Player Discussion Jackson LaCombe

Lindholm never became the offensive guy I hoped. Same with Cam to an extent. They just lacked that attacking instinct that the really good OFD have.

Lacombe seems to have that, but without sacrificing any defense. I mean, he ends up in front of the opposing net as much as Ozolinsh, but somehow does it without it feeling like he's gambling.
 
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This is since 4Nations... 5th most d-zone starts for guys logging big minutes and his offensive numbers in that time are comparable to some of the best offensive defensemen in the league.

Quinn Hughes: 22p, 5.5% d-zone starts
Lane Hutson: 19p, 2.7% d-zone starts
Theo: 20p, 9.1% d-zone starts
Bouchard: 16 points, 9% d-zone starts

Just unreal. His ability to defend and to move the puck up the ice is incredible right now.
Just need to get him a competent partner and we have a legit top pair. Matt Roy would have been a nice complement.
 
We are so loaded on LD prospects I half hope that we work a big trade out for Dobson or a blockbuster trade for McAvoy
McAvoy has a NMC, so I would assume he isn't an option. Dobson would definitely be of interest, but it's tough to gauge what the Islanders will do. Do they want picks, players, or prospects? Would our 2025 1st be enough? The only team below us in the standings right now who I could see trading their 1st for Dobson would be Buffalo, but I'm not sure they would do that. And then you would have to sign Dobson to a long-term deal pretty much immediately since he only has 1 more RFA year.
 
McAvoy has a NMC, so I would assume he isn't an option. Dobson would definitely be of interest, but it's tough to gauge what the Islanders will do. Do they want picks, players, or prospects? Would our 2025 1st be enough? The only team below us in the standings right now who I could see trading their 1st for Dobson would be Buffalo, but I'm not sure they would do that. And then you would have to sign Dobson to a long-term deal pretty much immediately since he only has 1 more RFA year.
McAvoy's like a pie in the sky dream scenario. Maybe he's not happy with players being sold off/losing Montgomery etc. etc.... Stranger things have happened.

I would send our 1st + a prospect for Dobson pretty comfortably right now. Or something like Zellweger + mid round pick.
 
Lindholm never became the offensive guy I hoped. Same with Cam to an extent. They just lacked that attacking instinct that the really good OFD have.

Lacombe seems to have that, but without sacrificing any defense. I mean, he ends up in front of the opposing net as much as Ozolinsh, but somehow does it without it feeling like he's gambling.
I think that was the case with Cam for sure. I always felt he knew wha the correct 'offensive decision' was but he often played things conservatively. A quintessential Cam move was to pull out of the O zone even if he had the puck (usually if he had a forward charging up the wall). Fowler was weird in that he did have a really good offensive mind for things but liked to play it safe. Usually dmen who have that use it to its fullest and put up big numbers.

With Hampus, I'm not sure he had that sort of offensive lens for the game. I really can't ever think of a play he made offensively that made me go "wow." Solid defensive dman for sure, but very vanilla offensively. A lot of his wrist shocks got blocked i felt like too, and I consider that a sign that somebody is lacking offensive deft. Zell and Lacombe on the other hand, get a ton of shots thru.
 
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I feel like if we make a big move for a rd we have to be prepared to move on from gudas - it sucks but he’s the only one that makes sense
can't find a "does it though" gif so this will have to work

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Lindholm never became the offensive guy I hoped. Same with Cam to an extent. They just lacked that attacking instinct that the really good OFD have.

Lacombe seems to have that, but without sacrificing any defense. I mean, he ends up in front of the opposing net as much as Ozolinsh, but somehow does it without it feeling like he's gambling.

When we drafted Lindholm, I found his HF page and all the talk there was all about his defense as well as how he was the main proponent that his HA team got the promotion to the SHL when he got promoted to the men's team. I never go the impression he was a high-end offensive guy, but a top tier, shutdown guy. In the NHL, Corsi was being tracked and Lindholm was atop of their lists. You won't see points directly created by Lindholm, but Lindholm tilts the ice significantly, which there are articles out there identifying how under-the-radar Lindholm was with respect to tilting the ice. Lindholm was a stud in his first season in the NHL as a 19/20 year old. People often forget that context.

With LaCombe, his history was a high scoring high school defenseman. He chose the NCAA route to learn how to play defense. Totally different from Lindholm. And in his interview, he wanted to model his game after Shea Theodore. Holy hell, he made his dream come true! but with much better defense than Theodore.
 
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yes gudas has been bad but overall I’d say it would be kind of embarrassing for the franchise to trade a captain 1 year into the captaincy and without a trade request
It also just isn't necessary. He's a good player and a good leader but for the second year in a row he's averaging over 19 minutes per game, which he just doesn't need to do anymore. I think we can take the training wheels of LaCombe and let Gudas play 16-17 minutes on a different pairing.
 

Guess who is first on the list.

Jackson LaCombe, Anaheim Ducks​

LaCombe, a 6-foot-2 left-shot defenseman playing in his second NHL season, has blossomed as the Ducks’ undisputed No. 1 defenseman.

The smooth-skating 24-year-old is averaging a team-leading 21:58 per game this season. He’s a budding offensive star, ranking in the top 20 among all NHL defensemen with 14 goals and 43 points in 67 games (a 52-point pace prorated over 82 games).

It’s extremely impressive that he’s racked up those types of point totals considering how lackluster the Ducks are offensively and how abysmal their power play has been. LaCombe ranks sixth among all NHL blueliners in scoring 1.51 points per 60 at five-on-five (minimum 1000 minutes), behind only Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin and Adam Fox.

LaCombe is a dynamic, elite puck transporter. With his confidence and poise rushing the puck, he singlehandedly drives controlled breakouts and offensive entries. His zone exit numbers are in the same neighborhood as the league’s best puck-moving defensemen, according to Corey Sznajder’s tracking project.

Here are two examples of him effortlessly beating heavy forecheck pressure to engineer breakouts with speed:

LaCombe’s terrific play with the puck hasn’t come at the expense of defensive warts, either. He breaks up plays defending the rush because of his ability to aggressively close gaps with his skating, he’s positionally sound, and he logs major minutes on the penalty kill. Anaheim’s two-way results in terms of controlling shots, scoring chances and actual goals significantly improve when LaCombe is on the ice.

He’s breaking out as one of the league’s premier top-pair puck-moving/offensive defensemen without much fanfare outside of SoCal.
 
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A Hutson/Lacombe pairing or at least to see each on the PP at the Olympics would be great.

The great thing about Jackson is we really don't know how good he can be but we know his baseline is pretty damn good. Like Leo, as well as he's playing, i still feel like there's so much more there.
 
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A Hutson/Lacombe pairing or at least to see each on the PP at the Olympics would be great.

The great thing about Jackson is we really don't know how good he can be but we know his baseline is pretty damn good. Like Leo, as well as he's playing, i still feel like there's so much more there.
Not sure Hutson has a role with Quinn Hughes already on the team.
 

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