Season Expectations

[Jasoaks]

7 hours ago, Gorbachav55 said:

I agree with this completely. The Ducks were bad last year, but they weren't awful. And Verbeek did bring in some talent to replace what he traded away. I think he knew there was no way to get them to serious playoff contention, but there was a decent chance they'd at least hang around the conversation. He was giving Eakins a chance to improve the team's play, but he didn't want to saddle a new coach with a losing roster. 

But I can't imagine this is what he imagined coming out of camp. Getting dominated by three non-playoff teams is pathetic. I don't think Eakins is in jeopardy yet, but I'm starting to think he won't last until New Year's as I predicted. 

At first I was shocked at PV's decision to extend Eakins...then he explained it and I understood it. But, PV said he wanted to give Eakins a chance to show what he could do with a "complete roster" but I don't know if he's really given him that. Sure it's better than the post-TDL roster, but I don't think it's as good as pre-TDL roster. I don't think Eakins is a good coach, and I don't think we needed another game with him after last season to know this... I think PV will learn this confidently much sooner than I originally imagined. And I think for the sake of not ruining the holidays for Eakins, lets him go the first week of November. Let's not wait till Thanksgiving or Christmas lol cut the guy some slack!

[HockeyIzCool]

I think it's going to be a Loooooooooong Season.

Aside from Zegras, we really don't have anyone in the lineup that truly excites me.  I know there are many here who discount the idea of getting a marquee FA superstar, and believe a well rounded lineup is a much better way to go, but I think you need both.  Who honestly is seasoned and of such high stature, that really has a "Wow" factor?  Where is the Selanne, the Pronger, the Niedermayer, Getzlaf, Perry?  It's not Silf, he's coming to the end of his career, and off an injury.  It's not Henrique, who we essentially wanted to give away last year, for nothing.  After that, you have a lot of journeymen and rookies.

We've more or less Stood Pat the last 2 off seasons, AND we lost Getzlaf along the way.  He too was at the tail end of his career, and although still very talented, couldn't carry the team on his back.  Probably at least one of the reasons he decided to retire.  If we had a Cup contender, or were even close, who knows if he would have given it another go.

I probably have a reputation for being a Debbie Downer in recent years about the Ducks.  But guess what, our team has really Stunk it up on the ice for the last few seasons.  We haven't even reached what could be considered mediocrity.  Until we take a step to seriously upgrade the roster, And The Coaching Staff (i.e. Eakins), nothing will change.  We'll still have certain cheerleaders here on the message boards giving their before game pep talks, but every season will be spent hoping to achieve 80+ points, rather than the 95+ points it will take to make the playoffs, and have a shot at the Cup.

My 1 cent.

[Aksun]

3 minutes ago, HockeyIzCool said:

I think it's going to be a Loooooooooong Season.

Aside from Zegras, we really don't have anyone in the lineup that truly excites me.  I know there are many here who discount the idea of getting a marquee FA superstar, and believe a well rounded lineup is a much better way to go, but I think you need both.  Who honestly is seasoned and of such high stature, that really has a "Wow" factor?  Where is the Selanne, the Pronger, the Niedermayer, Getzlaf, Perry?  It's not Silf, he's coming to the end of his career, and off an injury.  It's not Henrique, who we essentially wanted to give away last year, for nothing.  After that, you have a lot of journeymen and rookies.

We've more or less Stood Pat the last 2 off seasons, AND we lost Getzlaf along the way.  He too was at the tail end of his career, and although still very talented, couldn't carry the team on his back.  Probably at least one of the reasons he decided to retire.  If we had a Cup contender, or were even close, who knows if he would have given it another go.

I probably have a reputation for being a Debbie Downer in recent years about the Ducks.  But guess what, our team has really Stunk it up on the ice for the last few seasons.  We haven't even reached what could be considered mediocrity.  Until we take a step to seriously upgrade the roster, And The Coaching Staff (i.e. Eakins), nothing will change.  We'll still have certain cheerleaders here on the message boards giving their before game pep talks, but every season will be spent hoping to achieve 80+ points, rather than the 95+ points it will take to make the playoffs, and have a shot at the Cup.

