BombaysTripleDeke

It was in a couple of posts summarizing what Murray had said during the hot stove. I'm not against the idea either and think that the Ducks want him to be a center more than anything. As long as Zegras is a bonafide top-6 forward, then I'm happy lol. The Ducks still need more top forwards even if Zegras stays a top-2 center. I'm hinging the Ducks' future on the hockey gods blessing us with Shane Wright in 2022 and then having him and Zegras bring us Crosby/Malkin type of success!

If Murray is under a mandate to make a playoff push from ownership then I blame ownership for being short-sided. Either way, I think that we are going to be in for a couple more seasons of missing the playoffs regardless, so any attempt to juice this team to a first round exit next season is just delaying the inevitable. Which is a rebuild lol. I think you either need give Murray the leeway to do a rebuild or fire him and bring in someone else to do it. Until the last couple of seasons, I think Murray was a suitable GM but he's never had to re-build a team and judging by his comments, he doesn't really want to. Murray has two more years left on his deal and if the expansion draft weren't coming up, I think he'd be gone if the Ducks don't make the playoffs this season. Plus, I don't think that the Samueli's are going to want to pay for two GM's or two coaches. Things would have to really go off the rails for that to happen, IMO. In two years, I'm betting on the Ducks having a new GM and coach.

Yeah, if Zegras is too undeniably good then keep him up but anything short of that, then I’d rather him be in San Diego. Murray’s comments of trying to push for the playoffs seem more insane to me after a better Blackhawks team, that made the playoffs, came out and said they are going to rebuild. You’re right with the wait and see because I’m exhausted with trying to figure out what Murray’s going to do.

I think that’s the goal, but there’s currently no room for Zegras at any position. Given Murray’s history and not much faith in development, I can’t rule it out lol. I think that’s the expectation also. Unless he’s Patrick Kane on the wing. Long term I still think they need another top flight center in the system if they want to be able to compete with the likes of LA. Also, the Blackhawks reportedly told fans that they are rebuilding their roster. Can’t wait to see that unfold!

During the hot stove talk with Hayward I’m pretty sure Murray said that they will start Zegras at the wing mostly to break him into the league. Whether he gets Rakell’d or Terry’d is a different story.

Agreed. Still think that they need more top-end prospects but they did a solid job and better than last year. San Jose being ranked so highly is surprising but two more drafts like this past one and I think that the Ducks are back in business. Getting a premium center, especially if Zegras goes to the wing and stays there, is going to be crucial going forward.

You’re right that Ottawa has more of a contract crunch and that Melnyk was not going to pay to keep it together, especially after the disastrous 2018 season. IMO, the Ducks aren’t very far off from being in similar position with Manson, Rakell and Lindholm all two seasons away from UFA status and Getzlaf being in the twilight of his career. It was rather poetic that they got another team’s lottery pick after losing their own. The Sens are going to take a couple of seasons before they start seeing how their prospects pan out but they have some real nice pieces to potentially build around. I think that the Ducks still need those pieces, and that it’s going to be a couple more seasons before they really turn it around. I at least trust our ownership much more than I would melnyk.

I don’t think Ottawa is retooling at all and that they have been in full rebuild mode since 2018. They traded away Karlsson, Stone, Hoffman, etc have no player remaining from their 2017 ECF run. Not surprisingly, they amassed a ton of picks have one of the top prospect pools in the entire league now. I wish Murray would tear down this roster a little bit more. Murray reached his bicentennial Russian quota already by drafting Galimov.

I think that the bottom pairing is still mostly up for grabs by Djoss, Curran, Mahura, Larsson, and Haakanpa. Djoos looked good but still only had a 9 game sample size to go. Bringing Grant back alone creates a backlog at center unless you start shifting players to the wing. The other key factor for the Ducks next season is Eakins. We still don't know if he'll be a good enough coach at the NHL level.

Pietrangelo to Vegas. Yeah, like Gorbachav said, the issue is then who do you trade from a logjam, cap and expansion draft perspective? You'd have to trade Lindholm or Fowler unless you do an 8 skater scheme and risk losing Shattenkirk or a forward to Seattle? I think that our ED strategy is TBD depending on how the season plays out. So, I don't think even Murray has all of the logistics figured out yet. The only thing that I am fairly certain on is that Murray is that the Ducks payroll is going to go down.

I think the parameters you listed are pretty spot on. If the Ducks want to keep Lindholm long term, then I think it would come at the expense of Fowler. If they did, then, theoretically, I see the Ducks drafting high enough to get another another D with their 2021 first round pick. I think that they should be a bit better then last year but that their ceiling is so limited and that it's not going to be enough to get them in the playoffs. I still still see them as more likely to draft in the top-10 again. As far as trading Lundestrom or even Steel, I think one of those could very much get shipped out, especially after Grant getting re-signed and log jamming the bottom-six center roles. Plus, Groulx would likely be vying for a similar role as well, not to mention Zegras. Murray has to address this and the defensive logjam which is why I'm betting the farm on him making a big move. It seems like Vegas is putting on the full-course press to Pietrangelo. I haven't heard much from Miller as far as him signing with the Ducks. Sounds like he wants to keep playing though. The issue is that if he does come back and it's a one-year deal, then the Ducks still need another goalie to expose in the ED. The Ducks development of players is a real concern, more so on the offensive side. I'm not sure how much to contribute the issues to failure of the coaches/staff and Murray's philosophy of what a winning team is. Granted, it's not like the Ducks have been drafting in the lottery for long enough so they've been missing out on the best opportunities to get top-end players.

Agree with this and that Murray's actually going to pull off a notable trade, unless he was lying to Shattenkirk about being sick of making the playoffs and doing so this season. There's also our lack of cap space, so I don't think he's done yet. I'm just not sure what kind of deck chair shuffling he's doing to do. We still need to see if any of the young guys can even replace the production of Kase and Ritchie. There aren't enough moves to be made to get the Ducks into being a playoff threat, IMO and don't understand any playoff expectations. Plus, our back up goalie position is seemingly going to decline with Miller not likely to come back I don't like the idea of running Gibson even further into the ground with a greater workload.

Yeah, but this is actually the offseason where Murray should stand pat. I’m concerned about the franchise also. If Shattenkirk is all he does until then I’m good with that but given Shattenkirk’s comments, I think Murray’s going to make a notable trade

Yeah, sounds like we are aiming for hockey purgatory! Not surprised that Bob/ownership is already bored with the rebuild. It’s not like Murray should care about the fallout because he’ll be gone and it will someone else’s problem. I wish that I shared your optimism lol!

This is very on point which is why I think that the Ducks are most likely much farther out from contending for a cup. This is the recipe for ending up in hockey purgatory where you aren't good enough to contend and not bad enough to draft the real top end talent that you need. That's what I fear for the Ducks. If the Ducks don't do a more traditional rebuild, then that is ultimately on the Samueli's. I am not a fan of the term re-tool at all to describe the Ducks. Re-tooling is done by successful teams with good productive cores in place, not by teams who need to replace guys who had the impacts of Getzlaf, Perry, Kesler and just finished with the 5th worst record Like you said, the Ducks have not traded their most valuable assets yet which to me just highlights that they are not good. That's fine though, because every team goes through it and I think tanks to some degree. I just don't want to have to squint really hard and hope that everything perfectly falls in place just to be a playoff team and likely first round exit. What makes this harder is seeing what LA's been able to do and amass over the last two seasons. Would you rather be in their position going forward or the Ducks'? To be fair, the Ducks' still have time before having to make major decisions but I think they should follow a similar strategy, which for them involved moving on from guys Muzzin, Toffoli and Martinez.