Player Discussion Jackson LaCombe

[Deuce22]

LaCombe is blossoming right before our eyes. Last season he was shoehorned into a primarily defend role when paired with Fowler and we didn't see his offensive gifts very often. This year, he's free and attacking aggressively. When comparing his progress to Zellweger and Mintyukov, remember that he's 3 years older than those guys and played four years at U. of Minnesota.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

LaCombe is blossoming right before our eyes. Last season he was shoehorned into a primarily defend role when paired with Fowler and we didn't see his offensive gifts very often. This year, he's free and attacking aggressively. When comparing his progress to Zellweger and Mintyukov, remember that he's 3 years older than those guys and played four years at U. of Minnesota.

Yep.... Lacombe should be the more polished player right now.

Hopefully Mintyukov and Zellweger can continue to develop, and gain strength over the next couple years, and expand their own games.

If lacombe continues to play the way he has, and helleson continues to be a steady player when needed, it takes a lot of pressure off the younger players to have to do as much. Its unfortunate Gudas has been such a disappointment, but Lacombe playing with Gudas gives lacombe a bit more freedom to showcase his offensive instincts.

 

[70sSanO]

I always saw LaCombe as Lindholm light.

Hampus is much tougher to play against, but his one flaw is his lack of desire to become more offensive, which I know he has in him. Not sure if it is his nature and/or where the coaching has placed him, but that has kept him from being a #1.

LaCombe is faster and skates better. If he can keep improving on the defensive side and still be aggressive in the offensive zone, it will go a long way to a very good career.

John

 

[MMC]

 

[ZegrassyKnoll]

Last night he was Lacomakar

 

[Daz28]

A little too soon to add a 7 to his number, but he looked like he should have worn 27 last night. I've been as high on Jackson as anyone, so I'm really pleased to see it come to fruition.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

LaCombe is blossoming right before our eyes. Last season he was shoehorned into a primarily defend role when paired with Fowler and we didn't see his offensive gifts very often. This year, he's free and attacking aggressively. When comparing his progress to Zellweger and Mintyukov, remember that he's 3 years older than those guys and played four years at U. of Minnesota.

No. Your eyes and memory betray you again. Jackson wasn't shoehorned int a primarily defensive role with Fowler. He was a rookie forced up into a top pairing role due to injuries. In his first three games with Fowler last yerar, LaCombe scored 0g + 2a = 2 pts and a +1 rating. But he began to wear down until game 20 and LaCombe got put into a rotation between top pair to 3rd pair.

LaCombe started blossoming around mid-season. Cronin said he was the most improved player last year. I know you are allergic to stats, but here is how our young defenders ended their season last year, with all three playing mostly top-4 roles.

Ducks	Youth D	2023-24
Player	Game set	Games	G	A	Pts	PPG		+/-	Hits	Blocks	Comments
LaCombe	49 to 71	23	1	7	8	0.35		1	12	44	From Feb 19 to Apr 18
Minty	41 to 63	23	2	7	9	0.39		-9	29	22	from Feb 13 to Mar 30
Zell	5 to 26	22	2	6	8	0.36		-8	10	33	From Mar 1 to Apr 18

This year, LaCombe missed the first four games of the season due to sickness and I think he lost some weight because of it too. Gudas has commented how LaCombe's body looked stronger during pre-season. It took quite a few games for LaCombe to get back to pre-season level. In his first seven games, he went 0g + 1a = 1pt, a -6 rating, and ATOI of 16:47. For his last 16 games, he's scored 6g + 4a = 10 pts, a +7 rating, and ATOI of 19:44. The offense did coincide with Cronin slightly changing the system a bit, which the only thing I see is having his d-men become more aggressive in the Ozone. The biggest difference between LaCombe and the other d-men is he crashes the net like a power forward as well as forechecks like one.

BTW, I don't know why you praise LaCombe and then cut him down in the same post by negating his "blossoming" due to LaCombe being older than Minty and Zell. We get it. You still don't like LaCombe.

