GDT: Game 3 : Rookie Faceoff - Ducks vs LA - 12:30pm PT (If your boss catches you streaming tell them Wild Wing said it was ok)

[Hockey Duckie]

i feel like this was the mindset when we had montour, theo, vatanen and we ultimately only get Rico out of them lol. maybe with Pat it's different, but I rather the team make an attempt at drafting and actually developing quality forwards instead of hoping we can trade for them.

Anaheim never stopped drafting for top-6F. Under Murray's tenure before the 2018-19 season, Anaheim missed the playoffs twice in a decade, in 2009-10 and 2011-12. It's difficult finding top-6 talent when you're not drafting in the top-10 often.

..... 2012: 6th overall, D Lindholm
2014: 10th overall, LW Nick Ritchie (did not meet expectations)
2019: 9th overall, C Zegras
..... 2020: 6th overall, D Drysdale
2021: 3rd overall, C McTavish
..... 2022: 10th overall, D Mintyukov
2023: 2nd overall, C Carlsson

We haven't had a lot success and luck drafting forwards beyond the top-10. Oddly enough, we have had great success and luck in drafting defensemen and goalies.

Spoiler: The in-depth reasoning that we never did stop drafting for top-6 forwards

Because Anaheim was good at drafting, they were able to trade C Bonino, D Sbisa, and a Ducks' 2014 first round pick (24th overall) for C Kesler. In 2013-14, youth defensemen Fowler, Lindholm, and Vatanen were playing with the NHL club. Manson and Theodore were already drafted. Anaheim owned two 1st rd picks in 2014, the 10th overall (OTT for Bobby Ryan) and the 24th overall (their own pick). With the 2014 10th overall pick, Anaheim drafted power forward Nick Ritchie.

In 2016, Anaheim had two first round picks. At 24th overall, they drafted goal scoring power forward Max Jones. At 30th overall, they took a chance with C Sam Steel.

In 2016-17, we traded a condition 2nd round pick for top-6F Patrick Eaves. That 2nd round pick would be a first round pick if we reached the Western Conference series. Eaves was a success, scoring 11g + 3a in only 20 regular season games. His playoffs got cut short due to injury, earning 2g + 2a in 7 games.

Vegas' expansion draft was in 2017. Theodore was traded away for a cap dump in Stoner. Anaheim was going to lose one of its young defense as VGK did tweet about it. No escaping it, unfortunately.

For the 2017 draft, the Ducks found potential top-6F in Max Comtois in the 2nd round.

Injuries and health problems hit the Ducks hard in the 2017-18 season, especially with Eaves and Kesler. Injuries again hit harder in 2018-19, affecting Perry while Eaves and Kelser continued their health problems. That's when the team went rebuild mode and moved D Monty at the TDL.

The org bought out Perry during the 2019 summer and did another set of TDL moves for 2019-20 season.

In 2023, we can see that tanking after the 2018-19 TDL landed us in a position to draft C Zegras at 9th overall. The rebuild also netted us McTavish at 3rd overall in 2021 and the reset rebuild got us Carlsson at 2nd overall in the 2023 draft. Tack on the development of 2015, 5th round pick Terry, then Anaheim is in a far better forward situation than the previous era, provided all four forwards reach their high potentials. We might end up with another top-10 pick in the next draft and it could be a forward.

Under GM Murray, he would swing for the fences with his late, first round picks on forwards: RW Palmieri, RW Etem, C Rakell (changed to RW), LW Jones, C Steel, C Lundestrum, LW Tracey, and RW Perreault.

For GM Verbeek, his late first round and early 2nd round picks have been defensive forwards: C Gaucher and LW Myatovic.

We could have some hidden gems after Gaucher and Myatovic, but that might take a few years to develop.

 

[Sean Garrity]

Uhm, if you say so?
Would have liked to see him with Gaucher and Caulfield (who didn't get anything going for large parts but Terrance was still outstanding) or on the 4th line and I'm pretty sure Pitre doesn't get mentioned a lot by the announcers.

I only watched the 1st and 3rd game, but in game one Pitre was a nuisance, was everywhere and I think had a shorty. He was extremely disruptive and I think the end game for him is exactly what you described, just playing third fiddle to two superior talents on a line. He’s the Kunitz.

 

[All Mighty]

I only watched the 1st and 3rd game, but in game one Pitre was a nuisance, was everywhere and I think had a shorty. He was extremely disruptive and I think the end game for him is exactly what you described, just playing third fiddle to two superior talents on a line. He’s the Kunitz.

He also caused this turnover in the 3rd game.

 

[cheesymc]

Pitre, Terrance, LaCombe, and Luneau all made big jumps in my personal rankings after this tourney. Caulfield too, to a lesser extent. I didn't think Minty or Zell had very good showings at all.

You’re brave. I was thinking about mentioning that too about Minty and Zell, but a lot of folks here expect these 19 and 20 year olds jump straight into the NHL. Both aren’t close to being ready and have shown inconsistent positioning and poor decision making in forcing plays and turning the puck over. Offensively they show great skating and skill but they need much more defensive development.

*mod edit*