Around the League 2021-22 Part 2

[FiveHoleTickler]

I still think the original Vegas model is what we need to kind of follow... just better and stick to it. They got caught up in the start power draw and got away from what made them successful. They could roll 4 lines and 3 pairs and just came at you every shift all game. Ducks will never win a high pick where there's a McDavid or Matthews level player and getting them in free agency will cripple the cap. Getting another Getzlaf/Perry or a Kucherov level player later in the draft is rare too.

Ducks have the foundation to roll 4 lines and 3 pairs that can give other teams fits. Z/McTavish/Lundestrom/Gaucher/Groulx is solid down the middle, Dry/Zell/Minty could be 3 guys that anchor pairs, and then Gibby and Dostal in net. If the Ducks can create two low end 1st/ high end 2nd lines around Z/McTavish/Terry and 2 low end 2nd/high end 3rd lines and 3 pairs that can play 20 minutes a night, that's a better version of that original Vegas team (I think they'll be better down the middle and on D). Just need a coach that can get them to play every night and has a system that takes advantage of fresher players.

We just need to stay away from alienating players/staff and stick to a plan rather than go after every new shiny toy on the market with no plan beyond it.

That remains to be seen. We don't know how McTavish, Gauncher, Groulx, Zell, Minty, Dostal, and to a lesser extent Zegras, Drysdale and Lundestrom will pan out. There's a wide range of variables that should be considered before any model is pursued.

For example, it's possible that Gauncher, Groulx, and Zell might not cut it and turn out as busts. It's also possible Zegras pots 90+ points next season, McTavish scores 30 goals as a rookie, and Drysdale takes a huge step defensively while putting up 50+ points consistently. There's a litany of scenarios that can materialize over the next few seasons.

It's way too early to say this team already has the foundation to 4 lines and 3 pairs that can give other teams fits.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I still think the original Vegas model is what we need to kind of follow... just better and stick to it. They got caught up in the start power draw and got away from what made them successful. They could roll 4 lines and 3 pairs and just came at you every shift all game. Ducks will never win a high pick where there's a McDavid or Matthews level player and getting them in free agency will cripple the cap. Getting another Getzlaf/Perry or a Kucherov level player later in the draft is rare too.

Ducks have the foundation to roll 4 lines and 3 pairs that can give other teams fits. Z/McTavish/Lundestrom/Gaucher/Groulx is solid down the middle, Dry/Zell/Minty could be 3 guys that anchor pairs, and then Gibby and Dostal in net. If the Ducks can create two low end 1st/ high end 2nd lines around Z/McTavish/Terry and 2 low end 2nd/high end 3rd lines and 3 pairs that can play 20 minutes a night, that's a better version of that original Vegas team (I think they'll be better down the middle and on D). Just need a coach that can get them to play every night and has a system that takes advantage of fresher players.

We just need to stay away from alienating players/staff and stick to a plan rather than go after every new shiny toy on the market with no plan beyond it.

Anaheim has been kinda like that under Murray until the old core couldn't play a lot sooner than expected and forced the youth group to the NHL too soon. Before the rebuild (2018-19 at the TDL), the team went to the playoffs 8 out of 10 seasons, reaching the conference finals twice.

We have sucked at drafting forwards for a long while, but great at drafting defensemen until we stopped doing it for three draft seasons (2016-2018). Since then, we have been doing a balanced draft and building that depth for the future. The difference between Murray and Verbeek, IMO, is dealing with the cap constraints now vs later. Murray would have probably kept the UFA's and added more NHL talent. Verbeek wanted a clean slate to have far better control of the cap into the near future. Yet both want to build through the draft and go from there.

I believe the Ducks have the foundation to roll 4 lines and 3 pairs in about two to three years, but a lot of that hinges on signing the NCAA guys LaCombe and Thrun. They also have a lot of assets to acquire top talent if needed, just like Murray did in acquiring Kesler and Rico. I think we got our superstars in Terry, Zegras, and McTavish. Terry just took a long while simmering before coming to a boil.

