The later years at the end of Murray's tenure when the team's leading scorers weren't even cracking 50 points and he was spewing stupid bullshit about how the team needed to get back into the playoffs while simultaneously doing very little to rework the roster and making no aggressive moves whatsoever was a lot more painful to me than the PV seasons. At least now it feels like we're building something and have guys on the roster who have shown to have star potential
Murray went for broke when he traded for Eaves at the 2017 TDL, costing us our 2017 first round pick. Anaheim went to the WCF that season, but Eaves fell to injury in the playoffs. Murray didn't know that was the season that broke Kesler and Eaves for the rest of their career. Youth
Kase broke out in 2017-18, but his concussions started the following season. The team became sellers at the 2018-19 TDL, which signaled we were going into a rebuild of some sort.
Original | Contract | Lengths | | | | |
---|
Player | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
Getzlaf | x | x | x | x | x | |
Perry | x | x | x | x | x | |
Kesler | x (extension) | x | x | x | x | x |
Eaves | x (TDL acquisition) | x (extension) | x | x | | |
Henrique | | x (Trade acquisition) | x | x(extension) | x | x |
| | | | | | |
Playoffs | WCF | 1st rd | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
What happened | afterwards | | | | | |
---|
Player | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
Getzlaf | x | x | x | x | x | |
Perry | x | x | Injured | bought out | bought out | |
Kesler | x | Injured | Injured | DNP | DNP | DNP |
Eaves | x (TDL) | Injured | Injured | DNP | | |
Henrique | | x | x | x | x | x |
Losing Perry, Kesler, and Eaves in 2018-19 proved to be too much. Fiscally, we were tied up for several years.
During the rebuild years, Anaheim looked like it hit homeruns with early first round selections Zegras (2019), Drysdale (2020), and McTavish (2021). Zegras and Drysdale were pivotal in what looked like a fast resurgence in the 2021-22 season. Anaheim was only 4 points behind for #3 in the Pacific before the TDL, and that's with Manson missing 12 consecutive games on IR from all-star break - which was when Verbeek was hired.
What Verbeek is doing now, is still similar to what Murray was doing - biding time to build up his team. Although, Verbeek blew up the team and pushed the timeline at least five years down the line. Let's not forget what
Verbeek said when he was hired by the Ducks:
"This team doesn't need to be rebuilt; they're in the middle of their rebuild, so this is a great opportunity to take this team forward and turn them into a contender," Verbeek said during his introductory press conference. "You don't have to come in there and look to take a long time. There's good players in the NHL, good players in the minors and there are players that have been drafted. There's a lot coming to support the growth of this team. That's truly what I'm excited about."
Speaking of good "players that have been drafted" and "good players in the NHL"... A lot of the youth potential on the team were here prior to Verbeek such as Zegras, Thrun, LaCombe, Drysdale, Colangelo McTavish, and Zellweger. Terry is an elder youth? Also, let's mention the good NHL talent already on the team that Verbeek traded away to help him bolster more potential talent.
- Traded players
- 2022 TDL
- Lindholm (and Curran) landed D Vaak, C Gaucher (2022, Rd 1), G Clara (2023 Rd 2), and Boston's Rd 2 2024 was packaged with *Rico/Carrick trade to move up for D Solberg (2024, Rd 1).
- Manson got us RD Helleson and C Terrance (2023, Rd 2).
- Deslauriers nabbed us RW Sidorov (2023, Rd 3).
- Rakell gloved us G Clang and RD Luneau (2022, Rd 2).
- 2023 TDL
- Thrun gave us a 3rd round pick in 2024, which became RW Maxim Masse.
- 2024 in-season and TDL
- Drysdale was packaged off with our own 2025, Rd 2 pick for prospect LW Cutter Gauthier.
- *Rick/Carrick trade netted us the 2024, #31 OA and 2025, Rd 5 pick.
Verbeek went scorched Earth when he inherited the Ducks at the 2021-22 TDL. He also inherited a great scouting staff to help maximize the good returns on the traded players. What Verbeek has been doing is building through the draft, which isn't anything different from other rebuilding teams, except at a scorched Earth starting point. That's why I said at the 2021-22 TDL that I'm prepared for at least five years to judge Verbeek. Last year was a tremendous dud. Now, we are heading into Year 3 of the reset rebuild and it is going as expected, which is not to expect much beside youth growth.