GDT: Game # 29: Anaheim Ducks @ New York Rangers , 4pm PT, BSSC

[JAHV]

Fowler was awful tonight. And I really don't want to see Silf out there on another power play.

That's all I got.

 

[bracer028]

Wait, so you want to trade the “older” Zegras and Drysdale, aka 21 year olds?

If we are still rebuilding and still last in the conference...yes. you know they are not going to hack it. I have a feeling drysdale is heading towards that path. Prove me wrong though

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

Fowler was awful tonight. And I really don't want to see Silf out there on another power play.

That's all I got.

Yah that alone makes me questions Cronin sometimes

 

[anezthes]

Keys to success:
- Don't shoot the puck
- Don't crash the net
- Don't complete passes

Why not try something different when you've lost 13/14 games?

 

[Hockey Duckie]

If we are still rebuilding and still last in the conference...yes. you know they are not going to hack it. I have a feeling drysdale is heading towards that path. Prove me wrong though

We currently are not last in our conference. The title still belongs to the Blackhawks.

D Vaakanainen has been injury prone for the Ducks in the past two seasons. This is his third season and finally healthy. If Verbeek is keeping the light open for D Vaaks, then Drysdale will also have a long leash, especially with his current contract price of $2.3 mil AAV. Drysdale's hacked a losing season before already.

Z put up over 61 or more points as well as 23 goals for the past two seasons. Z's hacked losing seasons before already too. He did help the team win 7 out of 12 games before succumbing to injury.

BTW, Verbeek said after two seasons is when the Ducks should be looking to make the playoffs. That implies we're still in rebuilding mode for the next two seasons. We have a plethora of rookies this season alone. There's going to be plenty of growing pains this year and next.

• List of Duck rookies
  • NHL
    • C Carlsson
    • C Groulx
    • G Dostal
    • D Mintyukov
    • D LaCombe
    • D Luneau - currently on loan at WJC-20
  • AHL
    • C Gaucher
    • LW Nesterenko
    • RW Pastujov
    • RW King
    • RW Caulfield
    • RW Wiebe
    • G Clange
    • D LaCombe
    • D Hinds

Can we stop with the sky is falling every game now? We were the worst team last year. Were you expecting to be a playoff team this year? We are missing 1C, 2C, 3C, and a top pairing D on top of playing all of the rookies. Many, if not all teams, would be struggling if they were missing a 1C, 2C, 3C, and a top pairing D.

 

[bracer028]

We currently are not last in our conference. The title still belongs to the Blackhawks.

D Vaakanainen has been injury prone for the Ducks in the past two seasons. This is his third season and finally healthy. If Verbeek is keeping the light open for D Vaaks, then Drysdale will also have a long leash, especially with his current contract price of $2.3 mil AAV. Drysdale's hacked a losing season before already.

Z put up over 61 or more points as well as 23 goals for the past two seasons. Z's hacked losing seasons before already too. He did help the team win 7 out of 12 games before succumbing to injury.

BTW, Verbeek said after two seasons is when the Ducks should be looking to make the playoffs. That implies we're still in rebuilding mode for the next two seasons. We have a plethora of rookies this season alone. There's going to be plenty of growing pains this year and next.

• List of Duck rookies
  • NHL
    • C Carlsson
    • C Groulx
    • G Dostal
    • D Mintyukov
    • D LaCombe
    • D Luneau - currently on loan at WJC-20
  • AHL
    • C Gaucher
    • LW Nesterenko
    • RW Pastujov
    • RW King
    • RW Caulfield
    • RW Wiebe
    • G Clange
    • D LaCombe
    • D Hinds

Can we stop with the sky is falling every game now? We were the worst team last year. Were you expecting to be a playoff team this year? We are missing 1C, 2C, 3C, and a top pairing D on top of playing all of the rookies. Many, if not all teams, would be struggling if they were missing a 1C, 2C, 3C, and a top pairing D.

Weve rebuilt for 5 years now and we still dont have a 1c or even a 2c. At a certain point you gotta realize whos the guy.

 

[Gliff]

Weve rebuilt for 5 years now and we still dont have a 1c or even a 2c. At a certain point you gotta realize whos the guy.