Potential Lineup in 2024-25

Strome - Zegras - Terry​

Tracey - McTavish - Perreault​

Vatrano - Lundy - Lopina​

Regenda - Groulx - xxx​

​

Fowler - Helleson​

Thrun - Drysdale​

LaCombe - Zellweger​

Players we can take our time to develop:

Forwards: Guacher, Pastujov, Colangelo​

Defense: Minty, Moore, Luneau, Hinds, and Warren​

note: I think Minty's defense needs developing. We need him to be a two-D that could also help kill penalties.​

If we keep Klingberg...

Thrun- Klingberg​

Fowler-Helleson​

LaCombe-Drysdale​

And Zellweger can continue to physical development in the AHL.

As for coaching. Eakins has grown on me quite a bit. With talent, he's proven he can win often. The problem was not having talent around often. I do like his offensive scheme and plays into a lot of our drafted offensive/two-way defensemen in Drysdale, Zellweger, Minty, LaCombe, Thrun, Moore, and Luneau. Our assistant coaches this year proved very worthy of praise when they had the horses to run the special teams.

It all boils down to talent quantity and depth. Right now, we're still building that NHL talent depth and we're still an enigma with our current NHL group.

As long as PV doesn't repeat his 2021-22 TDL stuff, we should be good. Not talking to Manson's agent at all doesn't sit right with me. Leaving the youth finesse exposed without a watchdog is still a sore spot since we haven't addressed since he jettisoned two of our known pugilists in Manson and Des. Aside from that, his long term plan looks to be going okay.

 

[lwvs84]

Anaheim has been kinda like that under Murray until the old core couldn't play a lot sooner than expected and forced the youth group to the NHL too soon. Before the rebuild (2018-19 at the TDL), the team went to the playoffs 8 out of 10 seasons, reaching the conference finals twice.

We have sucked at drafting forwards for a long while, but great at drafting defensemen until we stopped doing it for three draft seasons (2016-2018). Since then, we have been doing a balanced draft and building that depth for the future. The difference between Murray and Verbeek, IMO, is dealing with the cap constraints now vs later. Murray would have probably kept the UFA's and added more NHL talent. Verbeek wanted a clean slate to have far better control of the cap into the near future. Yet both want to build through the draft and go from there.

I believe the Ducks have the foundation to roll 4 lines and 3 pairs in about two to three years, but a lot of that hinges on signing the NCAA guys LaCombe and Thrun. They also have a lot of assets to acquire top talent if needed, just like Murray did in acquiring Kesler and Rico. I think we got our superstars in Terry, Zegras, and McTavish. Terry just took a long while simmering before coming to a boil.

Potential Lineup in 2024-25

Strome - Zegras - Terry​

Tracey - McTavish - Perreault​

Vatrano - Lundy - Lopina​

Regenda - Groulx - xxx​

​

Fowler - Helleson​

Thrun - Drysdale​

LaCombe - Zellweger​

Players we can take our time to develop:

Forwards: Guacher, Pastujov, Colangelo​

Defense: Minty, Moore, Luneau, Hinds, and Warren​

note: I think Minty's defense needs developing. We need him to be a two-D that could also help kill penalties.​

If we keep Klingberg...

Thrun- Klingberg​

Fowler-Helleson​

LaCombe-Drysdale​

And Zellweger can continue to physical development in the AHL.

As for coaching. Eakins has grown on me quite a bit. With talent, he's proven he can win often. The problem was not having talent around often. I do like his offensive scheme and plays into a lot of our drafted offensive/two-way defensemen in Drysdale, Zellweger, Minty, LaCombe, Thrun, Moore, and Luneau. Our assistant coaches this year proved very worthy of praise when they had the horses to run the special teams.

It all boils down to talent quantity and depth. Right now, we're still building that NHL talent depth and we're still an enigma with our current NHL group.

As long as PV doesn't repeat his 2021-22 TDL stuff, we should be good. Not talking to Manson's agent at all doesn't sit right with me. Leaving the youth finesse exposed without a watchdog is still a sore spot since we haven't addressed since he jettisoned two of our known pugilists in Manson and Des. Aside from that, his long term plan looks to be going okay.

