Speculation: 2024-25 Roster thread

[KaseMeOutside]

Here, try this....

Lol the interviewer spinning 25 1 goal losses into a positive and treating it as progression. It certainly didn't feel like a better team than last year after October

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Not absolving anyone else of anything. Don't care. Evaluating Terry for what I expected of Terry. Using ones line mates as an excuse/reason for lack of production can cut both ways, as well.

I dunno if you can be that isolated to not realize Cronin sucked the life out of our offense.

Ducks	82 games
Season	ES GF	ES GA	ESGD	PP GF	PK GA	Shorties	.	GF	GA	GD
2022-23	172​	260​	-88​	36​	78​	1​		209​	338​	-129​
2023-24	151​	204​	-53​	42​	91​	11​		204​	295​	-91​
24 comp	-21​	56​	36​	6​	-13​	10​		-5​	-43​	38​

ES GF (offense) = mediocre
ES GA (defense) = impressive!
PP GF = slightly better, but still finished 2nd worst in PP eff
PK GA = abysmal defense, but crazy counter with the shorties.

Cronin's ES defense was a huge improvement from last season, but we don't know if that's because of Cronin or because of improved defensive roster.

Our ES offense sucked and I denoted this early on in the season how we were underperforming compared to last year. It's crazy to see. Although our top-6 talents (all 8 of them) did score more this year than last year's top-6 talents (only 6 of them), the scoring spread among 8 players was lower than expected.

Yeah, Terry's production wasn't great this year, but neither were the others save Vatrano. Vatrano and Strome had a white hot start due to a healthy Mac. Once Mac was injured, there went the offense until Mac returned to the ice. It's just the production dropped with an injured Mac. There in lies the problem. Cronin's offense is rigid and relies on that dump & chase. I don't like Cronin's offense at all. Z and Carlsson's offense game were stifled. Why? Because they're finesse forwards like Terry. Mac is a dump & chase guy with that heavy build. Killorn's a d&c guy too, but slower.

Which all comes back to comparing Eakins to Cronin. With a better roster, Cronin couldn't figure out how to earn more points. And the significant reason for that is his under performing offense.

Terry started playing hero puck after Getz left. Which means he's been playing the same hero puck play for the past two seasons.

Terry
Season	GP	G	A	Pts	ppg		Shots	Shot/GP	Center
2021-22	75​	37​	30​	67​	0.89​		192​	2.56​	Getz
2022-23	70​	23​	38​	61​	0.87​		188​	2.69​	Zegras
2023-24	76​	20​	34​	54​	0.71​		172​	2.26​	Carlsson

Despite playing hero puck last year, Terry was able to score at relatively the same rate. In year 2 of the hero puck play, the production took a depression. The fact Terry's production wasn't the only one who took a slight dive, then it points to the offensive system. He's our 2nd best scorer on the team this year, with a 12 point gap between him and who's third in scoring.

Initially, I blamed Terry because Mac was en Fuego to start the season. As the season rolled, Terry wasn't the only one struggle to score. We gave Carlsson the moniker of "so close" to everything, but also wondered where he was at times b/c Carlsson was invisible.

Some nights we can notch 27 shots or more and other nights we're wondering if we can hit 20 shots on goal. This year, we were shutout 10 times. Under Eakins last year, were only shut out 5 times. That's a team effort to get shutout. Terry wasn't the biggest problem to the offense; the offensive system was the biggest detriment to our player's offense.

 

[Kalv]

Lol the interviewer spinning 25 1 goal losses into a positive and treating it as progression. It certainly didn't feel like a better team than last year after October

I respectfully disagree.
That last Eakins season is still engraved in my memory, imo it was far worse than this one. Each game felt like we were out of it by mid first period. This year a lot of the losses were close and entertaining.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I respectfully disagree.
That last Eakins season is still engraved in my memory, imo it was far worse than this one. Each game felt like we were out of it by mid first period. This year a lot of the losses were close and entertaining.

