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Speculation: 2024-25 Roster thread

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JAHV said:
I don't know that any of those guys is good. But Lundestrom is a big part of it. This season, his xGA/60 on the PK is second worst to Vatrano. Over the last three seasons, there are 145 players who have spent more than 200 minutes on the PK. Lundestrom is 5th worst in xGA/60 (2nd worst in actual GA/60). Now, there are a lot of Ducks high on that list, which indicates that there's plenty of blame to go around (including to coaches), but he's above (below?) them all. I'm not sure why people go out of their way to defend him.

At best, the argument is that Lundestrom doesn't matter because he's just a 4th liner. And that's mostly true, particularly for a team that's still as bad as the Ducks. But it would be nice to have an actually good 4th line center who can win faceoffs and PK well.
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I think the coaches and defensemen have more input on the PK than you think. Stothers was PK coach for 2021-2023 and Thompson from 2023-2025. Thompson had a much better defensive roster than Stother's 2022-23 season, but has been terrible for both seasons.


1738287662882.png


Comparing '22-23 (Stothers) with '23-24 (Thompson) Splits

Stothers' PK team
1738288057977.png


Focus on the PK side of the chart (right side). Notice how Stothers was able to help improve the PK unit as the season went until the TDL. Our best d-man on the PK was... Fowler?. Stothers set a high standard for the PK unit for furture seasons. He did a lot more with far less talent.


Thompson's PK Team
1738288292322.png


Thompson had an upgrade on the PK roster with blue line additions of Gudas, Lyubushkin, rookie LaCombe, and a healthy Vaak. As the season progressed, the worse the PK unit became. There was no improvement whatsoever like there was under Stothers. And our PK still sucks today as we have swapped out Fowler for Trouba.

Today, our PK unit still sucks and that's on Thompson.
 
Daz28 said:
You win the draw you kill 15 seconds of the penalty, and force an entry. That alone help A LOT. Win 3 faceoffs on same PP, and you're in GREAT shape.
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Then why isn’t the coach imploring the players with better stats on faceoffs on the PK? Why are we fitting square pegs in to round holes? As I type this, I just watched Lundy lose a defensive zone faceoff, then Harkins take the next one, get subsequently kicked out and Lundy wins the faceoff. I think Mac’s stats on amount of faceoffs on the PK are likely low, too Getzlaf to look up stats, and also Mac seemingly gets thrown out of the faceoff dot frequently my guess is Harkins may be the same. Are there stats on being thrown out of the faceoff dot floating around, I don’t believe this counts “against” the person being thrown out of the draw which puts the second faceoff taker at a significant disadvantage. I don’t know for sure, just thinking out loud, but our faceoffs overall suck looking at those stats and overall team percentage.
 
Wheatens said:
It is difficult right, because one of the most translatable skills when entering the NHL is driving the net soon after gaining the zone and it can provide some success. The two goals scored by Leo's line against the Habs yesterday involved Leo getting to the net. On the first one he went deep to the corner carrying the puck in, passed up to Zelly at the point and then went to the net. The play started breaking down and Leo skated early into a good position near the wall, subsequently he gained control of the puck before the Habs could escape and passed quickly to McT below the goal. Again Leo went to the net front, and Mct joined him there after passing to Killorn. For the second goal the puck left the Habs zone and Leo skated back to retrieve it, he turned back towards the o zone and quickly made long pass through the neutral zone to Killorn near the blue line. Leo made a bee line for the net front, and started screening/causing chaos. So there can be positives taken by Leo learning how and when to drive to the net. However when looking at the entirety of the season one could say that it has not worked very often. I found some data that states the Ducks have scored 24 tipped/deflected goals, Leo has scored 5 of those. On the whole, I think using Leo as a net front presence is very uninspired, but ties into how Cronin keeps mentioning just getting shots on net. I just hope that at some point Leo is taught/instructed/allowed to move off the net front to find space and support play before the Ducks start to lose control of the puck. Or perhaps not go to the net at all and hone proficiency in different areas of the o zone.
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In a way, it's similar to Mac. Mac's got soft, quick hands and a booming shot. He's one of the few that can pot severe angle shots on the PP, but PP coach Clune loves putting Mac in front of the net. We've seen recently that Mac can snipe on break aways, but also when crashing the net, he has quick processing with his soft hands to maneuver around a goalie to pot goals.

We're pigeon-holing our offensive players to play only one way instead of having a variety of ways to score. Mac helped Vatrano and Strome score a lot of goals in transition than dump & chance. Why Cronin moved Mac away from Vatrano and Strome to make Strome a center feels derelict to the youth growth of playing center, either for Mac or Zegras or both!
 
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Hockey Duckie said:
In a way, it's similar to Mac. Mac's got soft, quick hands and a booming shot. He's one of the few that can pot severe angle shots on the PP, but PP coach Clune loves putting Mac in front of the net. We've seen recently that Mac can snipe on break aways, but also when crashing the net, he has quick processing with his soft hands to maneuver around a goalie to pot goals.

We're pigeon-holing our offensive players to play only one way instead of having a variety of ways to score. Mac helped Vatrano and Strome score a lot of goals in transition than dump & chance. Why Cronin moved Mac away from Vatrano and Strome to make Strome a center feels derelict to the youth growth of playing center, either for Mac or Zegras or both!
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Hockey Duckie said:
In a way, it's similar to Mac. Mac's got soft, quick hands and a booming shot. He's one of the few that can pot severe angle shots on the PP, but PP coach Clune loves putting Mac in front of the net. We've seen recently that Mac can snipe on break aways, but also when crashing the net, he has quick processing with his soft hands to maneuver around a goalie to pot goals.

We're pigeon-holing our offensive players to play only one way instead of having a variety of ways to score. Mac helped Vatrano and Strome score a lot of goals in transition than dump & chance. Why Cronin moved Mac away from Vatrano and Strome to make Strome a center feels derelict to the youth growth of playing center, either for Mac or Zegras or both!
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To be fair, that line went ice cold, with McTavish struggling in most aspects of his play after that hot streak to start the season. His health was also a constant issue last year.
 
Ducks DVM said:
To be fair, that line went ice cold, with McTavish struggling in most aspects of his play after that hot streak to start the season. His health was also a constant issue last year.
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I think that line went cold whenever Mac was playing hurt. Remember, playing through injuries was one of the most important cultures that Verbeek wanted from his youth. Minty and Carlsson also attested to playing through injuries, which was the first time they've done that in their whole career, in one of the official Ducks' podcast that also included Zellweger, iirc.
 
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Yesterday’s game…



I hope Cronin keeps them together. They have looked very good together in the few games, and are producing.
 
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