My 1 cent.

Gibson, Terry, McTavish, Regenda - "Are we a joke to you?!"

Seriously though, this is a team sport, and having a Connor McDavid on your team for 5+ years does not make you a perennial cup contender or lock you in for SCF all the time. You need stars, skilled players, but you also need role players like Travis Moen or Keith Carney. It's not all Huberdau's and Gaudreau's or Ovechkin's.

What we need is a solid structure to play in the modern NHL and that primarily comes from coaching and to a slightly lesser extent roster construction. GMPV has his work cut out for him, but the players we have are not much worse then what an average Ottawa or Arizona have. It's an NHL team, but it needs a stronger guiding hand *sigh* bring in the Carlyles and the Tortorellas. Or maybe PV is waiting for Cooper to hang them up in Tampa to try a sunny coast with a different flavor.

[Gorbachav55]

36 minutes ago, HockeyIzCool said:

I think it's going to be a Loooooooooong Season.

Aside from Zegras, we really don't have anyone in the lineup that truly excites me.  I know there are many here who discount the idea of getting a marquee FA superstar, and believe a well rounded lineup is a much better way to go, but I think you need both.  Who honestly is seasoned and of such high stature, that really has a "Wow" factor?  Where is the Selanne, the Pronger, the Niedermayer, Getzlaf, Perry?  It's not Silf, he's coming to the end of his career, and off an injury.  It's not Henrique, who we essentially wanted to give away last year, for nothing.  After that, you have a lot of journeymen and rookies.

We've more or less Stood Pat the last 2 off seasons, AND we lost Getzlaf along the way.  He too was at the tail end of his career, and although still very talented, couldn't carry the team on his back.  Probably at least one of the reasons he decided to retire.  If we had a Cup contender, or were even close, who knows if he would have given it another go.

I probably have a reputation for being a Debbie Downer in recent years about the Ducks.  But guess what, our team has really Stunk it up on the ice for the last few seasons.  We haven't even reached what could be considered mediocrity.  Until we take a step to seriously upgrade the roster, And The Coaching Staff (i.e. Eakins), nothing will change.  We'll still have certain cheerleaders here on the message boards giving their before game pep talks, but every season will be spent hoping to achieve 80+ points, rather than the 95+ points it will take to make the playoffs, and have a shot at the Cup.

My 1 cent.

I'm all about getting a marquee free agent if we can.  Let's give David Pastrnak ALL THE MONEY.  It's just so unrealistic that I don't find it all that informative to discuss.  Elite free agents are pretty rare now that most teams lock up their superstars or trade them before they hit free agency (a la Matthew Tkachuk) and their new team locks them up.  And when one does become available, what chance do the Ducks have of competing in that marketplace?  It's not zero, but it's not a lot, either.  

How many top notch free agents have the Ducks gotten in their history?  Scott Niedermayer came because his brother was here and Selanne came back because he was kind of broken down and he already had a history with the Ducks.  They signed Sergei Federov back in the day (that was kind of a disaster, although trading him got us Beauchemin).  John Klingberg is the best one in a long time.

I think the team is going to need one very good player and one above average player from outside the organization to get back to contention.  I think Pastrnak is unreasonable, but perhaps we could get someone like Severson in the offseason.  More likely, we'll have to acquire these players through trade.   We are going to need a scoring winger and a shut-down defenseman to supplement what we have in the system.  I fully expect Verbeek to use the Ducks' cap space and any additional draft picks he acquires to get those players in the offseason and really get the rebuild ramped up.

If the hockey gods are listening, I also wouldn't mind a Connor Bedard under the Christmas tree next June.  I'll settle for a pick anywhere in the top 3, though.  