Were the losses close and entertaining?

Ducks shutout in a game
Last year = 5
This year = 10

Points production
Last year = 58 pts
This year = 59 pts

1-goal differential games (actual results, not including EN's that incremented the loss by 2 goals)
Last year = 33 games, 40 points (60.6% point share)
This year = 30 games, 31 points (51.7% point share)

Common complaint
Last year = letting in 40+ shots (despite earning more points)
This year = are we going to get 20 shots in the game

Last year's team was the little engine that barely could. This year's team was the bigger engine that stalled out. I watched the games this year, but didn't pay close attention. We were lacking the "Are you not entertained" gif this year.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Terry had a bad year and the only way to say he didn't is to compare him to players who were obviously worse and say ehhh? ehhhhh??? He spent most of the year being at best ineffective, even during the fraction of the season that he was piling up points. At his worst he was doing affirmative harm to the team.

And that's true of every player on the team, I think. Did anyone have a legitimately good season? Maybe Gudas. Maybe Leason? He was improved, but was he actually good? Vatrano set a career high in goals but (like Terry) he spent looooooooong stretches doing nothing at all. The rookies...they had good seasons, for rookies. Most guys had moments here and there but I don't think you could look at any individual player and say, unreservedly, that guy had a good year. The same is true for the coaches and management.

We had one or two B+ performances, a couple Cs, a couple Ds, and then like 30 Fs. Terry, to me, might have been a D? D+? Not great. He's not alone in that on this team but that doesn't polish his turd of a season.

 

[Deuce22]

I dunno if you can be that isolated to not realize Cronin sucked the life out of our offense.

Ducks	82 games
Season	ES GF	ES GA	ESGD	PP GF	PK GA	Shorties	.	GF	GA	GD
2022-23	172​	260​	-88​	36​	78​	1​		209​	338​	-129​
2023-24	151​	204​	-53​	42​	91​	11​		204​	295​	-91​
24 comp	-21​	56​	36​	6​	-13​	10​		-5​	-43​	38​

ES GF (offense) = mediocre
ES GA (defense) = impressive!
PP GF = slightly better, but still finished 2nd worst in PP eff
PK GA = abysmal defense, but crazy counter with the shorties.

Cronin's ES defense was a huge improvement from last season, but we don't know if that's because of Cronin or because of improved defensive roster.

Our ES offense sucked and I denoted this early on in the season how we were underperforming compared to last year. It's crazy to see. Although our top-6 talents (all 8 of them) did score more this year than last year's top-6 talents (only 6 of them), the scoring spread among 8 players was lower than expected.

Yeah, Terry's production wasn't great this year, but neither were the others save Vatrano. Vatrano and Strome had a white hot start due to a healthy Mac. Once Mac was injured, there went the offense until Mac returned to the ice. It's just the production dropped with an injured Mac. There in lies the problem. Cronin's offense is rigid and relies on that dump & chase. I don't like Cronin's offense at all. Z and Carlsson's offense game were stifled. Why? Because they're finesse forwards like Terry. Mac is a dump & chase guy with that heavy build. Killorn's a d&c guy too, but slower.

Which all comes back to comparing Eakins to Cronin. With a better roster, Cronin couldn't figure out how to earn more points. And the significant reason for that is his under performing offense.

Terry started playing hero puck after Getz left. Which means he's been playing the same hero puck play for the past two seasons.

Terry
Season	GP	G	A	Pts	ppg		Shots	Shot/GP	Center
2021-22	75​	37​	30​	67​	0.89​		192​	2.56​	Getz
2022-23	70​	23​	38​	61​	0.87​		188​	2.69​	Zegras
2023-24	76​	20​	34​	54​	0.71​		172​	2.26​	Carlsson

Despite playing hero puck last year, Terry was able to score at relatively the same rate. In year 2 of the hero puck play, the production took a depression. The fact Terry's production wasn't the only one who took a slight dive, then it points to the offensive system. He's our 2nd best scorer on the team this year, with a 12 point gap between him and who's third in scoring.

