I think 1-2 of Lindholm/Fowler/Manson will be gone in 2 years, unless they want to take less money to stay with a rebuilding team on their cash-in contracts.
I think Zegras will be a top line player, and could be a top 10 wing, but I think it’s fair to question if he will be a top 15-20 center.
Who other than Comtois projects safely as a top line even complementary talent unless they absolutely hit it out of the park? Who other than Drysdale looks like top 4 talent? I’m not trying to be difficult, I just think we have a lot of middle 6 prospects.
Agreed on the rebuilding thing. But most teams who crater out don’t turn into Chicago.
Defensive in the system.
I'm loving LaCombe, Thrun, Moore, and Zellweger. LaCombe and Thrun, imo, are top-4 candidates who are probably set to come to the pro side after their third year in the NCAA's this year. Both are two-way defensemen, but LaCombe specializes in offense while Thrun is the thumper. Moore is rising fast and is a RHD, but he's probably two to three years away from turning pro. Zellweger is two years away from the AHL.
The low-key defensemen are probably RHD Andersson and Hinds, who can fill in the bottom pairing. Andersson is already at the AHL level.
Offense
Other top line talents that the Ducks have in their system at a forward are RW Perreault and C/LW McTavish. Perreault has Lucas Raymond-like tool kit and proved he is motivated to play a full 200ft game last year in the AHL. Raymond was drafted 4th overall in the 2020 draft. While you believe reports that McTavish is only 2C max, I think there's a lot more to his game based upon the reports I've read. There's a possibility that he could center Zegras.
At the NHL level, our top talents are Lindholm, Manson, and Fowler. I would try to keep those three around because we do have the money to retain their services and shelter our youths along help from Gibby, Stolarz, and Dostal.
What we are missing are established top-6 players today. I don't include Comtois and Zegras just yet. And I don't know what we have with the surgically repaired Silf. We need our veteran guys to be carrying the team while our youths, but it hasn't happened during the past three years, which is what GM Murray was expecting to happen. The past three years sucked, but at least we've been able to find franchise-type players with Zegras and Drysdale. Last year I knew it was a youth movement year 2 because we didn't do much and incurred Backes' contract to help land a second first round pick, which turned out to be Perreault.
We got put into a tough division last year, facing Colorado, Vegas, Minny, and St. Louis eight times each. This year, we're part of the weakest division. That's scary because we could do much better this year, but it doesn't take away that we don't have enough top-6 talent going forward unless a few players step up big time. Can we coach them up? We do have three new assistant coaches this season as well as a new AHL coaching crew. This path is a slow path, but there are a plethora of prospects coming up soon. That's the only silver lining we have if we don't do anything this offseason.
