Speculation: 2024-25 Roster thread

[Ducks DVM]

Three third lines certainly wouldnt be ‘too much optimism’

3 second lines and proper line matching from Cronin might be, however.

 

[robbieboy3686]

3 second lines and proper line matching from Cronin might be, however.

Come on guys, I know we have been bad, But there’s no scenario where we have “ 3 3rd lines” we have 3 solid 2nd lines. With potential for 2 of the lines to become middle of the pack 1st lines this year.

 

[Leonardo87]

This year really need to find a potential legit Top line. Hopefully one of the kids can take their line to the next level.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Come on guys, I know we have been bad, But there’s no scenario where we have “ 3 3rd lines” we have 3 solid 2nd lines. With potential for 2 of the lines to become middle of the pack 1st lines this year.

We swapped out Rico and Silf, both are good defensively, for rookie Cutter and Fabbri. If Zegras is playing wing in the top-6 and if Strome is our 3C, then we do not have 2nd line talent with Strome as our 3C.

And if our offense remains similar to last year with only the Dump & Chase as our go to move, then it doesn't matter what lines we have if we have only one or two individuals built for the Dump & Chase game. The D&C actually tires out our players faster to where they will commit penalties b/c they're too fatigued to skate back to the D-zone.

 

[MCB]

Come on guys, I know we have been bad, But there’s no scenario where we have “ 3 3rd lines” we have 3 solid 2nd lines. With potential for 2 of the lines to become middle of the pack 1st lines this year.

I'm just trying to temper my expectations, I'm hoping for entertaining hockey, I remember the start of the season last year and how much fun it was in person, hadn't had that in some time. I tell myself playoffs are not happening so I'm not disappointed, and if by some miracle it does happen I'll be ecstatic.
Regardless I'll be watching every game (if I can).

Also, I agree with you on the 3 2nd lines, the above was just explaining my reason for the bleak outlook.

 

[robbieboy3686]

I'm just trying to temper my expectations, I'm hoping for entertaining hockey, I remember the start of the season last year and how much fun it was in person, hadn't had that in some time. I tell myself playoffs are not happening so I'm not disappointed, and if by some miracle it does happen I'll be ecstatic.
Regardless I'll be watching every game (if I can).

Also, I agree with you on the 3 2nd lines, the above was just explaining my reason for the bleak outlook.

Gotcha, it’s been brutal for so long that I definitely understand where you’re coming from. Lgd!

 

[Ducks DVM]

Come on guys, I know we have been bad, But there’s no scenario where we have “ 3 3rd lines” we have 3 solid 2nd lines. With potential for 2 of the lines to become middle of the pack 1st lines this year.

I don’t consider lines with 2-3 of the players on every line to be sub-20 goals and 40 or fewer points to be “solid” 2nd lines, and that’s what we are entering the year with.

We have to hope for - minimal injuries, and I don’t trust our training staff and Ducks karma until they prove otherwise.
- no sophomore slumps out of LaCombe, Mintyukov, Zellweger, Carlsson
- Vatrano doesn’t come back to being Vatrano
- Strome, not Stroke
- Gauthier has a good year, but that’s typically going to be in that 20/40 zone, not “solid” 2nd line IMO
- even strength and special teams coaching improvements
- Carlsson put on ENOUGH muscle to where he can pull off the moves he tries without getting knocked down/off balance
- Team chemistry
- FatherTime ignores Killorn and Gudas

I’m certainly not saying any or all of that is a guarantee, but none of our lines produced like a playoff caliber 2nd line for more than spurts last year.

 

[Leonardo87]

I’m certainly not saying any or all of that is a guarantee, but none of our lines produced like a playoff caliber 2nd line for more than spurts last year.

In all fairness, they had so many injuries, it was a revolving door for the Top 6, couldn’t get consistent chemistry going. You miss one or two guys for some games , can still manage. They lost like 4 or 5 Top 6 guys and for longer stretches than just a few games.

 

[Ducks DVM]

In all fairness, they had so many injuries, it was a revolving door for the Top 6, couldn’t get consistent chemistry going. You miss one or two guys for some games , can still manage. They lost like 4 or 5 Top 6 guys and for longer stretches than just a few games.

Yeah, that was the injuries part. It’s not like we have had significant production out of more than 2-3 of any of these players at a time in any of the last 3 years. Getting to 2nd lines requires across the board improvements in health and production.

 

[Leonardo87]

Yeah, that was the injuries part. It’s not like we have had significant production out of more than 2-3 of any of these players at a time in any of the last 3 years. Getting to 2nd lines requires across the board improvements in health and production.

I don’t even want to predict the team standings but if we can get a single PPG player this year, who hits 80+ points, will call it a lot of progress. But with that need to be healthy and find consistency.

 

[BerthMania]

Do any of you see Luneau playing in the NHL this year?

 

[Ducks DVM]

Do any of you see Luneau playing in the NHL this year?

Yes. How much will be the question. Have to see how much usage he gets in preseason, but he came in huge and looks good.

