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Player Discussion Mason McTavish

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He needs to continue working on his foot speed. He's definitely lost confidence at wing... Eakins and the organization doing another great job handling a young player. He looked much better and confident at center, at wing he barely touches the puck and when he does it's usually a one time pass or dump.
 
Is Eakins really trying to slow roll McTavish because Eakins thinks it benefits McTavish to get doses of center and then back to wing? I'm not liking it.

I do wonder how much of it is Eakins and/or Verbeek. Verbeek constructed the roster to have 8D and 13F to start the season. Then we see a rotation between Beaulieu, Benoit, and White as well as the return of 11F and 7D.

A couple of seasons ago (Covid season), the team was making Lundy play wing. I'm thinking that was GM Murray's decision to move Lundy from center to wing. Lundy was sent down to the AHL for not performing well at wing in the NHL to start the season. In the AHL preseason, Lundy's play took off and was recalled before the AHL regular season started. Lundy ended back at center due to a rash of injuries down the middle again. It was then Lundy shined to remain at center.

As for separating Comtois-Lundy-Rakell during that Covid season, I think that's all Eakins. Aside from spreading the offense around, it was just weird to not let that line continue to stay together when they were hot! Lundy did the hard work, Rakell was the playmaker, and Comtois was the finisher.
 
I'm not all that surprised with McTavish's usage. Eakins has been throwing darts with his lines all along. There have been many times when a line will look good for a game or two and voila, break them up. It's almost like he doesn't want any of the forwards to get too comfortable. I've never understood the concept in hockey that a young center on a rebuilding team is better off playing wing at first. Do shortstop prospects in baseball start at second base because it's easier? McTavish needs to take draws, get used to the speed and responsibilities at center if that is his future position. Not to mention he has looked more comfortable there, similar to Zegras.
 
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I always trace these weird deployments for our young C’s back to some notion that they aren’t good defensively. Didn’t Eakins play Lundy at wing early on?

Zegs was bad defensively at first both at C and W and some costly mistakes were being made regardless of where he played. With mctavish, I haven’t seen many bad defensive plays if any. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense other than making the young guys “earn their stripes”
 
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Deuce22 said:
I'm not all that surprised with McTavish's usage. Eakins has been throwing darts with his lines all along. There have been many times when a line will look good for a game or two and voila, break them up. It's almost like he doesn't want any of the forwards to get too comfortable. I've never understood the concept in hockey that a young center on a rebuilding team is better off playing wing at first. Do shortstop prospects in baseball start at second base because it's easier? McTavish needs to take draws, get used to the speed and responsibilities at center if that is his future position. Not to mention he has looked more comfortable there, similar to Zegras.
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Eakins blender doesn't have a stop button. :laugh:

Our winger depth is worse than center depth, and that also impacts things, but if we'd allocate the line time roughly 35 mins for the top6 (Zegras and Strome) and 25 mins for the bottom 6 (Lundestrom and McTavish), we can make it work with all involved with reasonable TOI, IMO.

Have to keep an eye out for Groulx tho, almost a PPG in the AHL this year.
 
Sean Garrity said:
I understand the thought process with top 6 minutes on the wing, but I do not understand at all bottom 6 minutes on the wing for him. What is the point of putting Gawdin as the 4C and McTavish on his wing?
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He's competing with Henrique and Comtois for those spots right now and I find it hard to put him ahead of either of them since they've both woken up lately. If he's in the bottom 6, I agree he should be playing center. Lundy has struggled this season, but I'm not sure it would be smart to move him over to wing for a rookie.

The AHL really should be the place for McTavish this season. Very frustrating situation.
Mr Rogers said:
I always trace these weird deployments for our young C’s back to some notion that they aren’t good defensively. Didn’t Eakins play Lundy at wing early on?

Zegs was bad defensively at first both at C and W and some costly mistakes were being made regardless of where he played. With mctavish, I haven’t seen many bad defensive plays if any. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense other than making the young guys “earn their stripes”
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Yes, and it didn't work either. I think I remember Hazy mentioned Lundestrom said he didn't feel comfortable on the wing (or something to that effect).
 