Initially, I blamed Terry because Mac was en Fuego to start the season. As the season rolled, Terry wasn't the only one struggle to score. We gave Carlsson the moniker of "so close" to everything, but also wondered where he was at times b/c Carlsson was invisible.

Some nights we can notch 27 shots or more and other nights we're wondering if we can hit 20 shots on goal. This year, we were shutout 10 times. Under Eakins last year, were only shut out 5 times. That's a team effort to get shutout. Terry wasn't the biggest problem to the offense; the offensive system was the biggest detriment to our player's offense.

I think Cronin stressed defense (5 on 5) that resulted in an offensive drop off. But this was justified in part by the historically bad defense the year before. Special teams and penalties were the death of this team. Hopefully, Cronin will adjust and find a way to best utilize our offensive talents. I'm not giving Terry a pass because of Cronin, he wasn't good regardless of the system.

 

[Dryish]

Did anyone have a legitimately good season?

Honestly? I think Zegras was great whenever he played. The problem is that he didn't.

We suffered massively as a direct consequence. I think a full season of him in the line-up and we're instantly 20 points improved in the standings.

 

[Leonardo87]

Honestly? I think Zegras was great whenever he played. The problem is that he didn't.

We suffered massively as a direct consequence. I think a full season of him in the line-up and we're instantly 20 points improved in the standings.

Not just Z. But if we had more games with Leo, Mac, and Z all together, we wouldn't be worrying about another stupid lottery again. I think we had them all together for like maybe 15 games this season? That's crazy.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I think Cronin stressed defense (5 on 5) that resulted in an offensive drop off. But this was justified in part by the historically bad defense the year before. Special teams and penalties were the death of this team. Hopefully, Cronin will adjust and find a way to best utilize our offensive talents. I'm not giving Terry a pass because of Cronin, he wasn't good regardless of the system.

I'm glad you admit that Cronin stifled our offense.

As for Terry, I've been complaining about his hero puck play since last season despite his high points rate. His goal production dropped from 37 to 23 goals between the two seasons. In his third season (this year), he's down to 20 goals playing the same hero puck style. This is why I blame Cronin for bringing the offense down on the whole. Proof is in the table, ES GF is significantly down and Cronin is in charge of all things ES.

Ducks	82 games
Season	ES GF	ES GA	ESGD	PP GF	PK GA	Shorties	.	GF	GA	GD
2022-23	172​	260​	-88​	36​	78​	1​		209​	338​	-129​
2023-24	151​	204​	-53​	42​	91​	11​		204​	295​	-91​
24 comp	-21​	56​	36​	6​	-13​	10​		-5​	-43​	38​

I have no true idea if the improvement on defense was due to Cronin or new defensive talents (including Vaak being healthy to develop). I'm heavily leaning towards new defensive talents b/c we got some physical RD's (Gudas and Lyubushkin), some offensive pop (Minty and Zell), more talent depth to help plug holes (LaCombe), and a great waiver pickup (Lindstrom) ... far better than Sustr for the billionth time. We still looked lost on the defensive end despite still playing the man defensive scheme. Yet, this time around, we had more defensively inclined d-men than the many OFD's we put onto the ice.

 

[Deuce22]

I'm glad you admit that Cronin stifled our offense.

As for Terry, I've been complaining about his hero puck play since last season despite his high points rate. His goal production dropped from 37 to 23 goals between the two seasons. In his third season (this year), he's down to 20 goals playing the same hero puck style. This is why I blame Cronin for bringing the offense down on the whole. Proof is in the table, ES GF is significantly down and Cronin is in charge of all things ES.