[dtsdlaw]

11 hours ago, Gorbachav55 said:

I agree with this completely. The Ducks were bad last year, but they weren't awful. And Verbeek did bring in some talent to replace what he traded away. I think he knew there was no way to get them to serious playoff contention, but there was a decent chance they'd at least hang around the conversation. He was giving Eakins a chance to improve the team's play, but he didn't want to saddle a new coach with a losing roster. 

But I can't imagine this is what he imagined coming out of camp. Getting dominated by three non-playoff teams is pathetic. I don't think Eakins is in jeopardy yet, but I'm starting to think he won't last until New Year's as I predicted. 

They were AWFUL after the trade deadline. 4-11-3 after Lindholm, Manson, and Rakell were traded away. That's a .306 points % over the final 1/5 of the season. Only Philly (.286) and Montreal (.300) had a worse pts% over that stretch, and that's lower than Montreal's season-long .335 pts% that earned themselves the #1 pick.

And then Getzlaf retired too. 

The roster we had going into the offseason was legitimately one of the worst in the NHL, even with our exciting young players coming up. Verbeek plugged a few holes with Strome, Vatrano, and Klingberg, but ours was still a seriously flawed roster heading into opening day. GMPV knew it too, which is why Eakins is still here. The second bolded above nails it IMO.

14 hours ago, tommer-1 said:

1. The odds are VERY long

2. Sucking out loud for a fifth straight season seems like a 10-year plan. Like maybe they will be relevant in 2030. As a comparison, the Oilers drafted Taylor Hall 1st overall in 2010 (after having missed the playoffs in 6 OF THE LAST 8 SEASONS), missed the playoffs the next 6 seasons, made it in 2017, missed it the next two seasons, made it the last three.  After drafting - after Hall - 1st overall, 1st OA, 7th OA, 3rd OA, 1st OA, 4th OA.

I hope that's not the plan.

I don't think the plan was to suck "out loud", but GMPV had to be realistic going into the season that this team was not going to be very good. But I don't think it's a 10-year plan either. More like a 6- or 7-year plan, and he arrived when the Ducks were already in year 3. As much as we may not like some of Murray's moves (or lack of moves, as the case may be) he's still responsible for bringing in Terry, Zegras, McTavish, Drysdale, Dostal, and Zellweger, and that's a tremendous core that GMPV will be building upon for the next 2-3 seasons to get the Ducks back to the top of the division. The timeline feels to me like it's going to coincide with the aging curves of Kopitar, Doughty, and the majority of the VGK's top players, and we should be a few years ahead of San Jose's rebuild. 

So I think we should all just take a step back, expect another top-10 (top-5?) pick at the next draft, for several players to be moved out at the TDL for assets (Klingberg, Kulikov, Shattenkirk, and maybe even Stolarz), and for GMPV to dive into UFA again next season looking for at least one more big fish.  I would also bet that Verbeek remembers how Tampa drafted in the first round during his first five seasons there - Brett Connolly (6th - 2010), Namestnikov (27th - 2011), Slater Koekkoek (10th - 2012), Vasilevskiy (19th - 2012), Drouin (3rd - 2013), DeAngelo (19th - 2014). Vasilevskiy was an amazing pick, but Yzerman and Verbeek didn't exactly build their dynasty around the rest of those 1st rounders (half of them they used as trade bait!). So I think this is the last poor season we should expect from the Ducks. GMPV is not going to keep hoping for top-10 picks year after year to bail out this franchise. Instead, GMPV will add at least two more VERY significant players via trade or UFA between now and September 2023, and that will help the Ducks get back to being a wild card caliber team in 2023. We'll have a new coach by then too (still hoping for Dineen!), which will allow our young core to continue their upward arc over the next 2-3 seasons until they're ready to be a contender again. 

[Gorbachav55]

I may regret this next statement as being a cry in the darkness during a moment of weakness, but, other than Getzlaf, do you know who this team misses?  Nic Deslauriers.  No, not for his play on the ice, which was notable only for the rare occasions when it looked competent.  He did provide some energy and toughness on the ice, which the team could use, but I think his real value was in the locker room.  Normally when players move on, you get a cursory cliche from players like, "he brought a lot to the team, obviously, and we'll miss him, but we've got to move on."  But over the offseason I read quotes from several Ducks who gushed about what Deslauriers brought to the locker room, and you don't often hear that kind of forthrightness about former teammates.

