Speculation: 2025 Trade/Free Agency Thread (TDL is March 7th)

[gilfaizon]

Guess not. I remember him always being out phyisicalled by a large magain in the getzlaf and Kesler days

Yeah he's smaller in stature than both of them. He's still a no nonsense, hard nosed forward. Could be a great example for some of our guys up front, honestly.

I'm trying to be realistic on what type of top 6 we can acquire. He may not even be that realistic.

 

[AngelDuck]

I disagree with the philosophy that we need to be targeting hard nosed players only. I think we’ll have enough of that and can add some sandpaper lower in the lineup

We need talent in our top 6, man. Ehlers would be a massive addition

You can’t wait around all day looking for the next Brady Tkachuk because the stars might never align and you might never find that guy.
At some point in his tenure Verbeek is just going to have to look to get better

 

[DavidBL]

So the question I have, if we add a top 6 player on the roster. Colangelo is starting to look like a real player, do we demote him to 4rw? It certainly is nice depth there. Then Senneke,it will be interesting to see how he's managed. Historically 3rd overalls are in the NHL by D+2. I am still advocating adding but I also don't want a minor upgrade. I think we need to swing for the fences. I think Marner actually fits our needs more than Rantanen. Yes he's smaller, but he's the same caliber offensively, but he actually is a good PK guy. A true power killer that verbeek has talked about in the past.

 

[SmokeyDuck]

So the question I have, if we add a top 6 player on the roster. Colangelo is starting to look like a real player, do we demote him to 4rw? It certainly is nice depth there. Then Senneke,it will be interesting to see how he's managed. Historically 3rd overalls are in the NHL by D+2. I am still advocating adding but I also don't want a minor upgrade. I think we need to swing for the fences. I think Marner actually fits our needs more than Rantanen. Yes he's smaller, but he's the same caliber offensively, but he actually is a good PK guy. A true power killer that verbeek has talked about in the past.

Colangelo at least plays a bottom six compatible style. We can stash him there plus special teams if we get a top six forward in free agency.

 

[lwvs84]

So the question I have, if we add a top 6 player on the roster. Colangelo is starting to look like a real player, do we demote him to 4rw? It certainly is nice depth there. Then Senneke,it will be interesting to see how he's managed. Historically 3rd overalls are in the NHL by D+2. I am still advocating adding but I also don't want a minor upgrade. I think we need to swing for the fences. I think Marner actually fits our needs more than Rantanen. Yes he's smaller, but he's the same caliber offensively, but he actually is a good PK guy. A true power killer that verbeek has talked about in the past.

If we add, let's say Marner (as a placeholder/example) we could run something like:
Vatrano McTavish Terry
Killorn Carlsson Marner
Gauthier Zegras Colangelo

This is assuming they want to keep Killorn with Carlsson still. It sounded like there was interest in Strome from other teams. Colangelo is a net front guy, so when Sennecke is ready he might be able to switch wings and play on the left in Killorn's spot, Killorn will probably be declining and in the last year of his contract by the time Sennecke is up full time.

 

[DavidBL]

If we add, let's say Marner (as a placeholder/example) we could run something like:
Vatrano McTavish Terry
Killorn Carlsson Marner
Gauthier Zegras Colangelo

This is assuming they want to keep Killorn with Carlsson still. It sounded like there was interest in Strome from other teams. Colangelo is a net front guy, so when Sennecke is ready he might be able to switch wings and play on the left in Killorn's spot, Killorn will probably be declining and in the last year of his contract by the time Sennecke is up full time.

Strome is an interesting case, between, him, Vatrano and now Trouba we have 3 good friends and the vets that seem to be leading the team. I'm curious to see how he's handled. He's still got 2 more years and honestly I'd like to see Z take his center spot. I'm curious on what the thought process of moving him back to center this year was.

 

[lwvs84]

Because of the cap space, the Ducks have options for the next 2 years. If they want to keep all 3 together, they can run 4 good lines.

If Sennecke and "Marner" make it, go with something like:
Colangelo McTavish Terry
Gauthier Carlsson Marner
Vatrano Zegras Sennecke
Killorn Strome ???

It's an expensive 4th line, but is probably closer to a 3rd line. Or trade Killorn retained to a contender.

 

[robbieboy3686]

Because of the cap space, the Ducks have options for the next 2 years. If they want to keep all 3 together, they can run 4 good lines.

If Sennecke and "Marner" make it, go with something like:
Colangelo McTavish Terry
Gauthier Carlsson Marner
Vatrano Zegras Sennecke
Killorn Strome ???

It's an expensive 4th line, but is probably closer to a 3rd line. Or trade Killorn retained to a contender.

Pretty sure Gaucher is ready to be a duck next season . He would definitely fill that 4th line spot, and when he’s ready he becomes the center on that line and that allows strome to maybe concentrate more on scoring and killed that more 2 way game.

 

[DavidBL]

Because of the cap space, the Ducks have options for the next 2 years. If they want to keep all 3 together, they can run 4 good lines.

If Sennecke and "Marner" make it, go with something like:
Colangelo McTavish Terry
Gauthier Carlsson Marner
Vatrano Zegras Sennecke
Killorn Strome ???

It's an expensive 4th line, but is probably closer to a 3rd line. Or trade Killorn retained to a contender.

I think that may be high in the lineup for colangelo. I'd expect killorn moves up, lundestrom takes the LW and Colengo makes 4rw, in that scenario.

 

[robbieboy3686]

I think that may be high in the lineup for colangelo. I'd expect killorn moves up, lundestrom takes the LW and Colengo makes 4rw, in that scenario.

I would be pretty surprised if we resign lundy

 

[AngelDuck]

Genuinely though, how much of that is related to the entire team's offense being comically bad?

