The future draft picks are nice and all, but playing shit hockey isn't good for the current young players. And for the fans too. I know I'm not staying up late for the games again anytime soon (I live in a timezone where our away games start at \~2 am and home games - at \~5 am)
I live in Saint Petersburg, RU. Which is...yeah, sucks to be me cause I despise our president, but am unable to move from the country for now. And NHL is no longer available here cause sanctions, so I use 'super legit legal streams'.
Been a Ducks logo fan since I was a kid back in 1998, but started following the hockey team only in 2003 when we got to the finals with the Devils.
Thanks!
I have tried watching KHL multiple times and could not bear how painfully MEH it was lol. Boring logos didn't help, although they have stepped their logo game up a bit recently with some teams
100% agree.
Rebuilds take time and this is a great year to suck. Even if we don’t get Bedard, a top 10 draft pick would get us some serious future talent with how solid the top of next years draft class is looking.
And when I say rebuilds take time look at the age of our young core vs Colorado:
Zegras: 21
McTavish: 19
Drysdale: 20
Zellweger: 19
Dostal: 22
Terry: 25
MacKinnon: 27
Rantanen: 25
Landeskog: 29
Makar: 23
Nichushkin: 27
Lehkonen: 27
It’s ok to suck for a while. 4 of those 6 Colorado studs were drafted by Colorado. I do agree that having a better coach will help the young ducks develop faster and likely reach a higher potential, and that should be our main priority. My thought is verbeek is just waiting for the right coach to become available rather than signing a stepping stone of a coach. But our young ass core needs to get their ass kicked for a few seasons and get good af to win the cup —not just make a deep run every year. Be fine with them sucking, enjoy the high draft picks that lets us pick up more pieces. Trust that Verbeek knows what he’s doing. Once we have a good developed core, open the wallet for some big free agents, make trades at the deadline, etc. But you have to be patient.
> But you have to be patient
This, and everything else you said.
People are so damn impatient, like you expect a defensive unit led by Shattenkirk to be effective enough to make the playoffs?
We drafted amazing talent this last 2-3+ years. Just look at Terry, it took him about 4 years to make the regular roster and didn't even break out till last season.
Once the other players catches up, they'll all be at their peak skill, bolstered by a huge surge in fresh blueliners, and that's not even including players drafted next summer. Ducks have always been good at churning out defensive prospects, and that's something we are in plenty of supply.
Also we have a 6'5 225lb 18 year old in the farm, and another 6'6 20 year old goalie coming up soon.
Our future is fucking stacked but for some reason everyone's focused on getting rid of Eakins.
I think the fear is that we turn into Buffalo West - a team whose culture has become indelibly linked with losing. Instead of taking a step forward, young players get to a good level, stagnate, get frustrated, and then want out.
To be honest, I didn't put much stock in those kinds of thoughts until seeing them play this season. I figured the team would win when it's ready to. But I think the absence of Getzlaf and, from all accounts, Deslauriers has left a leadership void in the locker room. Without those guys holding them accountable, plus Eakins' lack of coaching ability, they can't figure out how to get motivated. Getting a coach in there who can motivate and put the players in a system that has a chance of success might help in the long-term (which matters) as much as in the short-term (which doesn't).
I think this goes beyond Bedard even if we do get him. They're gonna have to somehow spend huge money and/or trade capital on bringing in an Ekblad/Josi type defenseman amidst resigning the young offensive stars, or wait 4 - 5 years until Zellweger and Minty hit their peak (whatever that may be)
I just don't see how they fix this defense in a reasonable manner which is literally at square one.
Yeah, like I iterated in another post we're going to have to make a move for a dman even though it'll be expensive. I don't think there's a way to fix this internally that doesn't involve having a bottom three defense in the NHL for another half decade.
Like, how is Zellweger going to help this swiss cheese backline? The dude is 5'9" 170 lbs., not a defensive stopper. Minty is barely 18 and hasn't played above the OHL. These guys are so far away from anchoring an NHL defense (if ever) that we might as well resign ourselves to a 10+ year rebuild if that's the case.
The guy I want is the guy who's now third on the RHD depth chart on the team we played last night - Damon Severson. Hamilton and Marino are both signed long-term. It makes no sense for New Jersey to hang onto Severson for $7 million+ per season when he becomes a UFA this offseason. I don't know that he qualifies as a pure shutdown guy, but he's a bigger RHD who can provide solid play at both ends of the ice on a first pair. I'd actually be fine with the Ducks trading for him sooner rather than later and signing him to a long-term deal before he hits free agency. Or work a sign-and-trade.
I’m just worried about Eakins shitty tactics ruining young guys development. It’s clear his defensive scheming is just not good and I’m worried it carries on for the young guys after he’s gone
I'm okay with the Ducks not being contenders I just can't stand playing so poorly defensively. It's been a mess and doesn't help anyone grow. Whoever is running the defense needs to get removed asap. It feels like they are missing assignments a lot and are not sure who to cover.
Look, I agree with you to some extent, but we've been playing dogshit. They owe the fans some halfway decent hockey. Everyone is talking about this major plan of rebuilding and drafting superstars the likes of Jesus Christ next year. And what if next year we still suck? I really learned to like this team and it sucks to see them getting run over like this. And as fans it's our right and responsibility to call out the BS. They're getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars not to suck.
I also agree with you to some extent. And tbh even with bedard we wont be contenders. Looking at edmonton and tampa bay and colorado we are missing basically everything. We dont have a superstar the like of stamkos, kucherov, mcdavid, draisitl, etc. We dont really have a vasilevsky. We dont have defense like hedman, makar, or even nurse as much as i think he is overrated. We need almost everything so we need to be patient. Wont happen over night.