 

[Deuce22]

No. Your eyes and memory betray you again. Jackson wasn't shoehorned int a primarily defensive role with Fowler. He was a rookie forced up into a top pairing role due to injuries. In his first three games with Fowler last yerar, LaCombe scored 0g + 2a = 2 pts and a +1 rating. But he began to wear down until game 20 and LaCombe got put into a rotation between top pair to 3rd pair.

LaCombe started blossoming around mid-season. Cronin said he was the most improved player last year. I know you are allergic to stats, but here is how our young defenders ended their season last year, with all three playing mostly top-4 roles.

Ducks	Youth D	2023-24
Player	Game set	Games	G	A	Pts	PPG		+/-	Hits	Blocks	Comments
LaCombe	49 to 71	23	1	7	8	0.35		1	12	44	From Feb 19 to Apr 18
Minty	41 to 63	23	2	7	9	0.39		-9	29	22	from Feb 13 to Mar 30
Zell	5 to 26	22	2	6	8	0.36		-8	10	33	From Mar 1 to Apr 18

This year, LaCombe missed the first four games of the season due to sickness and I think he lost some weight because of it too. Gudas has commented how LaCombe's body looked stronger during pre-season. It took quite a few games for LaCombe to get back to pre-season level. In his first seven games, he went 0g + 1a = 1pt, a -6 rating, and ATOI of 16:47. For his last 16 games, he's scored 6g + 4a = 10 pts, a +7 rating, and ATOI of 19:44. The offense did coincide with Cronin slightly changing the system a bit, which the only thing I see is having his d-men become more aggressive in the Ozone. The biggest difference between LaCombe and the other d-men is he crashes the net like a power forward as well as forechecks like one.

BTW, I don't know why you praise LaCombe and then cut him down in the same post by negating his "blossoming" due to LaCombe being older than Minty and Zell. We get it. You still don't like LaCombe.

I like LaCombe and always have. He was being misused-an offensive D with skills in a horrible pairing with Fowler. Not negating anything about LaCombe, except that we should expect him to be ahead in his development when compared to Zellweger and Mintyukov.

 

[TheStuntman]

LaCombe is blossoming right before our eyes. Last season he was shoehorned into a primarily defend role when paired with Fowler and we didn't see his offensive gifts very often. This year, he's free and attacking aggressively. When comparing his progress to Zellweger and Mintyukov, remember that he's 3 years older than those guys and played four years at U. of Minnesota.

Forgot about this. I still say Minty has the higher ceiling, but Jackson is playing better right now. Age is a huge factor.

 

[S1N4TR4]

9 points last 11 games.

played nearly 26 minutes.. second most TOI of the season.

 

[ohcomeonref]

Are we witnessing our first #1D since.. forever, being born?

 

[MCB]

I said this in the GDT, but my opinion of him and his worth has completely changed since the start of the season. I thought he was the expendable one but damn he's showing otherwise now.

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

Are we witnessing our first #1D since.. forever, being born?

Duncan Keith Reborn into a ducks Jersey. And I'm all for it. It's about time

 

[FlyingV09]

He was absolutely awful last year and should have been in the minors. Blame it on his usage or whatever you feel like but that is a fact.

The turnaround in his game is impressive and I hope we take this as a lesson with some of our other young guys as well. McTavish, Cutter, Leo, Zellweger, and Minty are all younger than Jackson and may take just as long to become seasoned.

 

[2faded]

Jackson LaCombe is playing like a top pairing D. I didn't see that coming. Wow.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

He was absolutely awful last year and should have been in the minors. Blame it on his usage or whatever you feel like but that is a fact.

The turnaround in his game is impressive and I hope we take this as a lesson with some of our other young guys as well. McTavish, Cutter, Leo, Zellweger, and Minty are all younger than Jackson and may take just as long to become seasoned.

