The Ducks had Lindholm, Theodore, Pettersson and Montour at one point

[Cloned]

Always surprises me that this isn’t brought up very often.

That’s 3 top pairing defensemen and a solid top 4 D in Pettersson.

They also had Vatanen when he actually had value and hadn’t washed out of the league yet.

And Fowler at a much higher valuation point than what he was traded for this season.

Team was heading towards a rebuild but they traded the younger prospects and kept Fowler till he declined instead. Which might have still been OK if they had gotten good value for them, but they basically gifted Theodore to Vegas and discarded Montour.

This might be one of the most overlooked series of bad decisions in terms of trading and keeping defensemen in history.

Click to read more...

 

[RedSlider]

Those 2010s Ducks d-cores were monstrous especially the 2017 team. Lindholm, Manson, Fowler, Montour, Theodore & Vatanen on one team is insanity.

 

[Cloned]

Those 2010s Ducks d-cores were monstrous especially the 2017 team. Lindholm, Manson, Fowler, Montour, Theodore & Vatanen on one team is insanity.

I actually forgot about Manson lol. Add him to the list.

 

[StreetHawk]

LV expansion got them.
Had to lose someone.
Eligible for the ED were vets Stoner. Bieksa had a NMC, so not eligible unless he waived.
Young group: Fowler, Manson, Vatenen, Lindholm
Kids: Montour, Theodore, Pettersson (all ED exempt)

So, instead of losing one of Fowler, Manson, Vatenen, the Ducks opted to deal Theodore and have LV take Stoner's cap hit as well.

Montour's development stalled in Ana. Petterrson was dealt for Sprong.

Really though, even if the young D hit, the Duck's forwards towards the end of the 201X was fading. Eaves/Kesler on LTIR. Perry was bought out in 2019. Getzlaf had 2 years left. Rackell, Silf, Henrique were secondary forwards, not top line guys.

 

[Patty Ice]

Now they have Mintyukov, Solberg, LaCombe, Luneau, and Zellweger.

Check back in other 5 to 10 years to see who is who from that group.

 

[Coffee]

Seems like a thread made because of that Bouchard thread started by the Ducks fan months ago.

Regardless if it is or not, agreed with the OP it’s not talked about as much. Ducks have had underrated drafting, even the current d prospects look solid.

 

[kerrabria]

Fowler
Vatanen
Lindholm
Manson
Theodore
Montour
Pettersson
Mahura
Drysdale
Lacombe
Mintyukov
Zellweger

 

[TomKosto]

Now they have Mintyukov, Solberg, LaCombe, Luneau, and Zellweger.

Check back in other 5 to 10 years to see who is who from that group.

What happened to Minty this year? He was so good last season. 2nd slump? Or more than that.

 

[Gliff]

What happened to Minty this year? He was so good last season. 2nd slump? Or more than that.

He is 21. Shouldn’t be any concern.

Now they have Mintyukov, Solberg, LaCombe, Luneau, and Zellweger.

Check back in other 5 to 10 years to see who is who from that group.

To see who has been traded you mean

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I remember thinking them and Philly had the brightest blue line futures when Philly had high-rated prospects like Samuel Morin, Robert Hagg, Shayne Gostibehere, Travis Sanheim, and then drafted Ivan Provorov.

Kinda goes to show how fascinating player development can be. You can have a gold mine of prospects but some will never pan out, some eventually do but it won't be for your team, some become nhl players but not as impactful as one had hoped, and some do pan out and reach or even exceed their potential.

Someone like Brandon Montour moved onto Buffalo and was pretty ass in his time there. He rehabilitated his career big time in Florida. Sami Vatanen faded out shortly after leaving Anaheim. I don't recall Marcus Pettersson being that highly rated really ever but I might be wrong about that. I remember some Ducks fans thought Hampus Lindholm lost his oomph and energy and kinda look deflated once Anaheim was rebuilding. He's certainly played very well for Boston (despite some disappointing postseasons). Theodore has bloomed amazingly.

 

[tarheelhockey]

It’s funny how D tend to cluster in certain organizations. Ducks, Preds, Canes had incredible defensive cores that got picked apart by the cap and other developments.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

to me the bonkers thing is always the 2014 draft.

ducks are negotiating with vancouver to get kesler and it’s going to be the classic young forward, young d, and a first.

the forward was bonino, good value but already 26 years old.

the pick was 24 (mccann), while anaheim got to hold on to 10 (ritchie).

but the young dman, i mean, the stable was fowler, lindholm, vatanen, manson, theodore, sbisa.

so on day one of the draft, sbisa, the oldest and by far worst of their six young dmen, goes to vancouver. on day two of the draft, anaheim “replaces” him by taking pettersson and montour in the second round.

fast forward three years to the summer of 2017. anaheim gives theodore away because they have too many good young dmen. that allows them to keep vatanen and cash him in mid-season in a trade that brings in henrique to replace kesler (after a wildly successful two conference finals and twice finishing as a selke finalist in three years). meanwhile, canucks are thanking the gods that vegas took sbisa and his $3.6m cap hit off their hands in the expansion draft.

 

[Gliff]

You don't even mention Fowler, who was the best of the group in 16-17.

Hopefully the Ducks learn from their mistakes and dont trade away Zellweger, Minty, or Luneau. They could have a defensive core that rivals that time again.