Ducks	82 games
Season	ES GF	ES GA	ESGD	PP GF	PK GA	Shorties	.	GF	GA	GD
2022-23	172​	260​	-88​	36​	78​	1​		209​	338​	-129​
2023-24	151​	204​	-53​	42​	91​	11​		204​	295​	-91​
24 comp	-21​	56​	36​	6​	-13​	10​		-5​	-43​	38​

I have no true idea if the improvement on defense was due to Cronin or new defensive talents (including Vaak being healthy to develop). I'm heavily leaning towards new defensive talents b/c we got some physical RD's (Gudas and Lyubushkin), some offensive pop (Minty and Zell), more talent depth to help plug holes (LaCombe), and a great waiver pickup (Lindstrom) ... far better than Sustr for the billionth time. We still looked lost on the defensive end despite still playing the man defensive scheme. Yet, this time around, we had more defensively inclined d-men than the many OFD's we put onto the ice.

Agree in principle, but the offensive drop off wasn't all Cronin. Injuries that caused Z, Mac, Leo, Killorn and Minty to miss chunks of time were a factor as well.

 

[Bender66]

In all seriousness, this whole team needs to put more effort into shot accuracy. Way too many times they miss the net by 5 feet and the pucks rims around and back into the defensive zone. Put that shot on net and all kinds of good things can happen. Rebounds, tips, defensive screw ups and whatever else, can all lead to goals. Slappers off the glass that exit the zone faster than they went in, not so much.

They need to have a shooting accuracy drill every practice (shoot at an empty net, it goes in or not) and Verbeek needs to put up beer money every single time for the winner of the competition. Make it fun but beneficial to improving their skills.

And for the love of Cthulhu, the d men need to learn how to walk the line and get point shots through.
Ahlers most frequently uttered cliche for the past 5 years has been "Fowler, shot blocked"

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Agree in principle, but the offensive drop off wasn't all Cronin. Injuries that caused Z, Mac, Leo, Killorn and Minty to miss chunks of time were a factor as well.

Ya it’ll level out this season assuming we fix pk /power play…. Team should be better defensively and hopefully that helps with boosting offense(along with health). Not worried about it.

I think pv and Cronin are doing alright, and I think the team will take a big step in the right direction this year.

Cronin will fix this team in 2 years, where Eakins killed it slowly over 4 years.

Trade fowler…. Grab Roy

Mintyukov Roy
Zellweger gudas
Lacombe luneau

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Agree in principle, but the offensive drop off wasn't all Cronin. Injuries that caused Z, Mac, Leo, Killorn and Minty to miss chunks of time were a factor as well.

I went through this a couple of times already, our top-6 this year had two more talents and produced more goals, points, as well as played more games than last year's top-6. In our top-10 this season, we had 8 forwards listed, but last year we had only 7 forwards listed.

Our defense had lots of injuries, but it still produced an amazing ES GF improvement as well as total GD improvement.

You can't have it both ways where injuries hit the offense and defense. The ES defense didn't drop off into a black hole, but the ES offense surely did. You said it yourself, we focused more on defense than offense. Or do you not believe your own words? Be consistent in thought.

 

[Deuce22]

I went through this a couple of times already, our top-6 this year had two more talents and produced more goals, points, as well as played more games than last year's top-6. In our top-10 this season, we had 8 forwards listed, but last year we had only 7 forwards listed.

Our defense had lots of injuries, but it still produced an amazing ES GF improvement as well as total GD improvement.

You can't have it both ways where injuries hit the offense and defense. The ES defense didn't drop off into a black hole, but the ES offense surely did. You said it yourself, we focused more on defense than offense. Or do you not believe your own words? Be consistent in thought.

Both can be true. One, Cronin emphasized defense at the expense of offense. Two, offense was suppressed by extensive injuries to skilled forwards. Nothing inconsistent here.

Ya it’ll level out this season assuming we fix pk /power play…. Team should be better defensively and hopefully that helps with boosting offense(along with health). Not worried about it.

I think pv and Cronin are doing alright, and I think the team will take a big step in the right direction this year.

Cronin will fix this team in 2 years, where Eakins killed it slowly over 4 years.