 

[slippingsloth]

I don’t even want to predict the team standings but if we can get a single PPG player this year, who hits 80+ points, will call it a lot of progress. But with that need to be healthy and find consistency.

Yeah. I feel like guessing at our team points total is a fools errand

But it would be nice to have at least 1 top line equivalent player at pointish per game. That would be a great step.

How many 50 pt + players does everyone venture we have next year? Because that i think is a fair second line performance over a season since it is pretty close to second line average across the league….

We had vatrano and terry reach that mark last year playing first line min of course

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Yeah. I feel like guessing at our team points total is a fools errand

But it would be nice to have at least 1 top line equivalent player at pointish per game. That would be a great step.

How many 50 pt + players does everyone venture we have next year? Because that i think is a fair second line performance over a season since it is pretty close to second line average across the league….

We had vatrano and terry reach that mark last year playing first line min of course

Depending on health, we could see Mac, Killorn, and maybe Carlsson hit 50 points. If Carlsson hits 50 points and Cutter is his winger, then it's possible to add Cutter to that 50 points club. Mac was a ppg player in 29 games (a 20 game stretch and a 9 game stretch) last year.

Also, we have a new PP coach. Maybe we cash in a lot of PP points that way.

But I'll be conservative and focus on:
1) team discipline
2) being healthy
3) ES offense improvement
4) PP improvement
5) PK improvement

We don't have to be playoff contenders, but we gotta see improvements in these five aspects. The fewer penalties means fewer goals given up on the PK, which could lead to more wins. Simple things like that is what I want to see.

 

[slippingsloth]

Depending on health, we could see Mac, Killorn, and maybe Carlsson hit 50 points. If Carlsson hits 50 points and Cutter is his winger, then it's possible to add Cutter to that 50 points club. Mac was a ppg player in 29 games (a 20 game stretch and a 9 game stretch) last year.

Also, we have a new PP coach. Maybe we cash in a lot of PP points that way.

But I'll be conservative and focus on:
1) team discipline
2) being healthy
3) ES offense improvement
4) PP improvement
5) PK improvement

We don't have to be playoff contenders, but we gotta see improvements in these five aspects. The fewer penalties means fewer goals given up on the PK, which could lead to more wins. Simple things like that is what I want to see.

I agree with all of the above. If we have several 50+ point players that is a concrete metric that encompasses 2-4 on your list. To get to 50 pts someone probably had to play majority of games (not injured), the ES and PP offenses likely had to score some goals.


If you, Cronin, a collective sacrifice of gecko feet and batwings in a witches cauldron could by some miracle make us an average team with regards to penalties taken well I bet we improve 10-20pts in standings alone just from that.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I agree with all of the above. If we have several 50+ point players that is a concrete metric that encompasses 2-4 on your list. To get to 50 pts someone probably had to play majority of games (not injured), the ES and PP offenses likely had to score some goals.


If you, Cronin, a collective sacrifice of gecko feet and batwings in a witches cauldron could by some miracle make us an average team with regards to penalties taken well I bet we improve 10-20pts in standings alone just from that.

Discipline and health will change things dramatically, but they're also directly tied to one another. I should have made Health being #1 and Discipline #2. If we're healthy (not fatigued), then we reduce the amount of penalties we take.

• PK
  • 2022-23:
    • PK Eff = 72.1%
    • TSH = 280
    • PK GA = 78
  • 2023-24:
    • PK Eff = 72.4%
    • TSH = 330
    • PK GA = 91

With the same terrible PK Eff rating, the Ducks allowed 13 more PK GA's. With all this Verbeek talk about 1-goal games, being more disciplined will go a long way to help improve the outcomes of 1-goal games. We are shooting ourselves in the foot because Verbeek is quite happy running our players down physically.

• Even Strength Goals For (ES GF)
  • 2022-23: (Eakins)
    • ES GF = 169
  • 2023-24: (Cronin)
    • ES GF = 150
  • Difference (Eakins - Cronin) = -19 goals

[/list]

Last season, a lot of our top-end offensive forwards were injured or playing injured.

• Zegras played 31 games, 15 pts
• Carlsson played 55 games, 29 pts (includes load mgmt)
• Killorn played 63 games, 36 pts
• McTavis played 64 games, 42 pts

If they're all healthy or mostly healthy, then we can see the scoring production increase. Zegras can get back to his 60 point days and Mac is probably itching to breakout, especially with the newly added muscle mass. That should also improve our bottom-6 to increase their scoring as well b/c top-end offensive forwards are pushed down into the bottom-6.

The problem I see is if Cronin doesn't have top-end talents available, then the offense goes away. We all witnessed this last year. I compared Eakins' top-6 with Cronin top-6 productions and Cronin's group outproduced Eakins' group. Yet, Cronin's ES offense still produced less. That means there was less offense in the bottom-6, which Verbeek has identified he needed to improve over the summer. Therein lies the problem with Cronin's ES offense, which relies too much on individual talent to produce in a boring offensive scheme (dump & chase). Thus, we need our top-end players to stay healthy or else we'll see a repeat of the lack of scoring productions of last year due Cronin's monotone offense.