LaCombe struggled last year in games 7 to 20 as he was forced into a top-pairing role due to Drysdale's injury. Luneau couldn't fill it. Vaak couldn't stay up for two games. Many made believe that LaCombe was always that bad for all of last season and the brainwashing/stigma stuck, while giving passes to Minty and Zell. The dualism in criticism was quite apparent then and still apparent with your comment as many didn't want to put LaCombe in the same level as Minty and Zell.

It took some time for LaCombe to adapt to the speed last year, but he did adapt last year as Cronin cited LaCombe was the most improved player since the season started. LaCombe was our best defensive youth last year and his offense picked up to be in the same offensive output of Minty and Zell. All these evidences that LaCombe was improving last year fell on deaf ears. Now, many are surprised about the turnaround. Who knows how LaCombe would have started the season if he didn't fall ill for several days and missed four games.

---

As for the development of the youth D in Zell, Minty, and Luneau, they will take a while to develop how to play defense since they all came from the CHL as OFD's. LaCombe was an OFD in high school, but spent four seasons honing on his defense in the NCAA on the right side. His offense was secondary to learning defense, but he was his college team's PP1 QB when he signed with the Ducks.

Minty is struggling because he was thrusted into a top pairing role this year and his DZ Start % at EV has him pinned down in the DZone at a far higher rate than his previous season. Recently, the Ducks have put Minty into an on-ice rotation as well as cut down his minutes b/c the org might have rushed Minty to the top role. For the last two games, the Ducks have put Dumo-Trouba as a pair and would probably take on the brunt of higher DZone Start % to help shelter a the third line youths of Minty, Zell, and Helleson rotation.

I just hope that Cronin can help rehabilitate Minty after pushing him too hard to start this season. Cronin has already admitted that he pushed LaCombe too hard last year. LaCombe was also put into a rotation last year around mid-season until Minty got injured for the season.

 

[TheStuntman]

He was absolutely awful last year and should have been in the minors. Blame it on his usage or whatever you feel like but that is a fact.

The turnaround in his game is impressive and I hope we take this as a lesson with some of our other young guys as well. McTavish, Cutter, Leo, Zellweger, and Minty are all younger than Jackson and may take just as long to become seasoned.

Yes and they're still physically maturing. They're going up against the best of the best when 98% of players their age are playing against their age group whether in juniors or in college. To expect them to be fully realized in their first few seasons is asinine.

 

[Sniperberg]

I like this new version of Lacombeon Dynamite. I dont want to fire him into the sun anymore.

 

[Kalv]

I always thought he was better than he was given credit for, and had a clear top 4 upside. After the past little while even I feel like I need to eat crow now

Again - Cronin said he was the most improved player last year and this offseason Gudas hinted about something like this, sounded like he'd become top pairing guy which was hard to believe at the start of even this season.

Great for him, he has worked his ass off to get here. Needs to maintain it and make a name for himself around the league.

Looking back - he was at least on par with Faber in Minnesota.

 

[Anaheim4ever]

I like this new version of Lacombeon Dynamite. I dont want to fire him into the sun anymore.

Duck fans should start a Vote for Pedro style campaign to get him to the Allstar Game.

 

[GermanRocket7]

His good performances help him overcome his ugly mug. Happy that he is our ugly duckling, unlike with Kyle Chipchura back in the day.

 

[Kalv]

Also, trading Fowler helped to unleash LaCombe

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Also, trading Fowler helped to unleash LaCombe

Put another check mark next to me

 

[Deuce22]

LaCombe has been unleashed, able now without fear to attack and let his offensive skill shine. Hopefully Cronin will see the light and allow Zellweger and Mintyukov to someday do similar.

 

[ScarTroy]

4 points in his last 5 games and a +2 over that time frame. And this is against PHI, WPG, EDM x2, NJD while playing big minutes. Wonder how vocal he is in the locker room, with how hard of a worker as it sounds like he is he should definitely be in contention for a letter in few years.