As I watch this team flounder and bumble its way around the ice, looking lost and unmotivated, I think that maybe Mr. Deslauriers was more valuable than I gave him credit for.  

Please don't blackmail me with this later.

[dtsdlaw]

2 minutes ago, Gorbachav55 said:

I may regret this next statement as being a cry in the darkness during a moment of weakness, but, other than Getzlaf, do you know who this team misses?  Nic Deslauriers.  No, not for his play on the ice, which was notable only for the rare occasions when it looked competent.  He did provide some energy and toughness on the ice, which the team could use, but I think his real value was in the locker room.  Normally when players move on, you get a cursory cliche from players like, "he brought a lot to the team, obviously, and we'll miss him, but we've got to move on."  But over the offseason I read quotes from several Ducks who gushed about what Deslauriers brought to the locker room, and you don't often hear that kind of forthrightness about former teammates.

As I watch this team flounder and bumble its way around the ice, looking lost and unmotivated, I think that maybe Mr. Deslauriers was more valuable than I gave him credit for.  

Please don't blackmail me with this later.

The Flyers are 3-0 with him in their locker room (and just beat Tampa 3-2 in Tampa last night), after nearly everyone picked them to be one of the worst teams in the NHL.

Coincidence? I don't think so.  

[Jasoaks]

13 minutes ago, Gorbachav55 said:

I may regret this next statement as being a cry in the darkness during a moment of weakness, but, other than Getzlaf, do you know who this team misses?  Nic Deslauriers.  No, not for his play on the ice, which was notable only for the rare occasions when it looked competent.  He did provide some energy and toughness on the ice, which the team could use, but I think his real value was in the locker room.  Normally when players move on, you get a cursory cliche from players like, "he brought a lot to the team, obviously, and we'll miss him, but we've got to move on."  But over the offseason I read quotes from several Ducks who gushed about what Deslauriers brought to the locker room, and you don't often hear that kind of forthrightness about former teammates.

As I watch this team flounder and bumble its way around the ice, looking lost and unmotivated, I think that maybe Mr. Deslauriers was more valuable than I gave him credit for.  

Please don't blackmail me with this later.

I mean, I think you touch upon a really good point and somthing I think too many fans brush off as "not as important" and that is how players are in the locker room. We basically lost 3 notoriously good locker room players in FrenchyD, Manson, and Getzlaf... I definitely am on the side of don't underestimate what a good locker room player can do...and I wouldn't be surprised if that's a big thing we're seeing here.

21 minutes ago, dtsdlaw said:

So I think we should all just take a step back, expect another top-10 (top-5?) pick at the next draft

I think Ducks finished 4th to last this season...above Arizona, Chicago, and San Jose...so a 4-6 pick most likely imo

[Gorbachav55]

25 minutes ago, dtsdlaw said:

They were AWFUL after the trade deadline. 4-11-3 after Lindholm, Manson, and Rakell were traded away. That's a .306 points % over the final 1/5 of the season. Only Philly (.286) and Montreal (.300) had a worse pts% over that stretch, and that's lower than Montreal's season-long .335 pts% that earned themselves the #1 pick.

And then Getzlaf retired too. 

The roster we had going into the offseason was legitimately one of the worst in the NHL, even with our exciting young players coming up. Verbeek plugged a few holes with Strome, Vatrano, and Klingberg, but ours was still a seriously flawed roster heading into opening day. GMPV knew it too, which is why Eakins is still here. The second bolded above nails it IMO.