 

[FiveTacos]

It’s funny how D tend to cluster in certain organizations. Ducks, Preds, Canes had incredible defensive cores that got picked apart by the cap and other developments.

Most likely whatever attributes those team's scouts value, or flaws they avoid, are things that make for good NHL dmen. For the Ducks it's gone on for too many years to be random chance.

The Ducks also drafted Schultz and Thrun, but neither signed with them out of the NCAA (at least in part because of the jammed pipeline). Moore may be next on that list this year ... if I were a team that has a need for a RD in the pipeline I'd be calling Verbeek this week to snag him for a pick or prospect.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Seems like they have always had the cream of the crop for young stud dmen prospects/players yet they never become a real good team and then eventually lose them

Their ability to identify and draft dmen is unbelievable yet eventually things go sideways. It’s been extremely bizarre to watch this for many years

 

[Makar Oni 4 formaggi]

Between their Stanley Cup win 07 and after the retirement of Niedermeyer their D corps was weak and killed their chance for another cup (during the prime of Getzlaf and Perry) until around 2015, when these youngsters begun to florish.
Read also that Niedermeyer was involved in the development of these talents.

Btw loosing Theodore for nothing was a massive step back for Ducks.

 

[SEALBound]

In about a 4-5 year period, they had several good forwards, too that went on to have decent careers:
Jakob Silfverberg
Ryan Getzlaff
Corey Perry
Nick Bonino
Rickard Rakell
Andrew Cogliano
Teemu Selanne
Saku Koivu
Bobby Ryan
Dany Heatley
William Karlsson
Tomas Fleischmann
Rene Bourque
Devante Smith-Pelly
Kyle Palmieri
Matt Beleskey
Carl Hagelin
Patrick Maroon
Shawn Horcoff
Chris Stewart
David Perron
Stefan Noesen
Patrick Eaves
Ondrej Kase
Antoine Vermette
Nick Ritchie

Obviously some with shorter Ducks careers than others and some at varying stages of their development and career but still, that's quite an impressive list considering I only picked like a 5 year span.

Of the defensive side, they also had a young Simon Despres who could have been a top 4 dman had he not got brained.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Always surprises me that this isn’t brought up very often.

That’s 3 top pairing defensemen and a solid top 4 D in Pettersson.

They also had Vatanen when he actually had value and hadn’t washed out of the league yet.

And Fowler at a much higher valuation point than what he was traded for this season.

Team was heading towards a rebuild but they traded the younger prospects and kept Fowler till he declined instead. Which might have still been OK if they had gotten good value for them, but they basically gifted Theodore to Vegas and discarded Montour.

This might be one of the most overlooked series of bad decisions in terms of trading and keeping defensemen in history.

I mean, Montour did make a multi-year stop in Buffalo first and then was traded for a 3rd rounder, so he wasn’t valued that highly- I saw the potential, dude had wheels and looked comfy the few times he was allowed to jump into the offense, ah well.

 

[Cloned]

I mean, Montour did make a multi-year stop in Buffalo first and then was traded for a 3rd rounder, so he wasn’t valued that highly- I saw the potential, dude had wheels and looked comfy the few times he was allowed to jump into the offense, ah well.

Yeah, but it’s Buffalo.

 

[johnjm22]

Ducks are on their way to becoming the Buffalo Sabres.

 

[LuGBuG]

Ducks are on their way to becoming the Buffalo Sabres.

5 less wins then you guys while being much younger and much more promising young talent. Wouldn’t get too excited there big fella you guys will be stuck in your mediocrity for a long time IF you are lucky enough to even be mediocre.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

LV expansion got them.
Had to lose someone.
Eligible for the ED were vets Stoner. Bieksa had a NMC, so not eligible unless he waived.
Young group: Fowler, Manson, Vatenen, Lindholm
Kids: Montour, Theodore, Pettersson (all ED exempt)

So, instead of losing one of Fowler, Manson, Vatenen, the Ducks opted to deal Theodore and have LV take Stoner's cap hit as well.

Montour's development stalled in Ana. Petterrson was dealt for Sprong.

Really though, even if the young D hit, the Duck's forwards towards the end of the 201X was fading. Eaves/Kesler on LTIR. Perry was bought out in 2019. Getzlaf had 2 years left. Rackell, Silf, Henrique were secondary forwards, not top line guys.

All they had to do was buyout Bieksa (who was just about washed) but Murray completely bungled the situation.

 

[FiveTacos]

Seems like they have always had the cream of the crop for young stud dmen prospects/players yet they never become a real good team and then eventually lose them

Their ability to identify and draft dmen is unbelievable yet eventually things go sideways. It’s been extremely bizarre to watch this for many years

The thing was they had a lot of good dmen, but no superstar. And after Getz/Perry in 03 they failed to find another star forward. Yeah they found some other good players, but without the core guy(s) it's tough.

Even now you consider that the wave of dmen they had from before are all 30+, yet the current guys outside of Lacombe are mostly 21 and under. So there was this gap.

 

[dire wolf]

Must be a SoCal thing. The Kings have moved on from some pretty good D men also (Faber, Durzi, Roy, Cernak, e.g., and lost McNabb to Vegas in the expansion draft, I believe). And there have been some rumors that Clarke could get moved, although I tend to doubt it.

 

[BonMorrison]

Everyone always talks about the Preds as being an elite defenseman drafting team but Anaheim low-key just as good.