Trade fowler…. Grab Roy

Mintyukov Roy
Zellweger gudas
Lacombe luneau

Would love if Fowler could be traded, just don't see much of a market with his contract.

 

[ScarTroy]

I went through this a couple of times already, our top-6 this year had two more talents and produced more goals, points, as well as played more games than last year's top-6. In our top-10 this season, we had 8 forwards listed, but last year we had only 7 forwards listed.

Our defense had lots of injuries, but it still produced an amazing ES GF improvement as well as total GD improvement.

You can't have it both ways where injuries hit the offense and defense. The ES defense didn't drop off into a black hole, but the ES offense surely did. You said it yourself, we focused more on defense than offense. Or do you not believe your own words? Be consistent in thought.

You also need to be consistent, if the offense didn’t produce as well even though it had more talent and you’re going to blame that on Cronin, then be consistent and give him credit for the defense being better. Either he has no effect either way, or he does, but you’re picking and choosing. You say you don’t know whether we did better on Defense was due to the fact there was more talent on defense or because of Cronin, but won’t admit that our forwards could have been affected by factors other than Cronin as well.

Of the forwards that were here under Eakins and Cronin, Vatrano did better, Mac did better, Henrique did better, Strome did the same, Carrick did better. I’ll leave out Lundestrom even though he had better pace, and Jones was on a similar pace but who knows whether he does better or worse.

The players who did worse were Terry, Silf and Zegras. 2 of those had pretty significant injuries, the other became a new dad. So if all these major players produced better under Cronin, perhaps there were other factors (injuries) at play.

For shits and giggles, what was our record with all 8 of those top players you keep referring to in the lineup at the same time?

 

[DuckDuckGetz]

Yeah, I know. But I figured it was better than kicking them in the ass and telling them nobody goes home until they hit the net 7 out of 10 times or whatever.

For sure. Just made me think about that story of how Terry and Getz played a game of ping pong with Terry's BMW on the line lol

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Both can be true. One, Cronin emphasized defense at the expense of offense. Two, offense was suppressed by extensive injuries to skilled forwards. Nothing inconsistent here.


Would love if Fowler could be traded, just don't see much of a market with his contract.

Maybe Buffalo/ New Jersey/redwings would entertain him

 

[lwvs84]

Ideally we can move Fowler for a similar contract RHD. Would Fowler for Trouba work? No idea how he's been lately but his contract ends at the same time as Fowler and it swaps a LD for RD, also don't know the Rangers needs if they need a LHD. Just saw that some Ranger fans wanted to move him. Then sign one of the Pesce/Roy/etc.
Minty-Pesce
Zell-Trouba
LaCombe-Gudas
Vaakanainen/Lindstrom as #7

Luneau missed most of the year so let him play in SD and be first call up. Next year, if Luneau forces his way up, trade Trouba at 50% retained. Trouba could be replaced by any decent RHD who's contract is up in 1-2 years. Outside of Luneau there aren't any other potentially impact RHD close to ready, probably none will be ready in the next 2 years.

 

[DuckDuckGetz]

Fowler is not getting moved. The teams that could use him can't afford him and the teams that can afford him don't have any reason to want him - and that's before his NMC.

The best case scenario is that we can bring in another top 4 RHD like Pat wants and reduce the load on him so that you guys can find something else to complain about.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Ideally we can move Fowler for a similar contract RHD. Would Fowler for Trouba work? No idea how he's been lately but his contract ends at the same time as Fowler and it swaps a LD for RD, also don't know the Rangers needs if they need a LHD. Just saw that some Ranger fans wanted to move him. Then sign one of the Pesce/Roy/etc.
Minty-Pesce
Zell-Trouba
LaCombe-Gudas
Vaakanainen/Lindstrom as #7

Luneau missed most of the year so let him play in SD and be first call up. Next year, if Luneau forces his way up, trade Trouba at 50% retained. Trouba could be replaced by any decent RHD who's contract is up in 1-2 years. Outside of Luneau there aren't any other potentially impact RHD close to ready, probably none will be ready in the next 2 years.

