Something happened in November or December that flipped the switch. LaCombe didn't look comfortable at all for those first few games. Before then I would have been a fan of doing that for Laine.
Now? Jackson's been sustaining this for so long that he's firmly in the "next core" conversation.
A lot of people miss out on context.
2023-24 LaCombe's Rookie Season
LaCombe progressed well in his rookie season. Notice his scoring rate improved and his +/- reduced as the season went along after his 14 games playing RD1 from the start of the game. His highest scoring rate was 0.36 to end the season splits. This already proved that LaCombe's offense already started budding in his rookie year as opposed to coming out of nowhere.
The unexpected part was being pushed to play RD1 with Fowler. Many posters were glad to sacrifice LaCombe in order to preserve the development of Minty and Zell. The problem was the majority was so loud that they dismissed LaCombe progression that he outperformed Minty and Zell to close out the season. LaCombe finished with a +1 in the final 22 to 23 games while Minty and Zell finished with negative ratings. Also lost in the whole mix is that LaCombe started 56% of his EV shifts in the Dzone, while Minty and Zell had more favorable starts. That should make LaCombe's +1 rating more impressive.
LaCombe finished the season with a shot blocking rate of 1.82 blocks per game and a hit rate of 0.70 hits per game.
The way LaCombe improved throughout the season, especially set in a defensive role, should have made him part of the future core. Yet the loud majority loved to identify one LaCombe mistake and make it like he did it all the time. When Zell or Minty would do mistakes, it would be crickets from the loud majority that loved to hate on LaCombe. Essentially, the loud majority brainwashed the board into believing LaCombe was weak asset.
2023-24 Minty's Rookie season
Posters did not realize that Minty struggled when he was put into a top-4 after his first 20 games. The top-4 experiment ended after 20 games and Minty was relegated to the 3rd pairing again to regain confidence. It worked. Through injuries, Minty was promoted to the top pairing role with Gudas and Minty's game suffered. Afterwards, Minty was pushed down to the 2nd pair for seven games with LaCombe. With LaCombe, Minty's offense sprang back to life and wasn't exposed defensively. It was Minty's best performance game set of the season in a top-4 role! Finally, the org tried benched LaCombe in order to rotated Lindstrom into play with Minty in a top-4 role and it ended terrible for Minty as he incurred an injury in that game that ruled him out for the season.
In Minty's splits, we see it is LaCombe, playing RD, who improved Minty's game as a top-4 d-man. This could be called foreshadowing, but, again, many of the loud majority just omitted it from history.
2024-25 LaCombe's Sophomore Season
LaCombe looked great in pre-season until he got sick. Gudas and the team were raving about LaCombe in training camp. The first game of the season, LaCombe was taken off the roster due to an illness. That illness took him out for over a week and missed like four games. It took seven games for LaCombe to get back into hockey shape, game speed, and game feel. That was his training camp all over again. Once he got over the illness, the team eased him back into the lineup. (See ATOI in the chart below.)
From last year's splits, we see LaCombe constantly improving his scoring rate from 0.14 to 0.20 to 0.30 and, finally, to 0.36 ppg throughout the season. Going from 0.36 to 0.50 ppg rate looks like a normal progression for LaCombe. It's going from 0.50 to 0.75 that has become impressive.
The other impressive stat is that LaCombe is hitting above 1 hit per game this season. Last year, his hit rate was at 0.70. Big kudos to playing with Gudas this season to give him more confidence to play that way and allowed LaCombe to be free to rush offensively.
Now, here's the kicker, LaCombe tapped into his offense in his sophomore season, after playing at the WJC-20 and winning gold. LaCombe produced nearly at a ppg rate in the last year of his college career. It is proof that he can sustain scoring at a high rate throughout the whole season and through three contiguous college seasons. Also, his commitment to defense started in his first season in college with a -1 rating and finished 2nd in blocked shots for the team as a rookie coming from a high school level of play, not the USNTDP.
What makes LaCombe great at the NHL level is his skating, one of the reasons the Ducks nabbed the high schooler early in the draft. His college head coach summed it up best when LaCombe chose to go to Minny.
Minnesota coach Bob Motzko gave this scouting report on LaCombe, the 39th overall pick, to the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald newspaper a few days before the draft:
“The first thing is he’s just got tremendous skating ability and that’s been one of the real common denominators over the years. Whether you’re a young player coming in or you’ve got a little experience, the players that really have that extra special gear, the game comes quicker to them.”