Do you want a new GM?

[Dr Johnny Fever]

I think one thing that's being missed in this discussion is how much credit BM deserves for scouting, drafting, and development. I don't think it's fair to compartmentalize when critiquing a GM, you can't just focus on trades, FA signings, and contracts.

BM has presided over an exemplary record of drafting and development, especially considering where we have been drafting. Can you bring in a new GM and maintain this?

I don't agree with all of his moves, especially some in the past couple of years. The Bieksa extension was ridiculous, not to mention losing Theo because he wasn't asked to be bought out. I am in the minority, but didn't like the Fowler extension. Saw this trade deadline as his response to a team that has disappointed him. Hope he sees that the RC thing is not working, again.

I pretty much agree with all you said here. As to the bolded, I think you can. If we are just smart enough to give McNabb the GM job I'm sure the scouting department wouldn't miss a beat.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

New GM? No.

If anything Murray has made us not have cap issues/cap trades like the Burke era. This team has been competing and actually competitive for many years.

New Coach? Absolutely.
I preferred the offensive coaching that Bruce had here. I don’t really care for Randy’s staunch dump and chase style of play.

 

[Carelton CA]

Hearing Murray lie to our faces and tell us "we got faster and added energy" while trading the top energy guy on the team and league hits leader doesn't make any sense at all. The only thing that makes sense is that it doesn't matter because RC isn't going to play the new guys any way, and when they do, speed doesn't matter because they trap at center ice and stand still

Chimera has been scratched since mid February and has over 100 hits less than Wagner. So just tell the truth. We got much older and slower. We have 7 of our 12 forwards over 30. Bottom 3 with Vermette Chimera and Kelly average age is 37.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Hearing Murray lie to our faces and tell us "we got faster and added energy" while trading the top energy guy on the team and league hits leader doesn't make any sense at all. The only thing that makes sense is that it doesn't matter because RC isn't going to play the new guys any way, and when they do, speed doesn't matter because they trap at center ice and stand still

Chimera has been scratched since mid February and has over 100 hits less than Wagner. So just tell the truth. We got much older and slower. We have 7 of our 12 forwards over 30. Bottom 3 with Vermette Chimera and Kelly average age is 37.

My goodness this is just not true, and seems to be a problem with how people view this trade. Yes, we did get faster, he's not lying.

 

[Masch78]

It's is funny that that people say Bob is reactive. He traded for Kesler and Henrique. He extends players more often quickly. He gets solid contracts for our players most of the time. Sure, there are some bad ones. He is one of the most active coaches in the league but he gets labled as reactive. It's not his fault that FAs don't want to come to SoCal.

 

[Carelton CA]

My goodness this is just not true, and seems to be a problem with how people view this trade. Yes, we did get faster, he's not lying.

Yes he is lying. Kelly is faster than Vermette, Chimera is slower and not nearly as quick. Wash at the very best. But again it is totally irrelevant to make the bottom 3 faster when they don't play. The top 9 and all 6 d are the same speed, unless they magically got faster because BM says they are now. Smoke and Mirrors.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Yes he lying. Kelly is faster than Vermette, Chimera is slower and not nearly as quick. Wash at the very best. But again it is totally irrelevant to make the bottom 3 faster when they don't play. The top 9 and all 6 d are the same speed, unless they magically got faster because BM says they are now. Smoke and Mirrors.

Thats still adding speed, which is what he said. You're interpreting it as a lie because you don't seem to have a clue about Chimera, which a lot of people seem to have also done.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

It's is funny that that people say Bob is reactive. He traded for Kesler and Henrique. He extends players more often quickly. He gets solid contracts for our players most of the time. Sure, there are some bad ones. He is one of the most active coaches in the league but he gets labled as reactive. It's not his fault that FAs don't want to come to SoCal.

I'll cut Bob some slack on ufas because we are a budget team and he isn't generally going to have the money to compete for top ufas. Definitely not his fault. But that's on the owner, not because players don't want to come to SoCal.

 

[Deuce22]

I'll cut Bob some slack on ufas because we are a budget team and he isn't generally going to have the money to compete for top ufas. Definitely not his fault. But that's on the owner, not because players don't want to come to SoCal.