Yeah, I haven't plugged in players specifically to positions (outside of Z/McTavish/Lundy as top 3 centers and Terry as the best RW) long term, but Ducks only need about half their D to hit REALISTIC potential. If one guy breaks out and becomes a star, this team will be stacked. Same with forwards, it would take horrible luck/development to not have any impact players out of our prospects (top 6 forwards, top 3 D). Or I should say youth, not prospects... I count Z and Dry in that group.

I still have hope a little hope that Comtois will be a Rakell level impact forward (in that he'll be a good 3rd wheel on a top 6, but never be the driving force). That might be because I'm a teacher and I saw how some of the kids/younger staff responded to Covid ending and wanting to go out and party (hell, some of the older staff). I'm willing to give Comtois a pass for last year and see if he lives up to his word on coming back in shape.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Yeah, I haven't plugged in players specifically to positions (outside of Z/McTavish/Lundy as top 3 centers and Terry as the best RW) long term, but Ducks only need about half their D to hit REALISTIC potential. If one guy breaks out and becomes a star, this team will be stacked. Same with forwards, it would take horrible luck/development to not have any impact players out of our prospects (top 6 forwards, top 3 D). Or I should say youth, not prospects... I count Z and Dry in that group.

I still have hope a little hope that Comtois will be a Rakell level impact forward (in that he'll be a good 3rd wheel on a top 6, but never be the driving force). That might be because I'm a teacher and I saw how some of the kids/younger staff responded to Covid ending and wanting to go out and party (hell, some of the older staff). I'm willing to give Comtois a pass for last year and see if he lives up to his word on coming back in shape.

Yeah, I didn't include Comtois or Jones. Both had lost years last year, but both do bring that PF element (well Comtois starting bringing it later into the season) that the Ducks sorely need in a hurry. They were the depth we needed last year at the forward spots.

I just did that roster thing to show the possibility of rolling 4-3, supporting your notion that we have a foundation for it. We have a lot of youth talent accrued and we don't know how many will pan out. But if half do, then we're gold. As for star potential outside the top-10 selections, I remember Murray or Madden talking highly about Zellweger having that PP1 QB talent for the NHL and his stock is top-10 talent right now. It feels like we're struck gold in this area b/c Minty could also be a PP1 QB.

In two to three years, I think we've accrued enough assets that we can start trading for top talent.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Would not be surprised to see Lindholm have a career year in Boston reaching 40+ points. His career high is 37 and based on how he looked in Boston and the way scoring is up im the league I see him reaching 40 to 42 points.

It just sucked for him he played for the Ducks when scoring started going way up league wide as the Ducks became bad.

 

[lwvs84]

Yeah, I didn't include Comtois or Jones. Both had lost years last year, but both do bring that PF element (well Comtois starting bringing it later into the season) that the Ducks sorely need in a hurry. They were the depth we needed last year at the forward spots.

I just did that roster thing to show the possibility of rolling 4-3, supporting your notion that we have a foundation for it. We have a lot of youth talent accrued and we don't know how many will pan out. But if half do, then we're gold. As for star potential outside the top-10 selections, I remember Murray or Madden talking highly about Zellweger having that PP1 QB talent for the NHL and his stock is top-10 talent right now. It feels like we're struck gold in this area b/c Minty could also be a PP1 QB.

In two to three years, I think we've accrued enough assets that we can start trading for top talent.

This team will definitely be fun in a couple years and to follow until then... San Diego's defense could see 5 new additions alone before playoffs. I want to see what Zell, Minty, Hinds, and (hopefully) Thrun and LaCombe can do at the AHL level. I kind of hope they put together a Zell-Hell pair

 

[Deuce22]

Yeah, I haven't plugged in players specifically to positions (outside of Z/McTavish/Lundy as top 3 centers and Terry as the best RW) long term, but Ducks only need about half their D to hit REALISTIC potential. If one guy breaks out and becomes a star, this team will be stacked. Same with forwards, it would take horrible luck/development to not have any impact players out of our prospects (top 6 forwards, top 3 D). Or I should say youth, not prospects... I count Z and Dry in that group.

