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dtsdlaw

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Everything posted by dtsdlaw

  1. dtsdlaw
    There were many problems with this team last season, but playing Strome and Vatrano as top-6 forwards isn't even among the top-10 reasons why this team sucked. Vatrano had 22 goals last season, one fewer than team leaders Zegras and Terry. I have no problem with him on the 2nd line. He was the team leader in shots by almost 50. We need a volume shooter up there, and Vatrano is exactly that. Same goes for Strome, who had a really bad season last season but is still a useful middle-6 forward. He's fine on the 2nd line and will be good for about 40-45+ points next season. I get wanting to see Rico in the top-6, but I'm more interested in developing Carlsson the right way. A smart coach doesn't force him into a role that he's not ready for yet. Unless he blows everyone's socks off like MacKinnon and Matthews did, he'll most likely need to start with a smaller role and a really good veteran line mate to help him adjust to the hardest league in the world. And if Carlsson hits 35 points next season, I'll be doing cartwheels. That would put him ahead of the likes of Barkov and Draisaitl (two common comparables) for rookie year production, but that's nowhere near 2nd line production. IMO, there's no need to rush this 18-year-old kid if he's going to hit the long-term ceiling that we all hope he hits.
  2. dtsdlaw
    The right side of the defense is just so thin though. I mean, Gudas is 33-years-old and he missed 10 games last season. What happens if he misses another 10 games (or more) this coming season? And what happens if both Gudas AND Drysdale miss time at the same time? With that lineup, there are no other RHDs available to be called up from San Diego.
  3. dtsdlaw
    I'm pretty optimistic that Carlsson will stick with the Big Club, but I don't really expect him to be in the top-6 early in the season unless he blows people away at training camp. If I was Cronin, I'd consider starting him on a 3rd line with Henrique as his "pair" and not really worry who was the center and who was the winger between them. Add a defensively responsible winger on the other side to help Carlsson really develop into the 200' center we hope he will become, and then just manage that line's minutes and matchups until Carlsson is really settled into the NHL. And assuming the plan is to eventually trade Rico, Cronin could move Rico up to play with Zegras and Terry around January to maximize his trade value. But until then, if there are no other roster moves to add forwards, I'd consider going with: Killorn - Zegras - Terry Vatrano - McTavish - Strome Henrique/Carlsson - McGinn Jones - Carrick - Silfverberg(Leason)
  4. dtsdlaw
    Leo Carlsson is a left-shot.
  5. dtsdlaw
    If Johnathan Toews is healthy and interested in playing, I’d offer him the same contract Chicago gave Pears just to troll the Blackhawks organization. Oh, and we need a bottom-6 center now that Lundestrom is out, and Toews had 15G/16A in 53 games last season so he’d be a serviceable replacement that we could probably move at the TDL.
  6. dtsdlaw
    Ironically, those numbers are better than our actual 2C (Sam Steel) put up for several of those years.
  7. dtsdlaw
    I'm not a fancy stats expert, but browsing Getzlaf's analytics on NHL.com, Hockey Reference, and Natural Stattrick, it sure looks to me like he was having a strong impact on the game in all three zones. Nearly everyone had better possession numbers when they were on the ice with Getzlaf as opposed to when they weren't with Getzlaf. And despite starting the majority of his shifts in the D-zone, I believe he still had relatively solid shot/possession stats on an otherwise lousy possession team (maybe one of the fancy stats posters can help me out with this though). Getzlaf also led all Ducks forwards in blocked shots in each of his final four seasons, including 56 blocked shots in 56 games during his last season. By way of comparison, Strome had 24 blocked shots in 82 games last season (his career high is only 36 BkS). That number right there tells me which guy is committed to defending his own zone and keeping the puck out of his own net, and which guy just isn't. Feel free to compare their face-off numbers to see how effective they were at gaining possession of the puck off of draws too. And my original post wasn't just about Getzlaf-Strome. It was about Getzlaf, Lindholm, Manson, and Rakell being replaced by Strome, Klingberg, Kulikov, and Vatrano. Every single swap of players was a significant step-down, and cumulatively the four guys who were swapped in made last season's team significantly worse than the previous version of the team. So don't just focus on Getzlaf-Strome. It's all of them together that made this a much worse Ducks team last season.
  8. dtsdlaw
    Do you really think this is an appropriate comparison? The Rangers out-scored the Ducks by 50 goals per season during that stretch and Strome was stapled to Artemi Panarin's line for all three of those seasons. Who were Getzlaf's linemates during that stretch? Of course Strome had better stats given their respective situations. I'm not saying that Getzlaf should still be a top-2 C or anything, but his leadership was sorely missed last season. And Strome is a guy who plays in only 2/3 zones and doesn't bring any kind of physical presence, while Getzlaf was still a bull in all three zones that didn't get pushed around (like the Ducks did repeatedly last season without him). Losing Getzlaf was one of the main reasons that the Ducks were a soft team with no push-back last season. Softest team in the NHL, really.