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FiveHoleTickler said:
He's competing with Henrique and Comtois for those spots right now and I find it hard to put him ahead of either of them since they've both woken up lately. If he's in the bottom 6, I agree he should be playing center. Lundy has struggled this season, but I'm not sure it would be smart to move him over to wing for a rookie.

The AHL really should be the place for McTavish this season. Very frustrating situation.
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I agree and I didn't mean it to say that he deserves to play on the wing over those guys. I just meant I understand the thought process of having him play wing in the top 6 with more skilled forwards and against generally tougher competition.
 
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Mr Rogers said:
I always trace these weird deployments for our young C’s back to some notion that they aren’t good defensively. Didn’t Eakins play Lundy at wing early on?
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Lundy was moved to wing in his third year with the Ducks. They wanted to use his speed on the wings. In the AHL, Lundy looked very dangerous and got a promotion back up with the NHL club. Lots of injuries happened down the middle again and forced Lundy into the center role. He's stuck there since.

Lundy always played at center in his first two seasons after being drafted everywhere from NHL to AHL to SHL to Hockey Allsvenskan (HA). He was almost a ppg player with HA going for 11 points in 12 games before being recalled to the NHL for the shortened COVID season. That speed and scoring touch might be a reason GM Murray made the move to shift Lundy to wing.

I say Murray was the reason b/c when Lundy was sent down to the AHL, it was to continue to develop at wing. We saw the pattern with Zegras. Z started off at wing at the AHL and then wing at the NHL. Afterwards, he was reassigned to center in the AHL and then brought up as a center in the NHL.

As for McTavish being swapped around, I have no idea who's call that is. All I know is that Eakins told us ahead of time that McTavish will be swapping back and forth between center and wing. Maybe it's a joint effort by GM and coach like the decision to move Rico to wing from center.
 
Hockey Duckie said:
As for McTavish being swapped around, I have no idea who's call that is. All I know is that Eakins told us ahead of time that McTavish will be swapping back and forth between center and wing. Maybe it's a joint effort by GM and coach like the decision to move Rico to wing from center.
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I think there can be some validity to there being a benefit for some natural C's to start at the wing, and doing that has definitely not been unique to the Ducks over the years. However, McTavish seems to be different. he looks a lot worse there than at C and more importantly he looks less comfortable and less confident. whoever's decision it is (would bet Eakins) is just confounding. you're not optimizing the player for fear of him making bad defensive plays, which he hasn't even made too many of, in a throwaway season.

much like Zegs, I expect one day for him to shift to C and play out the rest of the season there, but just don't get why it can't happen now.
 
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Mr Rogers said:
I think there can be some validity to there being a benefit for some natural C's to start at the wing, and doing that has definitely not been unique to the Ducks over the years. However, McTavish seems to be different. he looks a lot worse there than at C and more importantly he looks less comfortable and less confident. whoever's decision it is (would bet Eakins) is just confounding. you're not optimizing the player for fear of him making bad defensive plays, which he hasn't even made too many of, in a throwaway season.

much like Zegs, I expect one day for him to shift to C and play out the rest of the season there, but just don't get why it can't happen now.
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The directive to start Zegras at wing and then center came from Murray. Remember, Murray's the only one that can change the roster.

Last year, McTavish played wing in all 9 NHL games, but on his conditioning loan in the AHL, McTavish was allowed to play center for all three AHL games. Murray was GM then.

In this past off-season interview, McTavish said the team would start him at wing. McTavish didn't even have an audition to play center at a pro capacity this season, but he's being slotted at wing. Verbeek is the GM.

Here's an off-the-wall idea. What if the front office did notice the huge uptick in play with McTavish at center and that McTavish elevated those around him while at center, then that would be a bad thing if you're trying to be "boneheaded for Bedard". Sticking McTavish at wing to neutralize him would help the "boneheaded for Bedard" crowd. McTavish still gets NHL playing time, but won't be optimally affecting the overall play on the ice. We'll see McTavish get two to three games in at center throughout the season, but will always be placed back at wing.

Or maybe the team played McTavish at center for those three games because they were very weak teams in San Jose and Vancouver?
 
