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Speculation: 2023-24 Roster Thread

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Hockey Duckie said:
The question is where does the credit go to, the coaching or the roster? I say it's mostly the roster improvement on the defense that has helped immensely. We still suck offensively between the two seasons.
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Good question. I'd like to think it's mostly coaching, but definitely the balance on D is better as well. We had just bunch of softish offense guys last year.

With guys constantly being out, even more than last year, I don't think the average roster is any better than last year, tbh
 
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Kalv said:
Good question. I'd like to think it's mostly coaching, but definitely the balance on D is better as well. We had just bunch of softish offense guys last year.

With guys constantly being out, even more than last year, I don't think the average roster is any better than last year, tbh
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Gm 43, Games Played .png


We have more talent at forward to absorb top-6 injuries. Half of our top-6 talents have played in 90% or more games thus far, which is 43 games. Added Carlsson and Killorn. Mac's improvement lead to Vatrano and Strome scoring far more. Yet, Terry and Z's games went non-existent in the new regime.

Our defense was putrid last year without Drysdale. This season, we were juggling three rookies in a few games due to Drysdale's injury. And yet, our defense doesn't look as lost as our forward group.

Others have mentioned that with half the season played, the execution on the ice is still terrible. The system should already be in place after the first 25 games so that all you do is change players. If the coaching is on point, then we wouldn't be witnessing the same errors on the ice in game 43.
For example, we've been playing man for several years on defense, as Drysdale shared in an interview that the last time he played zone was in the OHL. We're still lost.

Although that rookie, LaCombe, possesses the team worst -22 rating, he's often the defender on 1v2 situations with backcheckers too slow to catch up to the trailing forward. In backchecking for last night's game, LaCombe and Killorn were skating back as the Panthers had a quick counter through the neutral zone. Both of them went after the puckhandler, with LaCombe being the closer backchecker. Why did Killorn do that and leave the center lane open for the trailing Panther forward?

I know many people will say Cronin's a rookie HC and he needs a longer leash. Yes and no. Cronin's been coaching for quite a long time and at many different venues, including the NHL. He's been an assistant coach with the NYI twice and Toronto for a total of 12 years NHL coaching experience. Before becoming the Ducks' head coach, he was the head coach in the AHL in the Avs organization for five seasons. I was expecting a lot more than this with they hype of Cronin and Verbeek's media sharing when Cronin was hired, but not playoff bound.

We're relying on talent to give us a great boost to our forward unit on the ice this year. Last year, devoid of talent on the backend, they were able to eek out games.

  • Last year
    • GP = 43 games
    • Record: 12-24-4 (28 pts)
    • GF = 100
    • GA = 181
    • GD = -81

  • This year
    • GP = 43 games
    • Record: 15-27-1 (31 pts)
    • GF = 111
    • GA = 148
    • GD = -37

We're only 3 points better. Our defense has improved far more than our offense. I'm just meh about the coaching, considering we have a much better roster than last year.
 
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CrazyDuck4u said:
Thats forever Rebuild thread on the main boards has be lurking.. Good god I hope we don't end up there..
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The Sabres have made the playoffs 4 times in the last 21 seasons. They have finished in last place 4 times in that same period.
The last time they made the playoffs was the year the Ducks drafted Fowler.

The Ducks have made the playoffs 12 times in the same time frame and been legit cup contenders for 8 of those 12 years.

The Ducks would have to go another decade without the playoffs to even be in the same realm as the Sabres.
 
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It seems generally agreed upon that a bunch of players are being asked to play above their level, so as a little thought experiment I tried to imagine what our forwards' "accurate" lines would be. This is assuming the players are playing at their reasonable potential (i.e. Terry is playing like 22-23 Terry). When two lines are listed I think the player would spend most of their time on the lower of the two, with the ability to step up for a limited time.

The bolded are currently playing above where I've placed them (when they're healthy, at least).

