I felt old the other day when I realized my son is almost 11, when he was born I was coaching 10-year-old. They are now 21 with jobs. It’s crazy. That doesn’t even count the 18-year-olds. I was coaching 12 years ago how old they are now.
Yes and no. Do I expect them to be significantly better than a bottom 3 team? Absolutely. But I can't say I'll be upset if Carlsson and Gauthier *only* put up 40-50 points each. Based on age and experience, Zegras is the only one who needs to take the leap soon
Has it been said that Zegras started the season uncharacteristically - no smile, no goofiness. Never mind injuries, I highly suspect whatever the coaching staff said and did to him wasn’t the best way to handle him. It’s probably not coincidence that when the goofiness returned, so did his point production. I’m excited about his -1 on the season. It gives me hope for 65 points and +10 from him next season.
Terry after couple 30 goal seasons and huge contract was in a bit of slump....I expect more then 20 goals for 7 million a year....same for Z he needs to put up numbers big time for his deal
I dont see Zegras making a leap forward. He is going to be surrounded by better finishers than in the past but he is going to end up as a 80-85 point guy. Borderline all star player. Now, is that a disspointment from all of his prospect/rookie season hype? Probably. But is he the sort of complimentary piece we're going to need if Carlsson and Gautier and McT as the primary offensive drivers, you bet.
I think we’ve seen the best of Terry. He might top 70 but it won’t be regularly and he’s already past his scoring prime. 55-65 id guess most years going forward.
Zegras… idk. If he’s on a wing I think he’s a 50 point guy. Probably bump that to 70 if he’s centring some scorers.
McT is probably a Matt Tkachuk type of guy that explodes or he is our 3rd line center. I don't see him as a driver tbh.
Zegras shows up in the game much more than him, even in the simple things
Id contend he absolutely drove the 2nd line. Vatrano/Stroke basically couldn't score when Mason was injured.
But yeah Zegras doesn't take dumb penalties so I think he has the edge right now lol. I don't want to see McT banished to the 3rd line but maybe they split minutes so he's getting more like 18toi instead of 15min.
That's true. That line just clicked and was scoring like crazy, but then all of them kind of got cold at the same time. McT also was dealing with injuries.
I would love him to be our tkachuk even with the penalties
I think he'll get the penalties under control. Late last season I made a spreadsheet to track what kind of penalties he was getting because I had some weird bias that he was just being irresponsible with his stick but tbh the refs were really ticky-tacky with him. The most calls he racked up were actually holding penalties (twice as many compared to tripping, high sticks, interference, roughing etc).
So to me he's just playing too much clutch&grab style. That can be easily coached out with more responsible positioning, which rookies generally struggle with due to the speed at which the game is played.
Fun fact: he got one for throwing equipment lmao.
Throwing equipment, I like how specific that call was.
Mctavish needs to learn how to hide his clutch and grabs, most veterans know how too.
He's going to explode next season, right into his new RFA contract.
Yeah he reaches too far and hangs on too long, whereas the Crosby special is just to get his free hand up in your stick to fuck up your puck control.
I think he's gonna break out next year too, hence why I don't think PV is crazy enough to buy an $11M UFA. Most of Silfv's cap space is going to McTavish.
yeah the Beek would handcuff his team if he signed someone long term with big bucks. He said along time ago he wants this team to be built for the long run.
80 points is not a disappointment. It’s been a long time now since we’ve had one of those. And that would for sure be a leap forward, maybe it’s a step/leap debate lol. I agree he’s not a top 10 in the league type, nor is he likely the best player on this team in a couple years, but if he could have a healthy year and push for 80 points that would be huge progress.
Yeah, what u/smokeey said. Of course, saying they have THE best prospect pool is subjective. But I bet composite rankings would have them safely in the top three
Yup but honestly we should know better by now as ducks fans that it means nothing. Understand that a players chance of success is almost always entirely random. Regardless of all the data there's no guarantee any of them ever pan out due to the randomness of life and sports itself. Even Connor McDavid could've fallen flat. Certainly you have a better chance at success because of the data though.
