Speculation: Anaheim Ducks Roster Discussion Part IV

[Gliff]

This season is make or break for Rakell. I expect him to have a total break out or be traded by the deadline.

 

[Paul4587]

I would have hoped last year was the make or break year for Rakell. His effort levels and consistency were both horrible for the second year running. Given he’s two years from FA I would like to see us move on. I don’t want to see him get a huge extension next offseason and have to watch him mail it in for the latter half of his career.

 

[Leonardo87]

This season is make or break for Rakell. I expect him to have a total break out or be traded by the deadline.

Yeah total agreed. If he breaks out would like him to stay, but if he cannot, need to move on from this point. I just hate to give up on a former 30 goal scorer, on a team that needs scoring. But i get the frustrations.

 

[Gliff]

Yeah total agreed. If he breaks out would like him to stay, but if he cannot, need to move on from this point. I just hate to give up on a former 30 goal scorer, on a team that needs scoring. But i get the frustrations.

I personally would move on regardless.
If he breaks out he is going to cost 7 mil minimum. Even now he would get 6 as a UFA.

I don't want to pay that much to player like him who seems to have motivational issues and can't carry his own line.

Unless we are talking PPG and shows the ability to carry his own line, I would move him.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

One thing I've picked upon by GM Murray is he really is too trusting. That's why he gave both Bruce and Randy a lot longer leash. This time around, he gave Eakins too much leash, despite having Sutter as an outlet for Eakins.

It feels odd to say this, but it feels as though Murray is the principal and Eakins is that newbie teacher under scrutiny. LoL Remember how Murray changed things around when he became the interim coach? He knows how the players can elevate their play first-hand.

 

[bumperkisser]

One thing I've picked upon by GM Murray is he really is too trusting. That's why he gave both Bruce and Randy a lot longer leash. This time around, he gave Eakins too much leash, despite having Sutter as an outlet for Eakins.

It feels odd to say this, but it feels as though Murray is the principal and Eakins is that newbie teacher under scrutiny. LoL Remember how Murray changed things around when he became the interim coach? He knows how the players can elevate their play first-hand.

While this may be true. I think for Eakins he had to have done it. Eakins is a 1st year coach on a new team. If Murray steps in all the time what does that say about Eakins from a player's perspective. He needs to be the coach and players need to respect him as the coach.

 

[SirQuacksALot]

While this may be true. I think for Eakins he had to have done it. Eakins is a 1st year coach on a new team. If Murray steps in all the time what does that say about Eakins from a player's perspective. He needs to be the coach and players need to respect him as the coach.

I think this is it. Boudreau and RC were established NHL coaches when they arrived. RC wasn't during his first stint in Anaheim, but he was hired by Burke, and he had a cup win by the time BM became GM. When BM hired him back he had over a decade as an NHL head coach under his belt. Boudreau didn't, and still doesn't. have that playoff success but he had coached some excellent teams in the regular season, including a president's trophy team I believe. Eakins is different. He's got experience in Edmonton, but that entire organization had issues top to bottom during that period, so it's hard to know what Eakins got from that experience. GMBM is treating him a bit like a rookie coach, and that makes sense IMO.

 

[MMC]

Interesting to me that Bob says our organization has shifted to Euro free agents over college. He said we were interested in Zub before he signed in Ottawa, wouldn't be surprised if we offered several some contracts or at the very least negotiated with them. He seems to think it's a good place to find depth. Wouldn't be surprised to see more signings like Curran and Hakanpaa later this offseason and in the upcoming years.

 

[alcolol]

Interesting to me that Bob says our organization has shifted to Euro free agents over college. He said we were interested in Zub before he signed in Ottawa, wouldn't be surprised if we offered several some contracts or at the very least negotiated with them. He seems to think it's a good place to find depth. Wouldn't be surprised to see more signings like Curran and Hakanpaa later this offseason and in the upcoming years.

Where did you see this GMBM comment on free agents?

 

[MMC]

Where did you see this GMBM comment on free agents?

In the transcript

 

[cheesymc]

In the transcript

Pretty interesting that we were trying to sign a Russian!!! I’m curious who they liked more, Zub or Curran? Sounds like Zub was preferred as he is 24 and makes more sense long term.

Disappointed to hear that they might be less focus rd on signing college guys, but it might make sense to not waste a contract spot especially when the good ones never sign with us and we normally get fodder/ECHL performers. With Euro signings at least those players have played in a professional league against seasoned higher competition.

 

[MilesNewton]

I would have hoped last year was the make or break year for Rakell. His effort levels and consistency were both horrible for the second year running. Given he’s two years from FA I would like to see us move on. I don’t want to see him get a huge extension next offseason and have to watch him mail it in for the latter half of his career.

