It's clear your are letting your emotions lose sight of comprehension. I called out Bob's negatives, but you seem to lack comprehension that I called it out. You should check yo self b/c it looks like you've already wrecked yo self.
There must be some history revisionist history here. Before the collapse of Kesler, Eaves, and Perry, Bob took the Ducks to the playoffs 8 out of 10 years, including five consecutive Pacific division titles and two WCF appearances. What set back was there during those times? You can lie to yourself all you want, but there wasn't any setback there. The setback happened when both Kesler and Eaves' health occurred in the same season, but we were still able to make the playoffs in 2017-18. Bob tried to give Carlyle more offense and traded away prospect D Pettersson for F Sprong. It just didn't matter b/c we couldn't overcome the lack of missing for 2018-19 with Perry added to the injury list to Kesler and Eaves. That's when Murray took over as interim head coach and decided to rebuild the team starting at the 2018-19 TDL, trading away D Monty for prospect D Guhle and a 2019 first round pick, turning out to be Tracey.
Since the rebuild started, here what Bob got for notable prospects
2019
9th overall, C Zegras (already in NHL and an offensive wizard)
29th, LW Tracey (in AHL)
39th, D LaCombe (intent to sign after NCAA season is over)
2020
6th, RD Drysdale (already in NHL)
27th, RW Perreault (in AHL)
67th, RD Moore (in NCAA... not yet signed, year 3 from draft)
2021
3rd, C McTavish (already in NHL, Ducks' top-4 scorer)
34th, LD Zellweger (CHL, signed)
66th, RW Pastujov (CHL, signed)
76th, LD Hinds (CHL, signed)
98th, C Lopina (AHL)
130th, LW Tschigerl (CHL, not signed)
148th, G Alexander (AHL/ECHL)
162nd, C Kukkonen (NCAA... not yet signed, year 2 from draft)
It's very odd to think there's only one way to build/rebuild an org. Verbeek chose the long way back to relevancy.
Under Murray, the Ducks took off to start the 2021-22 season to be atop the Pacific Division. Apparently, the org did have talent to get that high. In fact, when new GM Verbeek took over, the Ducks were still 3rd in the Pacific despite the many injuries after game 33. That would mean the Ducks are just missing talent depth, especially on defense.
Armed with pillars set up with Terry, Z, Lundy, and Drysdale along with both McTavish and Zellweger tearing up the CHL as well as having a top-5 farm team, Bob could have retained the UFA's and just added more talent via FA. The Kings became a playoff team by adding two top-6 forwards (FA and trade) and a vet D (FA) to their roster for 2021-22. Seattle and NJ did the same thing as the Kings did this past summer, both are primed for a playoff spot this year.
Now, with knowledge that Lindholm signed for $6.5 mil AAV for 8 years, he comes relatively cheap as a #1D. In four to five years, that $6;5 AVV won't be as detrimental to the cap as the cap space will be rising.
The other aspect of retaining the UFAs and adding talent from outside of the org is that most of the team knows Eakins' system. It's easier to teach a couple of new players to the system than over half the roster, which is what we're witnessing today.
Verbeek did state he expected the team to be close to or at .500 with his roster makeup. This should scare you as his pro scouting appears to have been misguided with his acquisitions.
Let's bring this back to success. Before going into rebuild mode, Murray took the Ducks to the playoffs 8 out of the 10 years. The Twins are no longer superstars and Anaheim simply ran out of top end prospects due to rarely picking in the top 10, let alone the top-20. Before the rebuild (2018-19 TDL), Bob only had two top-10 picks in 6th overall Lindholm and 10th overall Ritchie. Now with the rebuild, Murray landed top pillars in Zegras, Drysdale, and McTavish.
The thing about Murray is he tinkers and pays things forward for the org. For example, 2009 first round pick Peter Holland was eventually traded and we found Kase. Kase had concussion issues and we traded him for D Andersson and a 1st round pick LW Tracey. Both Andersson and Tracey are in the AHL today, 14 years after Holland was drafted by Murray.
Verbeek is a rubric guy. PV has charts for term to age relationships that he abides by strictly. That implies Verbeek doesn't tinker and creativity is out the door. Verbeek doesn't want to deal with cap crunch, which is why he's loading up on picks and prospects to help mitigate future cap concerns. I've accepted that since last year's TDL. Doing this way means build through the draft and that will take a long time.