I’d do fowler for trouba pretty easily

Fowler is not getting moved. The teams that could use him can't afford him and the teams that can afford him don't have any reason to want him - and that's before his NMC.

The best case scenario is that we can bring in another top 4 RHD like Pat wants and reduce the load on him so that you guys can find something else to complain about.

Ya unfortunately but we can dream

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Statements like this affirm my suspicion that we have become completely ok with mediocrity.

Terry has entered his prime years and just signed a nice fat deal signaling the organizations belief that he is part of the solution to the Ducks moving out of the basement. We should/need to expect more from him. He should not be taking steps back in his contributions to the team, and he most certainly did that this year. 0.71 PPG is not good enough, regardless of how you swing it or who you compare him to. Just watch the games dude....Terry was ass this year.


This is hilarious. Talk about a complete lack of self awareness.

How about we work on using our teammates and not turning the puck over? Guy is delusional.

Seriously. The guy was so inconsistent before his contract year and now that he has the money it seems like he back to his usual self.

The excuses for Terry ‘being in his head’ year after year are getting exhausting. He should be traded at some point, he doesn’t fit our timeline.

I think its the exact opposite. Its complete self awareness. Hes not strong enough and getting pushed off the puck too easily and he was always trying to do too much with the puck when he had it. He needs to be a shooter, not a playmaker. We have much better playmakers around him, he needs to simplify his game and shoot.

It’s been the same song and dance with him for years now.

 

[Gliff]

UFA Sign:
Carrick 1x1.5
Roy 5x6
Machessault 2x7.5

RFA signs:
LaCombe
Leason
Regenda
Vaak

Trade Fowler straight up for Trouba
Buy out/LTIR McGinn

Gauthier-Carlsson-Marchessault
Killorn-Zegras-Terry
Vatrano-McTavish-Strome
Regenda-Carrick-Leason

Mintyukov-Roy
Zellweger-Trouba
LaCombe-Gudas

Other then the Fowler trade this is actually very reasonable. This still leaves the Ducks with over 10 mil in cap space so there is plenty of room if they have to overpay March to take only 2 years instead of a longer deal.

This also leaves Trouba and March coming off the books at the right time.

 

[JAHV]

The Ducks' offense:

• 3 fewer goals than last year
• 132 fewer shots
• 106 MORE shots attempted
• 8 fewer expected goals

So yes, their offense got worse. Not significantly worse, but worse.

The Duck's defense:

• 42 fewer goals surrendered
• 541 fewer shots given up (541!!!!!)
• 562 fewer shot attempts surrendered
• 67 fewer expected goals against

Those differences are insane.

It should be impossible to look at that improvement on defense and not give Cronin some credit. It's difficult to assign an exact amount of credit, but it's certainly not zero. He overhauled the defensive system and got massive improvements, even while using three rookies in the lineup for most of the season.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Honestly? I think Zegras was great whenever he played. The problem is that he didn't.

We suffered massively as a direct consequence. I think a full season of him in the line-up and we're instantly 20 points improved in the standings.

I thought he played very poorly early on, in between injuries. That was the source of some of my worry about Cronin stifling the skill players, especially since Terry looked like shit too, and Carlsson was only so-so. Z came back in a pretty big way to end the year which puts a little of that concern to bed.

Still, I wonder if we'll ever see another Michigan.

 

[Dryish]

I thought he played very poorly early on, in between injuries. That was the source of some of my worry about Cronin stifling the skill players, especially since Terry looked like shit too, and Carlsson was only so-so. Z came back in a pretty big way to end the year which puts a little of that concern to bed.

Still, I wonder if we'll ever see another Michigan.

He was our best forward before the injuries, though. At least defensively. Wasn't generating much on the score sheet, admittedly, but he was doing the things the coaching staff asked him to do and was surprisingly effective at doing so.