Seems like the kind of guy that wouldn't mind playing in Sweden-personality wise that is.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Interesting to me that Bob says our organization has shifted to Euro free agents over college.

Disappointed to hear that they might be less focus rd on signing college guys, but it might make sense to not waste a contract spot especially when the good ones never sign with us and we normally get fodder/ECHL performers. With Euro signings at least those players have played in a professional league against seasoned higher competition.

I think mymerlincat is framing this "shifted to Euro FA over college" incorrectly. From the transcripts, GM Bob implied there's better FA talent now in Europe where it used to be college FA years back. And the reason behind that is because the org is scouting the USHL better; not only the Ducks, but all other teams. Now that pool is seemingly drying up because teams are drafting those USHL players who fell through their respective drafts previously and took the college route.

The FA talent pool has shifted to Euro FA, but our scouting has remained the same. The shift in scouting came in scouting USHL players. 2019's second round pick Jackson La Combe was straight USHL. The whole eligible class of 2019 USNTDP juniors of the USHL all were drafted in 2019, IIRC.

In fact, here's an excerpt from the mymerlincat tweet share from GM Murray:

For a while, college was really hot. Now, you don't see a lot of college free agents having a huge impact because we're scouting the USHL so much better now. We know the USHL like we know the CHL. For a while, the USHL wasn't getting scouted and that led to those guys not being seen and going to college. Now, with all those kids coming through the USHL, they're all drafted. We've got three or four of them in our first-round list this year. That's changed.

 

[SirQuacksALot]

This season is make or break for Rakell. I expect him to have a total break out or be traded by the deadline.

I would have hoped last year was the make or break year for Rakell. His effort levels and consistency were both horrible for the second year running. Given he’s two years from FA I would like to see us move on. I don’t want to see him get a huge extension next offseason and have to watch him mail it in for the latter half of his career.

Rakell, I think, isn't quite the level of player we thought he was. He can score 30, but cannot drive the play enough by himself to get there without support. He relies a lot on his center and his decline coincided with Getzlaf's, despite being much younger (27 vs 35). If one of the C prospects make the jump to NHL first or even second line quality, or Anaheim gets lucky and drafts one of Lafreniere or Byfeld, both of whom project to NHL ready, I can seen him staying due to increased production. If not there will be a number of playoff or bubble teams looking for a player exactly like him to put them over the top. A team like, and I know everyone will hate this, Nashville could play him alongside Duchene and might be willing to pay at the deadline. The team is good but the offence is middling, and Rakell would get plenty of pucks fed to him. Of course I'd rather him not go there, but it's just an example.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Rakell, I think, isn't quite the level of player we thought he was. He can score 30, but cannot drive the play enough by himself to get there without support. He relies a lot on his center and his decline coincided with Getzlaf's, despite being much younger (27 vs 35). If one of the C prospects make the jump to NHL first or even second line quality, or Anaheim gets lucky and drafts one of Lafreniere or Byfeld, both of whom project to NHL ready, I can seen him staying due to increased production. If not there will be a number of playoff or bubble teams looking for a player exactly like him to put them over the top. A team like, and I know everyone will hate this, Nashville could play him alongside Duchene and might be willing to pay at the deadline. The team is good but the offence is middling, and Rakell would get plenty of pucks fed to him. Of course I'd rather him not go there, but it's just an example.

With Rakell, it all depends on when you made your assessment of him. In juniors, he was a winger to moved to center to help his team. His junior teammate, Noesen, moved from center to wing. It worked for the junior team. I just thought he was a good defensive center and scratched my head when we drafted Gibby 9 picks later because I thought we should have drafted Gibby at the bottom of the first round and Rakell in the 2nd round just based off of talent.

Rakell was just meh as a center. So I really didn't expect anything out of Rakell. That's where I am with Lundestrom right now. The move to wing implied that Rakell wasn't an offensive driver, but a very good passenger. We found a 30-goal scorer in the 30's selection?!

After seeing Rakell get 30 goals for a couple of seasons, everyone's expectations rose high. To the point we're saying how abysmal he is on the ice this season. LoL Yet, he's our second best scorer on the team.

Was GM Murray correct that we sent a wrong message by going with the youth movement and that lowered the bar of effort because we're supposed to lose? We all questioned it, especially when it came to Sprong v Terry - except we get reports just how Sprong didn't care about playing a 200 ft game in the AHL. I'm an optimist, but man it just sucked knowing we're pushing the youth movement when Murray said he wouldn't.

We have Rakell for two more seasons on the cheap. You ride that salary because we postponed the youth movement. No point in creating yet another hole that we might be forced to gift to a youth.

 

[MMC]

I would love to add Dadonov on a short term deal. He would bring some much needed scoring to the RWs.