What the hell are you talking about?

Do you not think Carlsson and McTavish are #1 and #2 centers?
McTavish is already playing like a 1b center. Carlsson is 18.

 

[bracer028]

What the hell are you talking about?

Do you not think Carlsson and McTavish are #1 and #2 centers?
McTavish is already playing like a 1b center. Carlsson is 18.

Read the post above mine

And i agree with him. We are still constantly shuffling our lineups irrespective of the injuries

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

How can they, though? All the talented replacements are on the shelf. And what veterans do you think aren’t trying vs just aren’t that good/aren’t succeeding?

I'd say there's been times where you could say that Killorn, Henrique and Fowler have not been trying all that hard. Silf is trying but he's not doing a whole lot and they keep putting him out on the powerplay and giving him top 9 mins. Gibson also is trying but can often mess up because he seems to be in his own head.

 

[Goose of Reason]

I think this group will pull it together haha.

I think there’s going to come a point this year where the young guys take the wheel completely, but we just aren’t there yet, and our vets don’t have much left, so we’re losing a bunch

I think the problem is that they've already taken that wheel, but now they're all injured. Z, Mac and Jamie have been our best players this season (I know we're only working with a 2 game sample for Drysdale but he looked incredible in those 2 games), and without them we just lack any type of depth to do anything.

 

[Frosted Tips]

I feel violated watching these games.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

On the plus side it only gets better from here

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Our biggest problem... Is no depth scoring.. We cant win games relying on one line all the time.. Plus you got our goalies that play inconsistent at times... Giving up shitty goals at the worst times of the games.. It happens..

Are you worried your periods will get lonely?

 

[WhatTheDuck]

Growing pains had to be expected this year but it's sure been less of a bumpy road and more of a complete roller coaster so far.

 

[Mr Rogers]

I think the problem is that they've already taken that wheel, but now they're all injured. Z, Mac and Jamie have been our best players this season (I know we're only working with a 2 game sample for Drysdale but he looked incredible in those 2 games), and without them we just lack any type of depth to do anything.

Mason has been great, but the other two haven’t contributed enough yet. If they were playing games and contributing like Mctavish I’d agree with you.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Main takeaway from this game is that Goodrow is a real piece of shit. Turns out getting a bunch of unearned cash doesn't improve your character!

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

Are you worried your periods will get lonely?

My periods? Wtf is that supposed to mean?

Mason has been great, but the other two haven’t contributed enough yet. If they were playing games and contributing like Mctavish I’d agree with you.

Agreed

 

[Ducks DVM]

I'd say there's been times where you could say that Killorn, Henrique and Fowler have not been trying all that hard. Silf is trying but he's not doing a whole lot and they keep putting him out on the powerplay and giving him top 9 mins. Gibson also is trying but can often mess up because he seems to be in his own head.

I think they’re doing what they can to do what you’re asking for. Fowler is off the top PP, and there’s simply nobody on the roster that can take his minutes without getting caved in. Henrique is on the 3rd line, getting pretty small minutes, and Leason is on the 2nd line. He’s still exponentially better than Groulx, and is still significantly better at the whole points thing than Carrick. Killorn is being allowed to play himself into game shape, and the left wing choices are him, Leason, Jones, and the 4th line chaff (don’t get me wrong, I’m rationalizing why he looks so bad and makes such bad decisions, but I think he’s also being told to not give himself an injury like Drysdale and Zegras did). Silfverberg gets 20-30 more seconds of ESTOI that the 4th liners, meh. He gets more PP time than Jones and the 4th liners. Carrick might be better, but the 4th line is saved for the post-PP shifts. Him being on the PP is a function of injuries- he’s 12th in PPTOI/G.

The team has a talent deficit. Demoting/benching those guys just makes it more likely that the team will lose even more pathetically.