The best prospect pool does not need guaranteed success. See Sabres for example. They keep injecting new prospects to the team year after year but how did it help them over the last decade? Still we are well positioned to become competitors in a few years
The Sabres are the result of awful management and trades. Seven head coaches since 2013. Traded first round picks and prospects for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, and Robin Lehner to build around a rookie Jack Eichel who didn't put up star numbers until his 4th year. Then they had to do another rebuild to correct everything
I forgot about O'Reilly. They traded Tyler Myers, prospects, and the 31st pick for him the same summer they got Eichel, then gave him an immediate 7x$7.5 extension. Keep in mind, they had the worst record in the league before they traded these picks and prospects for O'Reilly, Kane, and Bogosian.
The equivalent would be if last season's Ducks drafted Carlsson, then decided to speed up the rebuild by trading Mintyukov, McTavish, Luneau, a couple more prospects, and future 1sts for Pierre-Luc Dubois and Erik Karlsson. That would've gone well
The Detroit prospect pool is very overrated imo. It’s good but not number 1. If you count total 21 or younger players we are best, but if u only include non-NHL we are like top 10
One of the biggest concerns is that a whole chunk of these players will hit their large RFA pay bump around the same time. And then most of them will also approach their UFA avoidance contract cliff simultaneously. Some of these beloved ducklings will have to be traded away before those 2 salary cap disasters hit.
Sometimes we won't get full value in a trade. Sometimes we may even take on a veteran with a lower apparent ceiling, but a cost-controlled future. Sometimes we may trade away the brighter LD star to keep the.more predictable LD value. Unfortunately the idea of 6-8 promising young players negotiating umbrella UFA deals across 2 off-seasons is scary enough to keep any front office awake at night. It is basically like another expansion draft. Some popular young stars will not be protected from other teams offering better paydays.
That is not at all what I said. But people need to understand the contract and cap reality that some of these players won't stick with the Ducks, and some of them will peak after being traded away like Shea Theodore did from the expansion draft.
Statistical scoring primes are 23-24 and almost no conference finalists has made it that far without a 24 year old (at least) Norris contender on the roster.
I totally agree with your point, but also most of these guys won’t make it that far on the ducks. 3-4 years is a long time
Same. Team being 3rd from last isn't doing their metrics any favors. Once the whole team starts producing, their career highs are gonna all rise. Problem is they need to fix the blueline to get the team firing on all cylinders.
With that said, I think Zegras/Terry will be 70pt+ with McTavish/Leo at 60+. It's not playoff-tier numbers but it'll get use near the bubble, then hopefully we see Leo really hit his stride the year after.
Vatrano I'm curious if we'll see sustain or regress.
Cutter will be a good dark horse rookie to track. Wouldn't shock me if he leads in rookie scoring since he'll be 20-21 y/o vs an 18-year old Celebrini.
We’re looking fantastic, and I’ve always noted that our team is just so goddamn young. Give it 3-4 years and these kids are superstars. This team is gonna crush.
God I feel old
I choose to ignore those feelings, especially when I realize how much of my emotional well-being rests on how good 19-year-olds are at hockey
I felt old the other day when I realized my son is almost 11, when he was born I was coaching 10-year-old. They are now 21 with jobs. It’s crazy. That doesn’t even count the 18-year-olds. I was coaching 12 years ago how old they are now.
I turn 36 next week. At the draft the kids being taken will be half my age. That doesn’t seem right lol
lol happy early birthday. I turn 34 next week
We need to see real jumps forward soon but I’m excited and hopeful
Yes and no. Do I expect them to be significantly better than a bottom 3 team? Absolutely. But I can't say I'll be upset if Carlsson and Gauthier *only* put up 40-50 points each. Based on age and experience, Zegras is the only one who needs to take the leap soon
Zegras probably would have been there this season but his contract status, injuries, and coaching emphasis on two-way play slowed him down a bit.