  9. dtsdlaw
    Getzlaf was still effective. 37 points in 56 games and he was still strong defensively and a physical force in the O-zone. Meanwhile, Strome was a tire fire last season. He put up only 4 more points in 82 games than Getzlaf did in 56 games the season prior. And defensively Strome was an absolute mess. I personally would rather see Getzlaf come out of retirement at age 38 to play 3C for us this coming season than to have Ryan Strome do it. Even accounting for Getzlaf's advancing age and worn down body, replacing him with Strome was a pretty significant step down in talent and effectiveness. And that doesn't even get started on the leadership void Getzlaf left.
  10. dtsdlaw
    There are four plausible scenarios I see with Henrique: (1) he gets traded, (2) he re-signs, (3) he gets injured and can't be traded, and (4) the Ducks are in the playoff hunt and so Verbeek keeps him until the end of the season. #2 and #4 seem extremely unlikely to me. Like, not even statistically significant enough to be counted as more than 0%. #3 is certainly possible and would be a kick in the pants, but I would still view that as Verbeek doing everything he can to trade Rico. Regardless, I didn't say it won't be the right move to trade his expiring contract. I just lament that an already deficient offense will likely become even more deficient without Rico, since Verbeek hasn't done anything to fill the hole that he will leave.
  11. dtsdlaw
    I totally agree with you on this. More moves need to be made to make this even a .500 roster. I was hopeful that they would be made already this summer using some of the assets we accumulated, but that has not happened. And at this point, the only trade I feel is a certainty is Henrique leaving the Ducks, which would further deplete our ability to score.
  12. dtsdlaw
    You have to put those 76 points in context though. The Ducks were 27-26-1 at the trade deadline, and then finished 4-11-3 after they moved out Lindholm, Rakell, and Manson. And oh yeah, Captain Baldy retired that following summer too (probably in part because he didn't want to be a part of the massive suck last season). So what you're suggesting is that Verbeek replaced Getzlaf, Lindholm, Rakell, and Manson with Strome, Klingberg, Vatrano, and Kulikov, and then expected the Ducks to finish with more points thanks to improvement from a 21-year-old Zegras and a 20-year-old Drysdale, as well as a 19-year-old rookie McTavish being a full-time NHLer? See, that's what I'm talking about. If Verbeek actually thought the Ducks would be better, under the same awful coach, with those players swapped in the lineup, then that's an indictment on his ability to evaluate his own roster. Every single player that went out of the lineup was miles better than the guy who replaced him.
  13. dtsdlaw
    I understand your points. But the one thing that sticks out to me the most is that he said that he expected this team to be around a .500 team last season. 58 points later, you really have to wonder if his "vision" is really worth anything. And even if it is, if Kapanen and Tolvanen don't fit his vision (supposedly as an aggressive, high energy forechecking team), someone will also have to explain to me how Klingberg, Kulikov, and Strome do fit the vision. IMO, he's made plenty of moves so far that actually counter what he says he's trying to do.
  14. dtsdlaw
    Those guys would not have led us to the playoffs, for sure. But this team needs better players sprinkled throughout the lineup to help develop the kids coming up. I would also argue that Anaheim is currently not a desirable location for many players to go (we're likely on a lot of NTCs) because from the outside looking in it still looks like we're in tank-mode, and that adding better players throughout the lineup would be an overt signal that the Ducks are exiting the rebuild rather than being in the throes of the rebuild, so I think it would lead to more players being open minded about coming here. At some point Verbeek has to make Anaheim appear like a desirable destination again, no? I also would have liked to have explored the trade value for Kapanen and Tolvanen at this year's TDL (if they didn't want to stick around with an extension). Retaining half on both, you're talking about Tolvanen at $750K and Kapanen at $1.6M (prorated). I think you get a decent amount of trade interest at those numbers. Nobody is taking Leason off of our hands at the TDL though. Also, never underestimate the motivations of a 26/27-year-old NHLer staring at his first UFA contract. Both guys would have been HIGHLY motivated to play well this season, whether they wanted to be in Anaheim or not.
  15. dtsdlaw
    I actually agree with saskduckfan about Verbeek's waiver wire moves being bad, and IMO it was apparent at the time that they were bad. Verbeek thought it appropriate to grab borderline NHLers Brett Leason, Jayson Megna, and Scott Harrington off of waivers, but not legit NHLers like Eeli Tolvanen or Kasperi Kapanen?? I get the argument that allegedly Verbeek was trying to tank last season so he didn't want to improve the roster after a certain point (although I don't think any of those guys would have righted the sinking ship last season), but Tolvanen and Kapanen had an additional year left on their contracts and could have been acquired with THIS season in mind. And each one of those guys would have been a solid improvement for this team. Instead, we have Silfverberg, McGinn, and Leason currently penciled in as starters. The Ducks had waiver wire priority and they whiffed big time last season in their waivers decisions. I also disagree that Verbeek was given a pile of crap. He traded away three very good players in Lindholm, Rakell, and Manson and he replaced them with really ineffective players like Klingberg, Kulikov, and Strome. He also kept on the worst coach in franchise history. So his fingerprints were all over the pile of crap we saw last season. And while it remains to be seen what the team looks like on the ice this coming season, the only improvements he's made so far this summer to the worst team in the NHL is to add two 33-year-olds at $6.25M and $4M cap hits respectively.