Quite confident that having to play in SoCal and live in Newport or Manhattan Beach has deterred many from signing with Ducks/Kings.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

I'll cut Bob some slack on ufas because we are a budget team and he isn't generally going to have the money to compete for top ufas. Definitely not his fault. But that's on the owner, not because players don't want to come to SoCal.

Not defending the spending or anything, but I do tend to wonder if free agents simply don't value California all that much. Guys always say how they like the area but us and the Kings haven't really attracted many free agents.

 

[Deuce22]

Not defending the spending or anything, but I do tend to wonder if free agents simply don't value California all that much. Guys always say how they like the area but us and the Kings haven't really attracted many free agents.

I'd say state income taxes and the increased travel might be bigger factors.

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

I would think the biggest deterrent to players wanting to come here would be taxes. Given that most of the players grew up in colder climates, those that play here (actually anywhere in CA) seem extremely happy living here. Obviously every UFA situation is different but when Perry and Getz had a chance to cash in they seemed quite content to get paid here. I know, Getz' wife helped some there, but Perry had no ties.

Anyway, most UFA contracts end up becoming dogs well before they expire. I'm not too bothered that we aren't in on every one available.

 

[The Mighty Duck Man]

I'd say state income taxes and the increased travel might be bigger factors.

You always hear about taxes but yeah travel is probably an underrated one. Even in our own division travel is pretty insane.

 

[TopShelfWaterBottle]

Quite confident that having to play in SoCal and live in Newport or Manhattan Beach has deterred many from signing with Ducks/Kings.

Taxes

 

[Duck Off]

I'm not sure how you can say that when the players choked against the eventual cup winners in consecutive years and then should have beaten the preds last year if not for some terrible injuries.

There's going to be some that disagree, but the other 2 years, I think that are rosters performed damn close to their full potential. When you get in the playoffs, anything can happen (which is the beauty about hockey), but going into the playoffs, I didn't see either of those other two teams as "favorites". The WCF loss team, yes. That was a cup worthy team. I think we were the better team on paper and the ice. We choked. I don't feel the same way about the other two teams. Disagree about last year as well. Yes, we had very significant injuries, but Preds had them just as bad IMO (at least very close to as bad).

Edit: To elaborate a bit more. I look at it like this: If Vegas loses in game 7 against Dallas, or even us, I don't see that as them choking. Even if they're up 3 games to 2. I think the weaknesses in the roster just eventually get exposed, as well as their strength of outworking the opponent isn't as big as it was during the regular season. There's obviously other variables as well. I think over performing/under performing is much more common than most. If we're the 6th or 7th seed in those playoff runs, it's not seen as nearly the choke. However since the team did so well in the regular season, it made us look better than we actually were IMO.

 

[SirQuacksALot]

Relevant:

 

[duxfan1101]

The Kesler thing can't be helped at this point. We just have to hope he is able to fully recover by next season. If his current level of play is the new norm, then we're in trouble. And the worst part is he's still one of the hardest workers out there, but he just isn't effective in his current state.

 

[Terry Yake]

I don't agree with this. Not saying the players didn't choke, but the only year I thought we should have won the cup was the year we lost to Chicago in the WCF. That team should have won the cup. More often than not, I thought Bruce got our team to play better during the regular season than the roster actually was. Their regular season success brought higher expectations for the post season. Aside from that one year, I never thought we had a true "contender" roster.

agreed. 2015 was their best chance but they blew it against the hawks. i have no doubt they would have beaten TB in the finals. i don't have that same confidence in saying last year's team would have beaten the pens had they reached the finals

i don't think the 2014 team would have gotten by the hawks if they had defeated LA. BB absolutely got his teams to overachieve during the regular season, that was his biggest strength

 

[mightyquack]

So I said no to a new GM (asking this question right after a bad TDL is certainly pandering to a certain option in the poll).

I definitely have my questions with BM, but he's earned the benefit of the doubt for now. As I said in another thread, if we go into next season with the same coaching staff and same holes in the line up (scoring winger and top 4 dman) then some serious questions need to be asked. At some point need to see BM being more proactive then reactive when it comes to the roster.