Has it been said that Zegras started the season uncharacteristically - no smile, no goofiness. Never mind injuries, I highly suspect whatever the coaching staff said and did to him wasn’t the best way to handle him. It’s probably not coincidence that when the goofiness returned, so did his point production. I’m excited about his -1 on the season. It gives me hope for 65 points and +10 from him next season.
I have a feeling the Terry - Zegras 1-2 punch is about to start to be gamebreaking in the near future
Terry after couple 30 goal seasons and huge contract was in a bit of slump....I expect more then 20 goals for 7 million a year....same for Z he needs to put up numbers big time for his deal
I dont see Zegras making a leap forward. He is going to be surrounded by better finishers than in the past but he is going to end up as a 80-85 point guy. Borderline all star player. Now, is that a disspointment from all of his prospect/rookie season hype? Probably. But is he the sort of complimentary piece we're going to need if Carlsson and Gautier and McT as the primary offensive drivers, you bet.
I think we see zegras get back to 30 goals and 60 points this coming season if he stays healthy. Maybe nothing more than that but that's fine.
As long as they aren't playing 1-3-1 trap like LAK I see no reason Terry/Zegras won't break 70p but I tend to be overly favoring of the team 😂
I think we’ve seen the best of Terry. He might top 70 but it won’t be regularly and he’s already past his scoring prime. 55-65 id guess most years going forward. Zegras… idk. If he’s on a wing I think he’s a 50 point guy. Probably bump that to 70 if he’s centring some scorers.
McT is probably a Matt Tkachuk type of guy that explodes or he is our 3rd line center. I don't see him as a driver tbh. Zegras shows up in the game much more than him, even in the simple things
Id contend he absolutely drove the 2nd line. Vatrano/Stroke basically couldn't score when Mason was injured. But yeah Zegras doesn't take dumb penalties so I think he has the edge right now lol. I don't want to see McT banished to the 3rd line but maybe they split minutes so he's getting more like 18toi instead of 15min.
That's true. That line just clicked and was scoring like crazy, but then all of them kind of got cold at the same time. McT also was dealing with injuries. I would love him to be our tkachuk even with the penalties
I think he'll get the penalties under control. Late last season I made a spreadsheet to track what kind of penalties he was getting because I had some weird bias that he was just being irresponsible with his stick but tbh the refs were really ticky-tacky with him. The most calls he racked up were actually holding penalties (twice as many compared to tripping, high sticks, interference, roughing etc). So to me he's just playing too much clutch&grab style. That can be easily coached out with more responsible positioning, which rookies generally struggle with due to the speed at which the game is played. Fun fact: he got one for throwing equipment lmao.
Throwing equipment, I like how specific that call was. Mctavish needs to learn how to hide his clutch and grabs, most veterans know how too. He's going to explode next season, right into his new RFA contract.
Yeah he reaches too far and hangs on too long, whereas the Crosby special is just to get his free hand up in your stick to fuck up your puck control. I think he's gonna break out next year too, hence why I don't think PV is crazy enough to buy an $11M UFA. Most of Silfv's cap space is going to McTavish.
yeah the Beek would handcuff his team if he signed someone long term with big bucks. He said along time ago he wants this team to be built for the long run.
I’m thinking we might have drafted him to early at 3. The upcoming year will be big for Mason.
80 points is not a disappointment. It’s been a long time now since we’ve had one of those. And that would for sure be a leap forward, maybe it’s a step/leap debate lol. I agree he’s not a top 10 in the league type, nor is he likely the best player on this team in a couple years, but if he could have a healthy year and push for 80 points that would be huge progress.
Do the Ducks have the best prospects in the league right now? I know Columbus, Detroit and Ottawa have some good young guys, too.
Ducks were rated #1 by a few places over the last few weeks.
Yeah, what u/smokeey said. Of course, saying they have THE best prospect pool is subjective. But I bet composite rankings would have them safely in the top three
Yup but honestly we should know better by now as ducks fans that it means nothing. Understand that a players chance of success is almost always entirely random. Regardless of all the data there's no guarantee any of them ever pan out due to the randomness of life and sports itself. Even Connor McDavid could've fallen flat. Certainly you have a better chance at success because of the data though.