I don't think the plan was to suck "out loud", but GMPV had to be realistic going into the season that this team was not going to be very good. But I don't think it's a 10-year plan either. More like a 6- or 7-year plan, and he arrived when the Ducks were already in year 3. As much as we may not like some of Murray's moves (or lack of moves, as the case may be) he's still responsible for bringing in Terry, Zegras, McTavish, Drysdale, Dostal, and Zellweger, and that's a tremendous core that GMPV will be building upon for the next 2-3 seasons to get the Ducks back to the top of the division. The timeline feels to me like it's going to coincide with the aging curves of Kopitar, Doughty, and the majority of the VGK's top players, and we should be a few years ahead of San Jose's rebuild. 

So I think we should all just take a step back, expect another top-10 (top-5?) pick at the next draft, for several players to be moved out at the TDL for assets (Klingberg, Kulikov, Shattenkirk, and maybe even Stolarz), and for GMPV to dive into UFA again next season looking for at least one more big fish.  I would also bet that Verbeek remembers how Tampa drafted in the first round during his first five seasons there - Brett Connolly (6th - 2010), Namestnikov (27th - 2011), Slater Koekkoek (10th - 2012), Vasilevskiy (19th - 2012), Drouin (3rd - 2013), DeAngelo (19th - 2014). Vasilevskiy was an amazing pick, but Yzerman and Verbeek didn't exactly build their dynasty around the rest of those 1st rounders (half of them they used as trade bait!). So I think this is the last poor season we should expect from the Ducks. GMPV is not going to keep hoping for top-10 picks year after year to bail out this franchise. Instead, GMPV will add at least two more VERY significant players via trade or UFA between now and September 2023, and that will help the Ducks get back to being a wild card caliber team in 2023. We'll have a new coach by then too (still hoping for Dineen!), which will allow our young core to continue their upward arc over the next 2-3 seasons until they're ready to be a contender again. 

I don't disagree with any of this, although I do want to note that the team was basically awful since the night I took my family to see them play, December 17th against the Coyotes.  From that night on, they had a .363 points percentage.  So while you're right that trading away those three guys took them to lower depths, they were scraping the bottom for a while before that.  I guess I was giving them credit for the first few months when they looked competent.  

There wasn't exactly a wide range of plausible outcomes for this season, but I think any guesses between 70 points and 90 points could be reasonably supported.  Their current level of play was unforeseeable without knowing what a serious hit to the locker room chemistry would do to an Eakins-coached team.  And I do think those issues are linked.  With a competent coach, I don't think the locker room vacancy becomes as big of an issue, because the team has systems and structures to rely on.  And with strong leaders, I think the team could overcome some of their natural deficiencies, as they did at times last season.  But given both, this group really has no chance.

Now it's just a question of how much losing is too much losing and are the kids forgoing too much development under the current coaching staff.  If it wasn't for the latter, I'd grit my teeth and bear it through this terrible play.  But it becomes untenable at some point.

[tommer-1]

I didn't think they would be staring at a possible 1-5 start to the season. I thought they might optimistically be 3-3 (wins over SEA, NJD, DET, losses to NYI, NYR, BOS).  That is not the record for the first 6 games for an aspiring playoff team, just to clarify. That's mediocre, which is kind of what I hoped they would be.  Mid to high 80's in points. 10 or so points better than last season.

 

And, in all honesty, they should be 0-4 right now.  The Kraken - terrible last season, and I think the worst road team in the league - absolutely owned them on Opening Night.  And then they decided to Kraken Up.

[perry_mvp]

14 hours ago, Fisix said:

Maurice?  Torts?  who was available?

Bruce Cassidy, Andrew Brunette, Travis Green(?), Dave Tippet(?)

[Gorbachav55]

45 minutes ago, perry_mvp said:

Bruce Cassidy, Andrew Brunette, Travis Green(?), Dave Tippet(?)

Also, any number of NHL assistant coaches and AHL head coaches.  Kevin Dineen, for example, as dts suggested earlier.

[HockeyIzCool]

4 hours ago, Aksun said:

Gibson, Terry, McTavish, Regenda - "Are we a joke to you?!"