 

[HanSolo]

I only say this because I don't see no improvements..It's mainly our vets that are at fault

But when you're talking about the rebuild as a rebuild, you can't look at a team trying to build out of developing a new core through young talent and ignore that when that's the intent. Our GM is on public record calling this a development year. The big veteran acquisitions made this year were an older forward and an older defenseman. Past that the team was looking to rely on 4 rookies (Leo, Minty, Lacombe, Dostal) 2 sophomores (McTavish and Drysdale considering Dry didn't really play last year) and one third year guy still developing (Zegras) with veteran players (Terry, Strome, Vatrano, Henrique, Killorn, Gudas, Fowler, Gibson, Silfverberg) meant to guide the young guys towards becoming the core of a future run of success)

The kids are still developing so it's not conducive to winning games. A lot of the vets, as you mentioned are struggling with some who have clearly regressed out of their primes.

I would agree that it's problematic that the veterans and their struggles are not setting a good example for our kids to carry forward towards a new era of success and this long run of losses is not helping the intention of teaching the next generation how to be dominant. I would argue that at least this team is improving at defending but is getting crushed by letting games gwr away from them with a game by game parade of penalties, but there's no dying this is a rough situation for the team.

But it's one thing to say that this team is not doing what it takes to meet their goal of an effective development year. It's another to say the rebuild isn't working at all and the Ducks aren't accumulating good young assets for Verbeek to build around.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Weve rebuilt for 5 years now and we still dont have a 1c or even a 2c. At a certain point you gotta realize whos the guy.

We went rebuild mode under former GM Murray, but new GM reset the rebuild. Let's review history.

• 2018-19 TDL: Murray rebuild started

• 2019 draft
  • Rd 1. C Zegras (9th overall, finished 8th worst)

• 2020 draft
  • Rd 1. RD Drysdale (6th overall, finished 5th)

• 2021 draft
  • Rd 1. C McTavish (3rd overall, finished 2nd)

• 2021-22:
  • Ducks were in the middle of an 8-game win streak, but Murray resigned from the org on Nov 10th. Anaheim had just won game 5 of that 8-game win streak. We were 7-4-3 (17 pts) in 14 games.
  • No NHL roster moves made between Nov 10th and Feb 3rd, Verbeek's hiring date. Injuries were piling up on the blueline that exposed the three rookies were not NHL ready in Drysdale, Benoit, and Mahura.
  • When Verbeek was hired during All-Star break, the Ducks were 3rd in the Pacific with a record of 23-16-9 (55 points).
  • From the Detroit News when Verbeek was hired: "This team doesn't need to be rebuilt; they're in the middle of their rebuild, so this is a great opportunity to take this team forward and turn them into a contender," Verbeek said during his introductory press conference. "You don't have to come in there and look to take a long time. There's good players in the NHL, good players in the minors and there are players that have been drafted. There's a lot coming to support the growth of this team. That's truly what I'm excited about."
  • Manson was put on IR during All-Star break and no NHL acquisition was attempted to replace Manson. Sustr was claimed on waivers on March 8th. Manson missed 11 games before Sustr was inserted into the Ducks lineup.
  • At the TDL, the Ducks were 27-25-10 (65 points). Under14 games with Verbeek as GM, the Ducks went 4-8-2 (10 pts). That's when Verbeek blew the team up. From the Athletic: “It’s not fair … me coming in two, three months and then going with a new guy,” Verbeek said. “And in the sense that I just blew up the team (at the trade deadline). So I wanted to give him [Eakins] a chance. And it gave us an opportunity to get to know one another over the course of the offseason."

• 2021-22 TDL: Verbeek reset the rebuild.

• 2022 Draft
  • Rd 1. LD Mintyukov (10th overall, finished 10th)

• 2023 Draft
  • Rd 1. C Carlsson (2nd overall, finished 1st worst)

=== Top-6 centers ===

Anaheim has three top-6 centers in 22-year old Zegras (out with injury), 20-year old McTavish (out with injury), and 18-year old Carlsson (part-time 1C).

• Zegras put up 61 points or more in two consecutive seasons as a top-6 center.

• Mac started as a top-6 this year and has 21 points in 24 games (0.88 ppg rate).

• Carlsson is a part-time 1C and has 14 points in 21 games (0.67 ppg rate).

I don't believe you realize how spoiled we are down the middle going forward.