Lundestrom (yes even the guy who already can't do offense is snakebit) and Leason are shooting pretty far below their career percentages this season. Harkins is also pretty low, though he's roughly in line with his career percentage. (Johnston has the best percentage of the four but I don't think his one goal on nine shots is a big argument in his favor.) Other than him though, by fourth line standards they are generating some stuff, just not finishing. It's one thing if it's just them, but this has been a common complaint about a lot more than the fourth line this season, under a coach who explicitly thinks offense is a thing that "will just happen." So there's that.

There's also McGinn, the one guy who was shooting about on pace with where you'd expect him to be. His finishing is presumably not relevant going forward, but his goals probably are relevant to the playmaking ability of his linemates. If you include him, the fourth liners have provided 16 of the team's 162 goals. (If anyone wants to be real depressed, the power play has provided 21.) In any case, getting nearly 10% of your goals from your fourth liners doesn't sound that unreasonable to me? Are there expected splits on that?

Like I'm not saying there are no improvements to be made on the fourth line, obviously there are. (Even now they could probably be improved just by keeping Colangelo up and putting Fabbri at 4LW when/if he comes back, or bringing up Nesterenko if the Gulls' playoff run fizzles. I like Harkins' motor but there's probably not much more production to get out of him. And firing Johnston into the sun would be a general improvement.) But I do think they're getting an outsized amount of grief recently, and likely suffering from the same coaching issues as everyone else.

I’m not sure the answer to your question about a reasonable percentage of overall team goals we should expect out of our 4th line and I do agree that the coaching in general has made everything appear worse.

However, we can’t run it back with Harkins and Johnston as the 4LW( and sometimes both of them in the lineup at the same time). Leason and Lundestrom are probably fine although they can be upgraded. They’re expendable. Maybe you bring them back, or maybe you look to also get better there. We’ll see.


For the rest of the season, I’d like to see a 4th line of Nesterenko-Lundestrom-Leason. We really need to find out what we have with Nesterenko before he becomes waiver fodder. I think there’s some skill and potential there in a bottom 6 role.

I personally don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect 30-ish goals out of our 4th line next year. The reality is our top 9 is going to be mediocre at best next year unless the young guys take a big step forward (same thing we said last offseason), so we have to look to get more production out of the 4th line IMO. It’s a pretty easy thing to address too

 

[duckpuck]

Killorn needs to be in the bottom six for the ducks to improve goal scoring.

 

[lwvs84]

I think that may be high in the lineup for colangelo. I'd expect killorn moves up, lundestrom takes the LW and Colengo makes 4rw, in that scenario.

In that scenario, there would probably be a real 4th line, but the top 3 are are interchangeable. Whoever is clicking, give them more minutes. He's not necessarily on the 1st line. But it gives each line a vet (counting Terry as a vet) and 2 kids. If you want to fill the 4th line internally, Gaucher is probably ready. If it doesn’t work, Killorn can be moved up... but right now, Colangelo seems to be in the right spot for players to shoot pucks in off him.

 

[AngelDuck]

Killorn needs to be in the bottom six for the ducks to improve goal scoring.

I’m thinking this too. Sign Ehlers:

McTavish-Carlsson-Terry
Gauthier-Zegras-Ehlers
Killorn-Strome-Vatrano

Only thing is it means Colangelo is either on the 4th line or AHL which is too bad IMO. But injuries happen

Im a fan of Alex Killorn but I’d definitely prefer him to be on the 3rd line considering he’s entering his age 36 season next year

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Killorn needs to be in the bottom six for the ducks to improve goal scoring.

Why focus only on one offensive forward when the rest of our top-9's offense have been neutered? It just might be a coaching thing than a player thing that could pay bigger dividends. But I wouldn't mind swapping Terry for Killorn for a 10-game test run.

 

[duckpuck]

Why focus only on one offensive forward when the rest of our top-9's offense have been neutered? It just might be a coaching thing than a player thing that could pay bigger dividends. But I wouldn't mind swapping Terry for Killorn for a 10-game test run.

I'm focusing on the guy who will be 36 at the start of next season, has lost at least a step (probably 2) and has never been a dynamic offensive player (though he did put up good numbers in his prime at TB which was a loaded team). My point is that, irrespective of coaching (which is a legitimate but separate issue), that type of player should be in the bottom 6 on an average or better team.

Killorn playing in the top 6 is a sign the ducks roster is lacking it quality forwards. Hopefully that changes this offseason.

 

[duckpuck]

I’m thinking this too. Sign Ehlers:

McTavish-Carlsson-Terry
Gauthier-Zegras-Ehlers
Killorn-Strome-Vatrano

Only thing is it means Colangelo is either on the 4th line or AHL which is too bad IMO. But injuries happen

Im a fan of Alex Killorn but I’d definitely prefer him to be on the 3rd line considering he’s entering his age 36 season next year

Colangelo on a fourth line would be fine as long as Johnston isn't there to neuter the line. With his contract, running 2 more years Killorn could eventually finish his career on the 4th line.

 

[DuckRogers10]

I’m thinking this too. Sign Ehlers:

McTavish-Carlsson-Terry
Gauthier-Zegras-Ehlers
Killorn-Strome-Vatrano

Only thing is it means Colangelo is either on the 4th line or AHL which is too bad IMO. But injuries happen

Im a fan of Alex Killorn but I’d definitely prefer him to be on the 3rd line considering he’s entering his age 36 season next year

I'd go with Colangelo-Gaucher-Nesterenko for the 4th line unless we have better options in free agency this summer.

 

[tomd]

Other than size I’m not sure what Colangelo brings to a 4th line role. I don’t see the forechecking and tenacity needed to succeed in that role. He’s a scorer and I think he needs to be groomed for a middle six / PP role .