I agree completely with waiting for the young players to mature and show their worth. But I disagree about no point for a top-end forward.
If the Ducks were to trade and sign for a player like Necas for example. That would help the team now and in the future. The Ducks already have the plugs in Killorn, Strome, and a lesser extent Vatrano. They don't need more plugs; they need a goal scorer because it's not coming from the prospects.
I'm not advocating for the Ducks to make that trade now, but to simply be aggressive when the opportunity inevitably presents itself over the next two years in PV's playoff timeline.
Our youth goal scorers are Mac (20 yrs old), Z (22), Terry (26), and Carlsson (18). They are all still going through ups and downs. Eventually, they'll settle down and have consistency. Terry has recently regained his scoring touch until he ran over literally by a Mac truck.
- Ducks top-5 goal scorers, 38 games
- 1. Vatrano = 18 goals (38 games)
- 2. Mac = 11 goals (31 games)
- 3. Rico = 10 goals (37 games)
- 4. Terry = 9 goals (35 games)
- 5. Carlsson= 8 goals (23 games)
Vatrano was a FA pick up for $3.65 mil AAV. We almost had Nino Niederreiter for $4 mil AAV, but countrymen before teams won over.
Since next year is another development season, I don't see a need to overpay a long term deal on a FA when we're still trying to figure out what we have on our team. Although, the prospect of losing Rico is scary.
=== Injuries ===
View attachment 797311
NHL Injury Viz had documented injuries up to Dec 22. Carlsson got injured in the Dec 21st game against the Flames. We lost Terry recently. I still think Mac is playing through his upper body injury recovery because he's reluctant to launch his deadly shot and passing more often.
Getting Drysdale back is a huge influx of talent. He's better this year in 9 games than last year's 8 games played.
Lundy's return means he's our 3C. That's a significant add to the roster for a few offensive reasons. Rico gets to play in the top-6 with several injuries to our top-6, instead of holding the 3C position. Strome doesn't have to play center and be a good winger whenever he returns from injury.
A healthy lineup (with Lundy back)
Z-Carlsson*-Terry*
Vatrano-Mac-Strome*
Rico-Lundy-Killorn
* = currently injured players: Carlsson and Terry are on IR.
=== Cronin's offense sucks ===
I believe our lack of scoring woes rests upon HC Cronin. We have problems scoring at ES. We didn't have that problem last year under Eakins. Our problem was we couldn't score on the PP (and had no defense).
Dec 28th
View attachment 797342
Notice, our FA pickups Vatrano and Strome are offensively inept without Mac. All three are our in our top-4 scorers for the team. Mac is the only center we have that can play the type of offense Cronin wants implemented. If Cronin can't adapt to his players' strengths, then we're going to continue to be a feast or famine offense.
Just saying, "get better," is not a great strategy.