Seriously though, this is a team sport, and having a Connor McDavid on your team for 5+ years does not make you a perennial cup contender or lock you in for SCF all the time. You need stars, skilled players, but you also need role players like Travis Moen or Keith Carney. It's not all Huberdau's and Gaudreau's or Ovechkin's.

What we need is a solid structure to play in the modern NHL and that primarily comes from coaching and to a slightly lesser extent roster construction. GMPV has his work cut out for him, but the players we have are not much worse then what an average Ottawa or Arizona have. It's an NHL team, but it needs a stronger guiding hand *sigh* bring in the Carlyles and the Tortorellas. Or maybe PV is waiting for Cooper to hang them up in Tampa to try a sunny coast with a different flavor.

 

Gibson is only as good as the players in front of him.  You couldn't put Patrick Roy on this team, and expect him to win the Vezina.  Terry & McTavish are talented, but they're young.  McTavish is still a teenager.  He can't be a leader right now, any more than Zegras can.

 

And while Edmonton has floundered in the playoffs the last 3 seasons, at least they've made the dance.  And they're probably putting too many of their eggs in one basket as well.

 

And you're really going to bring up Ovechkin as an example?  The Capitals have made the Playoffs 14 of the last 15 seasons, and won the Cup one of them.  They've underachieved massively in the Playoffs, but the Ducks had that same issue during the mid 2010's.  But at least they were there, while the Ducks have been making vacation plans by the All Star Break.  So yeah, I'd say someone like McDavid or Ovechkin would be a significant upgrade to this roster.  I don't see marquee coaches or top tier FA's knocking down our door to play in Anaheim.  I don't blame the new GM, his hands were tied by BM, who should have been let go 2-3 seasons ago.  At least he got us Zegras & Terry.

 

I'm sure ownership is letting ticket sales drive the amount they're willing to spend on the roster and coach.  But until they pull out their wallets, it's going to be difficult to get people to spend money in these inflationary times, on very steep ticket prices and Honda Center concessions.  This isn't Montreal or Toronto, and in So Cal, hockey is not life.  At best, it's the 4th most followed sport, and some would say it's even behind Soccer it terms of those who follow it closely.  Even come playoff time.

 

Anyways, my theories may make no sense, but obviously the methods currently being used by management & ownership don't either, otherwise we wouldn't be on the verge of floundering, less than 1 week into the season.

[Gorbachav55]

4 hours ago, dtsdlaw said:

The Flyers are 3-0 with him in their locker room (and just beat Tampa 3-2 in Tampa last night), after nearly everyone picked them to be one of the worst teams in the NHL.

Coincidence? I don't think so.  

I said what I said about Deslauriers above, and I'm not taking it back.  He really could be a difference-maker in the locker room.

However, Philadelphia has been the luckiest team in the NHL thus far.  They've been outshot worse than any team not named the Ducks or Coyotes but have ridden a hot goalie, some luck, and some decent special teams to three wins.  Regression is coming, and that right soon.

[dtsdlaw]

58 minutes ago, Gorbachav55 said:

I said what I said about Deslauriers above, and I'm not taking it back.  He really could be a difference-maker in the locker room.

However, Philadelphia has been the luckiest team in the NHL thus far.  They've been outshot worse than any team not named the Ducks or Coyotes but have ridden a hot goalie, some luck, and some decent special teams to three wins.  Regression is coming, and that right soon.

Chicago, Buffalo, Arizona, and Anaheim are currently worse according to NHL.com stats, so 5th worst as of right now with an -8.3 shot differential per game. Philly did out-shoot Vancouver though. The Ducks are at -19.5 average shot differential, and have been outshot in every game so far (by 21, 15, 21, and 21 respectively).

[Gorbachav55]

1 hour ago, dtsdlaw said:

Chicago, Buffalo, Arizona, and Anaheim are currently worse according to NHL.com stats, so 5th worst as of right now with an -8.3 shot differential per game. Philly did out-shoot Vancouver though. The Ducks are at -19.5 average shot differential, and have been outshot in every game so far (by 21, 15, 21, and 21 respectively).