 

[2faded]

We went rebuild mode under former GM Murray, but new GM reset the rebuild. Let's review history.

• 2018-19 TDL: Murray rebuild started
• 2019 draft
  • Rd 1. C Zegras (9th overall, finished 8th worst)
• 2020 draft
  • Rd 1. RD Drysdale (6th overall, finished 5th)
• 2021 draft
  • Rd 1. C McTavish (3rd overall, finished 2nd)
• 2021-22:
  • Ducks were in the middle of an 8-game win streak, but Murray resigned from the org on Nov 10th. Anaheim had just won game 5 of that 8-game win streak. We were 7-4-3 (17 pts) in 14 games.
  • No NHL roster moves made between Nov 10th and Feb 3rd, Verbeek's hiring date. Injuries were piling up on the blueline that exposed the three rookies were not NHL ready in Drysdale, Benoit, and Mahura.
  • When Verbeek was hired during All-Star break, the Ducks were 3rd in the Pacific with a record of 23-16-9 (55 points).
  • From the Detroit News when Verbeek was hired: "This team doesn't need to be rebuilt; they're in the middle of their rebuild, so this is a great opportunity to take this team forward and turn them into a contender," Verbeek said during his introductory press conference. "You don't have to come in there and look to take a long time. There's good players in the NHL, good players in the minors and there are players that have been drafted. There's a lot coming to support the growth of this team. That's truly what I'm excited about."
  • Manson was put on IR during All-Star break and no NHL acquisition was attempted to replace Manson. Sustr was claimed on waivers on March 8th. Manson missed 11 games before Sustr was inserted into the Ducks lineup.
  • At the TDL, the Ducks were 27-25-10 (65 points). Under14 games with Verbeek as GM, the Ducks went 4-8-2 (10 pts). That's when Verbeek blew the team up. From the Athletic: “It’s not fair … me coming in two, three months and then going with a new guy,” Verbeek said. “And in the sense that I just blew up the team (at the trade deadline). So I wanted to give him [Eakins] a chance. And it gave us an opportunity to get to know one another over the course of the offseason."

• 2021-22 TDL: Verbeek reset the rebuild.
• 2022 Draft
  • Rd 1. LD Mintyukov (10th overall, finished 10th)
• 2023 Draft
  • Rd 1. C Carlsson (2nd overall, finished 1st worst)

=== Top-6 centers ===

Anaheim has three top-6 centers in 22-year old Zegras (out with injury), 20-year old McTavish (out with injury), and 18-year old Carlsson (part-time 1C).

• Zegras put up 61 points or more in two consecutive seasons as a top-6 center.
• Mac started as a top-6 this year and has 21 points in 24 games (0.88 ppg rate).
• Carlsson is a part-time 1C and has 14 points in 21 games (0.67 ppg rate).

I don't believe you realize how spoiled we are down the middle going forward.

And spoiled on the back end. The only place we aren't spoiled is on the wings, which should be the easiest to fix, especially with another high draft pick coming this offseason.

Goalie is unknown at this point but the potential is there.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

And spoiled on the back end. The only place we aren't spoiled is on the wings, which should be the easiest to fix, especially with another high draft pick coming this offseason.

Goalie is unknown at this point but the potential is there.

We also have the option of FA or trading for a wing into the future.

San Diego might have a gem brewing at RW with Ben King. He's 6'3 and 201 lbs, but I don't know much about his speed and if it can translate to the NHL level. Currently, he's 5th in overall scoring on the team and 2nd overall in goal scoring with 8 goals. Getting shades of Dustin Penner and Pat Maroon, big guys who can score goals.

Here's the kicker for King, he isn't signed to an ELC, but is still Ducks property.

 

[Ducks DVM]

On the plus side it only gets better from here

Why. Why do you tempt them.

 

[Frosted Tips]

On the plus side it only gets better from here

"Hold my beer"

 

[HanSolo]

Weve rebuilt for 5 years now and we still dont have a 1c or even a 2c. At a certain point you gotta realize whos the guy.

Are you really upset that a sophomore and 18 year old rookie haven't become true number one centers yet?