  16. dtsdlaw
    That works too. I guess I’m just anxious to see Verbeek weaponize the cap space to add assets. Waivers is fine by me, but I really would prefer to see a 3rd round pick stapled to his duffle bag when the Ducks pick him up from the airport.
  17. dtsdlaw
    Tampa didn't call up Myers last season for the playoffs, so I don't know why they would this season either. And they didn't move him last season because he had a $2.55M cap hit and was being paid a $3.8M salary for 2022-23. I'm virtually certain that they would have traded him if they could have in order to clear the cap space ($1.425M still counted last season when he was buried), but nobody wanted him at that price tag unless he came with a significant sweetener, which Tampa wasn't going to pay. This season he will be much more manageable with that 1-year extension in place (signed in 2022, btw), and Tampa shouldn't have to give up much of a sweetener to clear his $900K remaining salary. I'll be really surprised if he is not traded somewhere on the cheap. Might as well be to a team that doesn't have any RHD depth, right???
  18. dtsdlaw
    Given that we have so little RHD depth in the organization, I still think Verbeek should try to get Philippe Myers from Tampa. 6'5", 210lbs, 26-years-old, with 153 games of NHL experience. He has one year left on his contract at $1.4M, but I believe $500K of that was already paid on July 1st as a signing bonus, so his $1.4M cap hit is really only $900K in salary. It sure seems like Tampa needs to move him for cap reasons too, since he still counts partly against their cap when he's in the AHL. So I feel like Verbeek could get Myers + a middle round pick as a sweetener for virtually nothing (future considerations?) and that Myers would be a solid add for San Diego and possibly as a call-up for Anaheim. He did have 8G/21A in 52 games for Syracuse and 1G/2A in 11 games for Tampa last season, so there's definitely some ability there.
  19. dtsdlaw
    None of this changes the fact that it's still a freaking terrible idea to play Gudas on the top pair with Fowler. And a giant NO to Benoit. He's still unsigned for a reason, and it's not because he's holding out for a long term big money deal like Dumba was.
  20. dtsdlaw
    I think you're probably right. However,..... Petry, Peeke, Brodie, Tanev, Savard, Ceci, and Pesce - I think all of those names could still be in play.
  21. dtsdlaw
    No, not at all. That's why I think he's going to add another D-man. Speaking of which, an interesting name to throw into the RHD trade conversation - Andrew Peeke (6'3" 194lbs). Peeke averaged 21:15 in TOI last season (18:05 E/S, 3:07 SH) for Columbus. He's a late-blooming 25-year-old and has three seasons left at $2.75M. After signing Severson, the RHD depth for Columbus is Severson, Peeke, Gudbranson, Boqvist, with David Jiricek and Corson Ceulemans on the horizon, and the rumors are that Peeke is the guy on the block that is going to get squeezed. I don't know what it would take to get him, but maybe a package with Jarmo Kekalainen's fellow countryman Urho Vaakanainen + some draft picks (we've got two 2nds and three 3rds in the next draft). Fowler - Peeke LaCombe - Gudas Hagg - Drysdale White/OZ Not great, but certainly better...
  22. dtsdlaw
    Hagg is 6'2" 204lbs. Wilson is 6'4" 220lbs and is an absolute monster. Hagg still went after him when Wilson took a run at Giroux and he landed the first three punches of the scrap before Wilson got the upper hand. Hagg is not a great fighter, and he had zero chance of hanging in with Tom Wilson, but at least he stood up for his teammate. We need some of that.
  23. dtsdlaw
    Gudas hasn't averaged more than 17 minutes of E/S TOI since the 2016-17 season, and he's now 33 years old. Meanwhile, Fowler regularly plays more than 19 mins at E/S. If Verbeek's plan is for Gudas to be Fowler's partner on the top-pairing, that seems like a pretty stupid plan to me. Gudas is a 3rd pair guy on a good team, and barely a #4 on a bad team.
  24. dtsdlaw
    I agree with the bolded. I think it's extremely likely that Hagg was signed specifically to be a 6/7 guy in Anaheim and to be a strong character guy. Considering how soft this team was last season, Verbeek probably wants more players who will do this: https://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/n261112 Hagg also hits a ton. He had 111 hits in only 38 games last season and his career high for hits is 258 over 82 games. He's also never had a +/- worse than -9 despite playing on some below average teams in Philadelphia, Buffalo, and Detroit, and that tells me that his hits don't necessarily result in him getting pulled way out of position and resulting in goals against. Compare Simon Benoit last season, who had 216 hits but was also a -29 (team worst among D-men).
  25. dtsdlaw
    I do think LaCombe starts in Anaheim, but it's possible he doesn't. Not sure about Helleson, just given the lack of RHDs so far in San Diego. Seems like it's setting up for him to start in San Diego. I still have all of my fingers and toes crossed that the Ducks will add a minute-munching RHD to play with Fowler. If we do, it could be something like: Fowler - [???] Vaakanainen - Gudas Hagg - Drysdale White I don't like that lineup very much, but I could see Verbeek starting the season with it.
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