The Midnight Burrito said:
I thought he looked good at center too but people might be reading an awful lot into the 8 minutes or whatever that Mac has played at center this year. The staff does see him in practice.
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Also, it was against San Jose that he looked best. Drawing grand conclusions from that is pretty much the same as saying that Tinordi has proven he’s a goal scorer vs us on Sunday.
 
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McTavish had that one game where his ice time really jumped (against St.Louis which happens to be exactly a month ago). I checked his stats since then, comparing with other rookies.

15 games
2+8 (5th among rookies in that time span)
16:00 TOI
pretty much the lowest shooting% with one of the best shot amount
69/156FO (44.2%) (3rd most taken)
21 hits

He will not be in the Calder race, but the eye test shows a lot of promise to him. He does so many things well, and he's dedicated at getting better. Looks like he's a bit snake-bitten and he should increase his goal rate at some point. Happy with his progress overall.
 
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Lord Flashheart said:
Terrific read.
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Surprisingly so.

“My goal obviously is to play center in this league,” McTavish said. “Whether it was now or in the future, that’s kind of what I always wanted to do. That’s my natural position. I don’t mind playing the wing, too. But obviously I feel like I’m more comfortable down the middle. I just kind of can control the game a little bit more down there. Just touch the puck and kind of support it around all three zones. I definitely like to play center more.”

And that’s where his thirst for knowledge is unabated. McTavish is routinely among the last players to leave the ice after practice, if not the last. Once the regular workout is done, he’s taking faceoffs with Strome and Henrique and he seeks out the veterans for occasional advice. More than that, he’s watching them rather than bugging them. They’re not the only ones he studies.

“I’m sure they would tell me a bunch,” McTavish said. “But I like to just watch myself and see the little things that they do every day, which has obviously gotten them to where they are. And along with those other guys in the NHL. The centermen. I kind of watch (Sidney) Crosby, (Ryan) O’Reilly. Those guys. They’re great at their job, too.

“I just kind of watch all the little details they do. They’ve been great.”

Eakins is hoping that McTavish has the kind of devotion to improving himself that Troy Terry has shown in becoming their top all-around skater. The two play different positions but McTavish is already much further along in his trajectory than Terry was when he started playing regularly in the NHL.

“When I see (Zegras) doing certain things, I remember Troy doing the same things,” Eakins said. “When I see McT going through something, I remember Troy Terry. For me, Troy Terry did an amazing job investing in himself as McT’s doing now, as Z’s doing now. In the end, we were patient and we molded him along and helping him along and readjusted his steering wheel every once in a while.

“He’s kind of our model and we’re trying to find the same progression. Not exactly what we did with Troy but take the same principles and put them into McT’s personality. Take the same principles and put them into Z. Take the same principles and whatever name you want to go with there.”


Where is he going to slot when Lundestrom comes back? I'd prefer McTavish stays in the middle. Maybe slide Strome to the wing?

Henrique-Zegras-Terry
Vatrano-McTavish-Strome
Comtois-Lundestrom-Silfverberg
Megna/Jones-Carrick-Leason

Tough to decide on what the 2nd and 3rd lines should look like.
 
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I think they should put him with either Terry or Zegras and put Henrique with the other at this point.
 
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bsu said:
I think they should put him with either Terry or Zegras and put Henrique with the other at this point.
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Mason should be on the Avs with Lehkonen and Nichushkin as wingers. Special offer today: firstrounders in 2023 and 2024 plus Samuel Girard, Sean Behrens and Oskar Olausson and goalie Ivan Zhigalov. Yes, a blockbuster.
 
jfc64 said:
Mason should be on the Avs with Lehkonen and Nichushkin as wingers. Special offer today: firstrounders in 2023 and 2024 plus Samuel Girard, Sean Behrens and Oskar Olausson and goalie Ivan Zhigalov. Yes, a blockbuster.
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Well it certainly is special to say the least and can we get the today only part in writing?
 
heusy_79 said:
Well it certainly is special to say the least and can we get the today only part in writing?
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Deal? I have to go ask my GM first but... the slight overpay buys a cup chance or two. Avs then will suck (well...) at the height of Minnesota Wild challenging for Stanley Cup in 2026. But foolish hope will take care of that industrialized countries problem...
 
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