 

[anezthes]

I want a new coach.

Agreed.

We could do a lot worse than Murray as GM. I mean, I disagree with a lot of his trades but on paper our roster's still pretty good. We should be doing much better than we are.

The fact that our coach took so long to realise 3-on-3 is important says a lot about his incompetence as a coach in today's NHL.

What's even more worrying IMO is that we have a lot of talent in the pipeline; Steel, Terry, Comtois, Mahura etc. I don't want them being coached by a dinosaur. Find a coach that's up-to-date, and go from there.

 

[Pennaduck]

Agreed.

We could do a lot worse than Murray as GM. I mean, I disagree with a lot of his trades but on paper our roster's still pretty good. We should be doing much better than we are.

The fact that our coach took so long to realise 3-on-3 is important says a lot about his incompetence as a coach in today's NHL.

What's even more worrying IMO is that we have a lot of talent in the pipeline; Steel, Terry, Comtois, Mahura etc. I don't want them being coached by a dinosaur. Find a coach that's up-to-date, and go from there.

Do you think Dallas Eakins will be that guy once we transition into a more youthful roster? I don't see Murray buying out Carlyle's last year but could see Eakins promoted to replace him after next season, since he will have coached several of our younger players by then and has some NHL and a fair amount of AHL coaching experience now.

 

[AngelDuck]

Joel Quenville might be reaching his expiration date in Chicago pretty soon a la Darryl Sutter. That's a guy that might be worth a shot

 

[Pennaduck]

I'm not a fan of replacing Bob Murray. I'm highly critical of this deadline, but overall he has managed a great team of scouts and really drafts well, and tends to get fair value in trades if not outright win trades. He is great at RFA contract negotiations too, and for better or worse, managed to get the core of Getz, Perry, and Kesler locked up long term. He tends to make the right decisions about which players to retain and which to let go, aside from a few obvious exceptions.

That said, I think we need this guy to be less conservative at trade deadlines or we won't win another cup in the Getzlaf era. Each year Murray puts together a roster with just enough talent to be considered a borderline contender, and usually makes a good trade in season to fill a hole (which is a good thing). However, the past few seasons I've noticed that contending teams are all fairly equal in this regard, and what ends up setting them apart is the willingness of some to load up at the deadline so they have an overabundance of top nine forwards and top four defensemen. Murray usually makes a good move to fill a hole in our lineup, but I can't say that we have ever been as loaded going into the playoffs over the past few seasons as Nashville, Winnipeg, Tampa Bay, and Pittsburgh look right now.

If this ends up being the trend, where the handful of the league's best teams get stacked by the deadline, Murray needs to either keep pace and similarly load up at the expense of quality assets, or begin moving on from our aging forward core players after next season. I think he may be too conservative a GM to do either, which means we will continue to be a borderline contender for the next few seasons but the odds will never be in our favor to win the cup.

 

[mightyquack]

Joel Quenville might be reaching his expiration date in Chicago pretty soon a la Darryl Sutter. That's a guy that might be worth a shot

Does Quenneville even take another job after Chicago? Even then I think he gets at least 1 more year in Chicago so that puts him at 61 when he's avaiable (assuming he is let go after the 18-19 season), after 3 Cups in the last 8 years I'm not so sure he'd be keen to go for another job after Chicago, more likely to retire IMO.

Unrelated, but looked up his coaching record and it's crazy this will only be the 2nd time in his 20 season NHL career he'll miss the playoffs as a head coach, super impressive stuff.

 

[Hey234]

Joel Quenville might be reaching his expiration date in Chicago pretty soon a la Darryl Sutter. That's a guy that might be worth a shot

In my opinion, Joel Quenville is the best coach in the NHL. If he where available, I would do anything to get him to coach the Ducks. However, as mightyquack said, I think Chicago gives him one more year. He has earned it as a result of the multiple cups. Also, problems with that team are more of a construction issue than coaching. But man would it be awesome to see him behind the Ducks bench.