Leo: 1
Terry: 1
McTavish: 2-1
Zegras: 2-1
Lundestrom: 3
Killorn: 3-1 (imo Killorn is the hardest to place of the group... I think he can pull 1st line duties for like a game or two in a row at most)
Vatrano: 3-2
Henrique: 3-2
Strome: 3-2
Leason: 4-3
Jones: 4
Carrick: 4
Silfverberg: 4
Jonhston: 4
Groulx: 4
McGinn: 4

Thoughts?
 
Deuce22 said:
Yeah, who needs defensemen that help their team score goals?
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I'm obviously not saying offense should be disregarded, but to have guys like Theo and Bouchard as top 15 D in the world - yeah I think they are looking too much at offense and not enough at the rest of a Dman's job.

Do you actually think Bouchard is a top 15 Dman in the league, all things considered?

It's a fan voted list, not surprising that it's slanted towards offense. If it was voted on by more informed hockey minds (ie coaches in the league), I don't doubt that some of those more one dimensional guys like Theo and Bouchard would drop significantly. They are good enough defensively to be considered true #1 D
 
I don’t agree with every single ranking on the list, but for a fan voted list, I’m pretty impressed honestly. There are several “experts” who would produce worse IMO

Maybe a little slanted towards offense, but I also think a lot of posters on our board are weirdly slanted towards defensive defensemen.

Like, a big reason why the Anaheim Ducks have sucked the last 5 years is because they have no one who can drive offense from the back end
 
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WhatTheDuck said:
I'm obviously not saying offense should be disregarded, but to have guys like Theo and Bouchard as top 15 D in the world - yeah I think they are looking too much at offense and not enough at the rest of a Dman's job.

Do you actually think Bouchard is a top 15 Dman in the league, all things considered?

It's a fan voted list, not surprising that it's slanted towards offense. If it was voted on by more informed hockey minds (ie coaches in the league), I don't doubt that some of those more one dimensional guys like Theo and Bouchard would drop significantly. They are good enough defensively to be considered true #1 D
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Fans will notice offense more and vote based on that. But I reject the notion that puck movers like Theodore and Bouchard must be bad defensively. The best defense is puck possession in the offensive zone and both of them excel at that.
 
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WhatTheDuck said:
I'm obviously not saying offense should be disregarded, but to have guys like Theo and Bouchard as top 15 D in the world - yeah I think they are looking too much at offense and not enough at the rest of a Dman's job.

Do you actually think Bouchard is a top 15 Dman in the league, all things considered?

It's a fan voted list, not surprising that it's slanted towards offense. If it was voted on by more informed hockey minds (ie coaches in the league), I don't doubt that some of those more one dimensional guys like Theo and Bouchard would drop significantly. They are good enough defensively to be considered true #1 D
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I know people hate these charts and I'm not saying Bouchard is or isn't a top 15 D-man in the league but his defensive analytics have improved significantly this year

 
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Deuce22 said:
Fans will notice offense more and vote based on that. But I reject the notion that puck movers like Theodore and Bouchard must be bad defensively. The best defense is puck possession in the offensive zone and both of them excel at that.
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No one said that puck movers must be bad defensively. Those two just have never been overly strong on that side and have typically been higher event players on both sides of the puck (Bouchard in particular had become somewhat of a whipping boy for his turnovers and other gaffes). There are other "offense-first" guys higher on that list who I haven't questioned.

Though to be fair I will concede that I was unaware EB had made those great strides this season as pointed out by @goonsaredumb
If he performs to that level consistently as a defender, than his offense absolutely carries him to bonafide #1 status.
 
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Deuce22 said:
Fans will notice offense more and vote based on that. But I reject the notion that puck movers like Theodore and Bouchard must be bad defensively. The best defense is puck possession in the offensive zone and both of them excel at that.
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It's not just fans, but hockey people too. The Norris Trophy, an award for best defenseman, is often awarded to the defenseman who scored the most usually. Defense first d-men don't win the Norris nowadays.
 
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