for a one-way deal. He took the offer to get into camp so he can start working towards a big payday next summer. He's also not projected to be as good as Drysdale and he's obviously two years older, but I just found it interesting that he put up almost identical numbers last season to what Drysdale put up in 2021-22 and yet he still signed a 1-year deal for less than the AAV on his ELC. I was told that this doesn't happen. But apparently it does.

Yeah, you don't know that. How far apart do you think the Wild and Calen Addison were? He signed yesterday for 1 x $825K. You think they were negotiating all summer because Addison was asking for $4M? You don't have to be $4M apart to have it last all summer. William Nylander even sat out until December back in 2018 due to reportedly being $2M apart in AAV, and that was on a 6-year deal not a 3-year bridge. btw, that Addison contract is an interesting comp to consider in the Drysdale saga.

I just disagree with this. If this was an 8-year contract and Zegras wanted $8.25M AAV and Verbeek was offering $7M AAV, that would also be "far apart" IMO. I just don't see where "far apart" means upwards of $4M difference. If they're $4M apart in AAV, there would be no common ground there at all and why would they even negotiating at that point?