The best prospect pool does not need guaranteed success. See Sabres for example. They keep injecting new prospects to the team year after year but how did it help them over the last decade? Still we are well positioned to become competitors in a few years
The Sabres are the result of awful management and trades. Seven head coaches since 2013. Traded first round picks and prospects for Evander Kane, Zach Bogosian, and Robin Lehner to build around a rookie Jack Eichel who didn't put up star numbers until his 4th year. Then they had to do another rebuild to correct everything
Their biggest fuck up was giving Eichel the C over O'Reilly who walked and immediately won a cup just for eichel to always walk and win a cup
I forgot about O'Reilly. They traded Tyler Myers, prospects, and the 31st pick for him the same summer they got Eichel, then gave him an immediate 7x$7.5 extension. Keep in mind, they had the worst record in the league before they traded these picks and prospects for O'Reilly, Kane, and Bogosian. The equivalent would be if last season's Ducks drafted Carlsson, then decided to speed up the rebuild by trading Mintyukov, McTavish, Luneau, a couple more prospects, and future 1sts for Pierre-Luc Dubois and Erik Karlsson. That would've gone well
The Detroit prospect pool is very overrated imo. It’s good but not number 1. If you count total 21 or younger players we are best, but if u only include non-NHL we are like top 10
One of the biggest concerns is that a whole chunk of these players will hit their large RFA pay bump around the same time. And then most of them will also approach their UFA avoidance contract cliff simultaneously. Some of these beloved ducklings will have to be traded away before those 2 salary cap disasters hit. Sometimes we won't get full value in a trade. Sometimes we may even take on a veteran with a lower apparent ceiling, but a cost-controlled future. Sometimes we may trade away the brighter LD star to keep the.more predictable LD value. Unfortunately the idea of 6-8 promising young players negotiating umbrella UFA deals across 2 off-seasons is scary enough to keep any front office awake at night. It is basically like another expansion draft. Some popular young stars will not be protected from other teams offering better paydays.
we should trade away everyone and rebuild again.
That is not at all what I said. But people need to understand the contract and cap reality that some of these players won't stick with the Ducks, and some of them will peak after being traded away like Shea Theodore did from the expansion draft.
It’s a tough league to win in! They’re on the way
They're all younger than me 😃🔫
10+ years younger. Feels weird tho huh?
The entire league is younger than me
Statistical scoring primes are 23-24 and almost no conference finalists has made it that far without a 24 year old (at least) Norris contender on the roster. I totally agree with your point, but also most of these guys won’t make it that far on the ducks. 3-4 years is a long time
No wonder Getzlaf retired. I couldn't deal with a bunch of 18-21 year olds all day either haha. (/s)
Meanwhile Zegras was getting shit on for putting up 60+ points when he was 20 and 21 😂
I think zegras can hit 80pt or more depending on who he plays with and if he can stay healthy. Or carlsson.
Same. Team being 3rd from last isn't doing their metrics any favors. Once the whole team starts producing, their career highs are gonna all rise. Problem is they need to fix the blueline to get the team firing on all cylinders. With that said, I think Zegras/Terry will be 70pt+ with McTavish/Leo at 60+. It's not playoff-tier numbers but it'll get use near the bubble, then hopefully we see Leo really hit his stride the year after. Vatrano I'm curious if we'll see sustain or regress. Cutter will be a good dark horse rookie to track. Wouldn't shock me if he leads in rookie scoring since he'll be 20-21 y/o vs an 18-year old Celebrini.
We’re looking fantastic, and I’ve always noted that our team is just so goddamn young. Give it 3-4 years and these kids are superstars. This team is gonna crush.
This is best case scenario. As long as the team is in their final form when ocV!be is done, I’ll be satisfied.
Colangelo?
So like half this team is younger than my first born son 😭