Thanks for explaining it all. You write so thoroughly detailed it’s pretty remarkable.
Follow up question? What are we doing with all this money in the off season. We are third in the league with cap space already. We have Shattenkirk 3.9 million off the books, Klingberg 7 million, Stolarz money and Kulikov 2.25 million.
I mean that’s like a dream come true for a new GM. Are we signing anyone? Where do we go from here. That’s a boatload of cash available
We can look to recent history to know what will happen this off-season and longer by reviewing this past off-season. RW Terry and C Zegras broke out into stars last year. C Lundy found offense. D Drysdale lasted the whole season without looking overwhelmed. Then we all knew that McTavish was coming to the NHL this season. Anaheim had so much cap space that we looked like we were going to be in trouble by not reaching the cap floor. Fortunately and unfortunately, Klingberg's $7 mil, one-year contract bailed us out. Today, we have $28.3 mil cap space. We didn't spend a lot of money because we're in the middle of a rebuild.
Anaheim is in year 2/3 of the rebuild where Terry, Z, Lundy, McTavish, and Drysdale are considered to be the first layer of the Verbeek foundation. The veterans we have are not a significant part of the "return to the playoff" timeline, except for Fowler, Strome, and Gibby. We are building through the draft, which is why Verbeek wanted many draft picks and will pick up more this TDL.
Because we're building through the draft, Verbeek will be looking for FA plugs until our youth can take the reins. We are not going to be big spenders until we have a solid foundation of youth at forward, defense, and netminding. The earliest I can see Verbeek spending money is the 2025 off-season, and that's if our blue liners acclimate quickly to the NHL level.
Blue line Youth Progress
- At NHL level
- RD Drysdale (out for the season)
- At AHL level
- RD Andersson (too injury prone)
- RD Helleson (not ready for the NHL)
- Non-Pro Levels
- LD/RD LaCombe (NCAA senior, needs to be signed... either AHL or NHL in 2023-24)
- LD Thrun (NCAA senior, needs to be signed... either AHL or NHL in 2023-24)
- LD/RD Zellweger (going to AHL in 2023-24)
- LD Hinds (going to AHL in 2023-24)
- LD Mintyukov (going to AHL in 2023-24)
- RD Moore (NCAA sophomore)
- RD Warren (CHL, going to AHL in 2024-25)
- RD Luneau (CHL, going to AHL in 2024-25)
=== Why is the Blue Line Youth the spending determinant? ===
Provided we finish in the top-4, the Ducks will have four of their top-6 forwards spoken for the next decade plus in RW Terry, C Zegras, C McTavish, and the 2023 top-4 pick. If C Lundy regains his dynamic play, then we're set at 3C. C Strome will still be around as the token veteran presence.
With the aforementioned set, then all we're looking for are complementary top-6 pieces and bottom-6 players. C Groulx, LW Tracey, and RW Perreault have been stewing in the AHL for a couple of years now. C Lopina looks like a defensive bottom-6 forward.
There are a lot more known quantities with the forward group.
With the blue line youth, we don't know exactly what we have, especially with Drysdale gone for the whole season to stop his development. Aside from Drysdale and Benoit, we have no other prospects that are proven at the pro level. Benoit is still a 6/7th defenseman. Verbeek denoted that both Mintyukov and Zellweger need to have a lot better defensive structure in their game. This is why it'll take at least two seasons of developing prospect D at the pro level, both AHL and NHL. (It kinda looks like three seasons maybe needed b/c of the lack of experience.)
I don't see us being big spenders until we've got a solid NHL foundation at forward and defense. Not worried about netminding b/c we have Gibby, Dostal, Alexander, Clang, and Buteyets already in tow.
