It's a five year sample man, not just recent. Klingberg was an awesome pp dman in Dallas.
The other team is covering the passing lanes because they know Cam Fowler can't shoot. Hes either going to shoot it right into the chest of the goalie or it'll almost hit the fan in the first row. There is zero risk to leaving Fowler open.
They have looked at the other parts of the system. Over the past 5 years they've had like 30 different pieces. Guys have been traded, waived, retired, went to play in Switzerland and the powerplay is still poor. Fowler isn't the only reason for the bad PP but I don't think its out of the question to find someone who can shoot a puck to be on the point of your top powerplay unit to at least make the opposing teams PK worry about a goal from the point.
Thank you for expanding on my point of Fowler not being a threat. You summed it up much better than I can.
It’s not just his muffin shot, although it does contribute to Fowlers limited effectiveness QBing a power play. @Hamilton Bulldogs summed it up well.
over the last 5 seasons, Cam is 13th in powerplay goals among defensemen. just because he doesn't have a heavy slapshot doesn't mean his shot in ineffective.
Fowler’s PP points are about what we should expect for someone with his usage. I think Ducks can do better and would like to see what that looks like.
are we accelerating the development or stunting it by giving them minutes they haven't earned? why rush fowler out the door instead of just doing the obvious thing and limiting his ice time and slowly give it to guys like Minty and Zell when they earned it?
Because this coaching staff has shown its true colors. Giving excessive minutes to Fowler that could have been better dispersed. Young players won’t develop magically unless they are exposed to NHL conditions. Ducks are in a hard rebuild, they need to find out who the future is.
| Ducks | PP | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | PP Coach | PPG | PPO | PP Eff | Rank | Fowler PP pts | PP Comments |
| 2019-20 | Morrison | 27 | 184 | 14.67% | 30th | 8 | 4th on team |
| 2020-21 | Morrison | 11 | 123 | 8.94% | 31st (last) | 9 | 4th on team |
| 2021-22 | Ward | 48 | 219 | 21.92% | 14th | 18 | 1st on team |
| 2022-23 | Brown | 36 | 229 | 15.72% | 31st (2nd to last) | 14 | 2nd on team |
| 2023-24 | Brown | 43 | 235 | 18.30% | 23rd | 18 | 2nd on team |
| 2021-22 | PP Splits | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game Set | Games | PPG | PPO | PP Eff |
| Total | 82 | 48 | 219 | 21.9% |
| 1 to 33 | 33 | 23 | 90 | 25.6% |
| 34 to 62 | 29 | 19 | 85 | 22.4% |
| 63 to 82 | 20 | 6 | 44 | 13.6% |
Agree with you in principle, but don’t trust the coaches to implement. This should have been done last season and wasn’t. Fowler got caved in playing huge minutes. I’m reading that young D need to “earn” more ice time, did Fowler’s play earn his?
| Ducks | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Game set | Games | G | A | Pts | PPG | +/- | Hits | Blocks | Comments | |
| LaCombe | 49 to 71 | 23 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0.35 | 1 | 12 | 44 | From Feb 19 to Apr 18 | |
| Minty | 41 to 63 | 23 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 0.39 | -9 | 29 | 22 | from Feb 13 to Mar 30 | |
| Zell | 5 to 26 | 22 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0.36 | -8 | 10 | 33 | From Mar 1 to Apr 18 |
The assumption is that LaCombe and Zellweger struggled when paired with Fowler. I notice that you posted their plus/minus but not Cam’s. Those pairings weren’t good, it wasn’t all because of the young guys.
It’s because none of the three belong on a top pairing, and two of the three would have been better served on the bottom pairing.
Yes, Fowler has earned his over a long career of good play. Also, very importantly, last year was all of the young kids' first seasons. They hadn't earned anything yet, and wanting to protect them was completely valid. But I think they showed that they're ready, and with another summer of physical development, I have no problem with a plan that involves getting them more playing time this season. But I don't think the protection plan last season was inappropriate, given the lack of experience (and age) for half of the defense.
This is the exact opposite of what they’re doing. Fowler is being a sacrificial lamb so that the young guys didn’t get their confidence destroyed playing too far above their heads, and potentially ruin their careers.
I don't know if I'd say Cam always has a guy in front of him blocking shots. I'd say Cam eventually has a guy blocking shots. Fowler has a ton of time on the blueline where he just kinda stays stagnant looking for a pass, eventually will either take a weak shot that goes into the goalies pads or into the d-mans skates and the play ends there. The isn't totally on Cam as the forwards need to get open too but I don't see the reluctance in switching things up.
Fowler had 2 powerplay goals all year, 18 powerplay points, was top 10 in powerplay shifts for d-man, he had 60 shot attempts and most of the possession on the ducks powerplay went through him. Basically what i'm getting at, his powerplay work isn't all that impressive when you consider the spot hes in. Minty had 7 powerplay points with 66 mins less than Fowler on the powerplay and not being in nearly as good as a spot as Fowler (always starting with the number 1 pp unit, always starting in the O zone, ect). I'm not even saying put Minty in that spot, hell put a forward with a hell of a shot on the blueline but I don't see the upside in keeping Fowler in that role. The powerplay has been terrible all 5 of those years and hes not really putting up big numbers. Hell Tony Deangelo has similar PP numbers in the past 3 years and he isn't even in the league anymore and was healthy scratched when he was.