I still have hope a little hope that Comtois will be a Rakell level impact forward (in that he'll be a good 3rd wheel on a top 6, but never be the driving force). That might be because I'm a teacher and I saw how some of the kids/younger staff responded to Covid ending and wanting to go out and party (hell, some of the older staff). I'm willing to give Comtois a pass for last year and see if he lives up to his word on coming back in shape.

Not sure I'm willing to be that forgiving of Comtois' conditioning, but it's kind of been ignored that he had a serious injury and COVID last year, as well. BTW, as a retired teacher myself, respect and gratitude to you for what you are doing.

 

[Paul4587]

Would not be surprised to see Lindholm have a career year in Boston reaching 40+ points. His career high is 37 and based on how he looked in Boston and the way scoring is up im the league I see him reaching 40 to 42 points.

It just sucked for him he played for the Ducks when scoring started going way up league wide as the Ducks became bad.

Lindholm definitely never hit 37 points as a career high, I think you’re getting him mixed up with Manson. Lindholms offensive game never really evolved from his sophomore season.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Lindholm definitely never hit 37 points as a career high, I think you’re getting him mixed up with Manson. Lindholms offensive game never really evolved from his sophomore season.

So I was off by 3 points. 34 points in his 2nd season.
His best season offensively was actually his 5th season 2017-18 where he had 31 points in 69 games (incl 13 goals).
After that the Ducks became a really bad team and he never reached 30+ points again.

His production in Boston in the regular season was good. His S% last year was below his career norm.
Could see him hit 40 points in Boston. Its not a stretch, he won't be on a miserable team.

 

[bsu]

If he healthy, I'd bet on him hitting 40.

 

[Static]

 

[Terry Yake]

nvm

 

[Terry Yake]

the downward spiral continues for vegas

 

[Anaheim4ever]

the downward spiral continues for vegas

Eichel would be smart to Not sign any extension with Vegas.

 

[Kalv]

Eichel would be smart to Not sign any extension with Vegas.

There is quite the term left for him

 

[WhatTheDuck]

 

[pbgoalie]

Eichel would be smart to Not sign any extension with Vegas.

Hell. They’re praying he can play to his potential for his current contract.

 

[Terry Yake]

kadri to CGY

 

[Anaheim4ever]

That sucks, that means facing Kadri more and he might injure one of the softer Ducks.
So what are the Isles gonna do ? Blow it up ?

 

[DuckDuckGetz]

Got into an argument with some fans after I suggested that Kent Johnson's vision wasn't particularly close to Zegras'.

Am I being a homer here?

 

[Terry Yake]

Got into an argument with some fans after I suggested that Kent Johnson's vision wasn't particularly close to Zegras'.

Am I being a homer here?

jackets fans hate zegras after that game last season when he celebrated his shootout goal

 

[Kalv]

Got into an argument with some fans after I suggested that Kent Johnson's vision wasn't particularly close to Zegras'.

Am I being a homer here?

I'm a big fan of Johnson but I don't see whats wrong woth your statement. Johnson is very good but with either simple advancing plays or slick shooting moves. Passing is not necessarilly his strenght, albeit he's really good at it obviously.

The other side is that Z is actually not using his vision that much in the NHL. Instead he learned to be slick with shootin and some moves. But I don't recall him Getzlafing it out on the ice much.
In his junior career tho... well he showed he can pass it let's leave it at that

 

[Goose of Reason]

Got into an argument with some fans after I suggested that Kent Johnson's vision wasn't particularly close to Zegras'.

Am I being a homer here?

Yeah that's not controversial, Johnson plays like Zegras but absolutely isn't as high end of a playmaker as Z. Sounds like those people think Z is all Michigan's when he's already an elite scoring chance generator even if he's not doing anything particularly nuts.

 

[c4rcy]

Got into an argument with some fans after I suggested that Kent Johnson's vision wasn't particularly close to Zegras'.

Am I being a homer here?

Not at all - after watching Johnson in the WJC this far - he doesn't look nearly as dynamic and precise as Z does. He's still developing but I think at comparable ages, Z was the better player.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

Poor man's version of Zegras is still a great player at #5 for Blue Jackets.