Sorry, my mistake for not being more specific. I was referring to 5-on-5 shot attempts per naturalstattrick.com. 

[gilligoos]

3 hours ago, Gorbachav55 said:

I said what I said about Deslauriers above, and I'm not taking it back.  He really could be a difference-maker in the locker room.

However, Philadelphia has been the luckiest team in the NHL thus far.  They've been outshot worse than any team not named the Ducks or Coyotes but have ridden a hot goalie, some luck, and some decent special teams to three wins.  Regression is coming, and that right soon.

The flyers are bad on paper and were expected to be at the bottom of the league. But one thing i notice with them is they play hard on the puck (typical Torts). That hard nose and aggressive play is something that is completely non existent in the Ducks game. You can definitely say Deslauriers is likely a strong locker room influence, but as I mentioned on a separate post, the culture begins with the coach. Eakins just needs to go. 

[MrCarr2u]

On 10/16/2022 at 8:47 PM, g20topdogg said:

Look Cam is not perfect. If you think getting rid of Lindholm was bad what do you think our team would look like with him gone? Especially if he wasn't in the lineup for the past two games. I guarantee you that it would be a lot worse. 

Cam is no Neidermayer. The argument can be made that he was rushed to the NHL. But he's still one of the best defenders on this team. Also, considering who he has been saddled with over the years I think he's been pretty good. He's had what maybe two good partners over that entire span since entering the league? 

I'm defending him here because he deserves better. Is he soft? Sure but not every defenseman needs to be a tough guy. He just needs to be complemented with players who can play with him. He shouldn't have to be covering defensive mistakes for some bottom pair defenseman all the time. 

Cam Fowler needs to GO!!!  We pay too much for little results.  No hustle no hit no heart.  The guy looks beat every game.  He turns the puck over more than he has points.  We should trade or pay out his contract - he’s Killing Me Smalls!!!!

[FanSince1993]

1 hour ago, MrCarr2u said:

Cam Fowler needs to GO!!!  We pay too much for little results.  No hustle no hit no heart.  The guy looks beat every game.  He turns the puck over more than he has points.  We should trade or pay out his contract - he’s Killing Me Smalls!!!!

I keep saying exactly the same for the last 5 years. He became a symbol of mediocracy. Team can tolerate his lack of hits, he never was a physical player and does not have to be. But his lack of hustle and heart, as you say, hurts this team a lot, especially nowadays, when he is our first pair defenseman.  But don't worry, he is not going anywhere. 4 more years with no trade clause that his former protégé gave him guarantee that Ducks are stack to him until his contract expire.

Edited October 20, 2022 by FanSince1993

[MrCarr2u]

Forgot about the No trade clause.  I say make him a healthy scratch and see how bad he wants or limit his ice time.  Make him want to be traded but let others who have the skill and are hungry take on some more ice time.  Heck, I’d rather see Zellweger the Fowler on the ice.  That kid is hungry and sees the ice well.  

[g20topdogg]

3 hours ago, MrCarr2u said:

Cam Fowler needs to GO!!!  We pay too much for little results.  No hustle no hit no heart.  The guy looks beat every game.  He turns the puck over more than he has points.  We should trade or pay out his contract - he’s Killing Me Smalls!!!!

I get it but the problem is we haven't had a #1 defenseman for quite some time now. Fowler is OUR #1 currently and has been 1-2 with Lindholm, who is also not a #1. What do you expect? Ideally he should be 3-4 but who's going to replace him? If we replace him with Zellweger as you mention the team will go on a nosedive so big we'd be guaranteed to be last. It's not his fault the team gave him that contract then saddled him with some terrible D partners. Get him someone that complements his game. Gudbranson was a pretty good partner for him. 

I've been thinking, what this team needs is a Beauchemin type of defenseman. He'd do wonders for this d corps. Anyone have any ideas on who's available that would be similar?