 

[Paul4587]

Ryan Miller is our Masterton trophy nominee.

Edit:

 

[Leonardo87]

After seeing Rakell get 30 goals for a couple of seasons, everyone's expectations rose high. To the point we're saying how abysmal he is on the ice this season. LoL Yet, he's our second best scorer on the team.

Well the entire team had struggled to score, Rakell should be in the Top 3 but not with these numbers or anyone else in your Top 3 for that matter. I mean when Adam Henrique is your top scorer, that's not really good. Nothing against Henrique, who I thought he had a very good season, and like to see him stay for depth, but he shouldn't be one of our Top 3 scorers. If they had 3 guys above him or 4, then this season is a different outcome. Maybe would be one of the 24 teams.

 

[MMC]

Are you guys in favor of trading or extending Gudbranson next season?

 

[Hey234]

Are you guys in favor of trading or extending Gudbranson next season?

I suppose it depends on his play, asking price, and 2020 top 10 draft pick. That being said, I don't think he will get too much in a trade to make it worth it. The Ducks don't really have a top 4 replacement yet and I would probably extend his contract for a year or two if he plays well enough. I would not do a long term contact.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Are you guys in favor of trading or extending Gudbranson next season?

It's too early to have a favor. There's a lot of factors such as are we in the playoff hunt, are Larsson and Guhle still not developing as much as we want, are the guys behind Larsson and Guhle not developing as fast as we want, do we have any youth that can make an impact within a season, or are our youthful forwards developing?

Right now, GM Murray has already stated he wants more veterans than youth. And in this particular case, he's putting a lot of veterans on the blue line to counter the youth on the forward side. Murray knows he can get into the playoffs with a very strong defense and a phenomenal goalie play. And if we are in the playoff hunt, then someone like Gudz would be very valuable in the gritty playoffs.

A factor in favor of retaining Gudz is that he's a top-4 RHD for us. I don't think Hakanpaa is ready for top-4 time and we still have unproven talents at the AHL with Drew and Andersson. I think that's it for RHD that shoot right for us in our system. Even if we land a RHD in the draft, it might take two seasons plus until their bodies can develop for the NHL level. Andersson was a 2nd round draft pick in 2018, but GM Murray cited that Andersson was still a couple of years away from the NHL. That's a four-year wait period on a 2nd round prospect.

I'm just really interested in seeing a healthy top-5 plus Curran/Hankanpaa. (Top 5 = Lindholm with Manson, Fowler with Gudz, and Djoos).

 

[JabbaJabba]

Are you guys in favor of trading or extending Gudbranson next season?

At the moment I'm not against it as an idea, but like others said, we have to see what the situation is after next season. How will other players progress/regress? Is there are need for Gudbranson? How will corona affect the budget like can they even afford to re-sign him?

 

[gilfaizon]

It'll come down to term with Gudbranson. I think lots of teams would line up for him at the right price, but maybe Fowler will play a role in Gudbranson taking a discount of sorts to stay here, given MDZ stated he came back to play with Fowler. I like what I see so far, and even if he was passed on the depth chart, having a #5 who can step up and play in the top 4 is a luxury in todays NHL.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

It'll come down to term with Gudbranson. I think lots of teams would line up for him at the right price, but maybe Fowler will play a role in Gudbranson taking a discount of sorts to stay here, given MDZ stated he came back to play with Fowler. I like what I see so far, and even if he was passed on the depth chart, having a #5 who can step up and play in the top 4 is a luxury in todays NHL.

Gudz surprisingly fits our defensive system as I see him as a top-4 d-man, in our system. I want to reiterate that Gudz is a top-4 in our system, which speaks about only our system and not with the rest of the NHL because those are completely different standards as well as top-4 defensemen aren't readily available. He had 4 goals, 5 assists, and a 0 +/- rating all the while logging 20:02 minutes in 44 games.

The Ducks had a -0.56 goal differential. GF = 2.56 goals and GA = 3.15 goals against. That 0 +/- rating is impressive. Our best defensive prospect available to the NHL club is Larsson and he had a -9 +/- rating. Gudz has been playing top-4 with us, not a #5. Larsson has been playing #5 and #4 last year.

 

[Paul4587]

I would wait and see on Gudbranson. Does he continue to play solid hockey alongside a partner that compliments him here or does he revert back to being a number 6/7 Dman?

With his contract his trade value is going to be very minimal until it gets closer to the deadline and teams can absorb his cap hit with us being more willing to retain some of it. So there’s no reason for us to not wait and see how it plays out.

Even if he plays like he did last season for us which was pretty decent I wouldn’t extend him for the same contract he’s currently on. 15-20 points and being solid defensively is great but not worth $4M with the cap being flat for a while.