[FanSince1993]

8 hours ago, g20topdogg said:

I get it but the problem is we haven't had a #1 defenseman for quite some time now. Fowler is OUR #1 currently and has been 1-2 with Lindholm, who is also not a #1. What do you expect? Ideally he should be 3-4 but who's going to replace him? If we replace him with Zellweger as you mention the team will go on a nosedive so big we'd be guaranteed to be last. It's not his fault the team gave him that contract then saddled him with some terrible D partners. Get him someone that complements his game. Gudbranson was a pretty good partner for him. 

I've been thinking, what this team needs is a Beauchemin type of defenseman. He'd do wonders for this d corps. Anyone have any ideas on who's available that would be similar?

Look, we all agree that he is not qualified to be #1 defenseman, but forced to be because of lack of talent on our defensive corps. It's not the point. Just look at his face when camera zoom on him. He looks disinterested. Maybe, as somebody mentioned here, a game or two of sitting on the press box would shake him up a bit. A good coach would do it, but Eakins won't.

[Gorbachav55]

5 minutes ago, FanSince1993 said:

Look, we all agree that he is not qualified to be #1 defenseman, but forced to be because of lack of talent on our defensive corps. It's not the point. Just look at his face when camera zoom on him. He looks disinterested. Maybe, as somebody mentioned here, a game or two of sitting on the press box would shake him up a bit. A good coach would do it, but Eakins won't.

I'm sorry, you can't look at someone's face, certainly not someone whom you don't know personally, and figure out what they're thinking or feeling.  Feel free to criticize his play (and it's true that he hasn't been good this year, although no one has), but trying to use facial expression to make your case is absurd.  Everybody reacts differently to things.  Some people are very expressive, some people are stoic.  Without knowing Cam, you can't possibly have any idea whether or not he's disinterested.

The numbers say that for most of his career, he's been a solid #2 d-man, at times a little better, at times a little worse.

[Fisix]

Cam looked stoned in the interview about jersey numbers. 

[gotchabari]

14 hours ago, MrCarr2u said:

Cam Fowler needs to GO!!!  We pay too much for little results.  No hustle no hit no heart.  The guy looks beat every game.  He turns the puck over more than he has points.  We should trade or pay out his contract - he’s Killing Me Smalls!!!!

He's one of two people on this team wih a positive +/-, and his one point is one fewer than the defensive leader (Klingberg) who has 2 (both assists).  He has half as many giveaways as Darnell Nurse with one more game played.  He's also one of the few defensemen who can pass it out of our zone cleanly.

He's not killing anyone.

Edited October 20, 2022 by gotchabari

[Belarus]

I was chuckling while thinking about the posters in this thread as I heard the Ducks announcers gushing over how amazing Fowler was doing tonight against the Bruins. 😏

[g20topdogg]

1 hour ago, Belarus said:

I was chuckling while thinking about the posters in this thread as I heard the Ducks announcers gushing over how amazing Fowler was doing tonight against the Bruins. 😏

Haha I thought the exact same thing!

[Aksun]

Fowler is not the problem, how the roster is constructed on D is the problem. For his contract, he would be fine as a solid #2 d-man on the team alongside a Pronger-type #1. But he consistently has to carry someone on his d-pair (for 10 years) and it should be the other way around, Lindholm was very close to being that guy, but their time together was relatively short, quite possibly to 'spread the wealth'.

Oh, the days of Simon Despres or Erik Gudbranson, where art thou...

[FanSince1993]

9 hours ago, Belarus said:

I was chuckling while thinking about the posters in this thread as I heard the Ducks announcers gushing over how amazing Fowler was doing tonight against the Bruins. 😏

Ducks announcers are getting paid by Ducks organization and limited in what they can say and what they can't.

[Aksun]

1 hour ago, FanSince1993 said:

Ducks announcers are getting paid by Ducks organization and limited in what they can say and what they can't.

They're homers but they're not completely dishonest. They try to say the adequate thing most of the time. But they're hard homers.