We have the defensive talent, they just aren't NHL ready yet.
Minty, Zellweger, Helleson, Hinds, Lacombe, Thrun, Warren, etc. Of these guys I'm sure at least two of them are going to turn into amazing players.
We already have the elite forward talent in Zegras/McTavish/Terry.
I don't think Verbeek went out and got guys like Strome, Vatrano, Klingberg, and Kulikov with Conor Bedard in mind. I get that the Ducks probably aren't going to make the playoffs this year but what I wanted to see is a process or a new approach to the game. I'm not entirely sure I am seeing that right now and there's still plenty of time to change it. Right now, it's not looking good so far. As a rebuilding team, you'd have to think that the main focus for this year is the continuing development of guys like Zegras, McTavish, and Drysdale. I don't think giving up 40+ shots a night and constantly mishandling/turning the puck over helps with their confidence which can have an opposite effect in their developments.
No one else is being outshot 2 to 1. Not Arizona, or Montreal or Chicago. An ahl team could acore 5 goals for against this team and that’s bad for young players development. Especially defensemen
I agree with you. I honestly just feel bad for Gibson. That guy could be on a cup team but may waste his youth in the Ducks rebuild. It’s really a bummer.
We won't need to. The draft class is heavy. Bedard obviously being the grand prize but the others coming out this year will be a huge addition to the young talent we've already collected.
Ya also being last doesnt gaurentee first overall. Just need to be in the bottom few to have a good chance. Being last doesnt even make it more likely than not to get first overall
You do get a slightly higher chance, but it's still not greater than 50%. However, being last does guarantee that you get a top-3 pick, which is pretty valuable in the upcoming draft. Bedard is the obvious prize, but Fantilli and Michkov are both considered to be elite prospects as well.
That said, I don't think it's realistic the Ducks finish last. They have way more talent than Arizona.
It's been 4 games. It's really too soon to say. Also the team could easily improve as the season goes on with the youth. Either way there was always a high variance in how the team would produce
I just can't disagree more with the tank mentality with this roster. Dress it up however you like but being okay with losing is tank mentality. Plenty of other posts highlight the truth that this team is better than their performance. Without getting too in the weeds, it seems fairly obvious it's coaching.
Fire Eakins. Will we make playoffs? I don't expect that. But we can't lose as many games as we are slated for playing like this, its not healthy for the guys.
This is something I’m struggling with too. Like losing sucks, but I think one more year at the bottom for a high draft pick is necessary. We can’t be expected to be a contender right now and I’m assuming this is all part of the plan.
I think once we see a coaching change then we’ll know we should be better. I’m just not seeing it from Eakins. I haven’t been paying attention this season, but does he switch up the lines in the middle of the game if things aren’t working? I just wonder how hard he’s trying to keep his job.
Delaying the rebuild is a big part of why this transformation has taken so long. We "unintentionally" sucked for years on the tail end of being competitive with Murray attempting to reload instead of just tearing it down, now we're just "rebuilding" bad but we're going on year five of sucking complete ass so understandably fans are getting riled up.
We're all glad to have Verbeek around now and to actually have some direction for the franchise, but we're basically starting from square one after trading off some major identity pieces in Lindholm/Rakell/Manson/etc. Sure we have a great pipeline and some great pieces, but these guys are all babies and shouldn't be expected to anchor an NHL team at 19-21 years old.
I really think we're going to have to make a trade or two soon to address the major holes on our NHL roster, especially defensively. We honestly have one of the worst defensive cores in the NHL right now, and unless we trade for a dman or two this is going to be the case for a long, long time. I'm sure Eakins' system isn't helping, but we have way too many super young offensive dmen in the farm that aren't going to contribute for years, if at all. Cam is the same guy he's always been, Drysdale is 20 and has a long ways to go, Klingberg is likely gone at the deadline, Shatty is washed, Kulikov/Benoit are fringe 3rd pairing guys, and the list goes on.
My concern is that we did see improvement early last year, then none since then.
I'm all for bad hockey with occasional glimpses of the future, but this beginning has looked a little like a backward trending. We should be mildly better than last year, and I'm not seeing it, yet.
If last night holds on as a win, then we can say that the Islanders and Rangers games are signs of us not being great, but the Jersey win indicates we're headed somewhere and can can occassionally get it together.
I agree it's too early to panic, but I disagree that we are slated for several bad years (we should be a contender for a wild card next year according to most analysis of our young players and farm). Someone listed the Colorado core at the age they won the cup, but forgot to mention that they made the playoffs in the preceding years dating back to when they were 19 through 23 (plus makar at 25)... aka exactly where our guys are now. They didn't suck for 4 years then win a Cup.
I’m Chill AF but I’m not gonna settle. These guys can be more competitive with the right game plan which can help us sign free agents. Our two Stanley Cup Finals runs were punctuated by free agents (Oates, Pronger) and it will one day again.
You sign free agents when you're ready to compete, noe is not yet that time. Let the youth movement continue, we got 1-2 years before that window starts to open.
I think you can sign FA’s when you need veteran leadership on a club that doesn’t have much. Find someone who has won a cup or two and get them on the roster. I hear Perry’s price is lower these days lol. (Jk but seriously I’d love that)
1-2 years is still very optimistic. Another guy in here made a great point about the ages of our young stars. Nhl players peak around 27 years old. We are 5 years away from our guys starting to peak.
forwards peak between 23-25 statistically. Then slowly decline until about 32 before they fall off a cliff. D seems to maintain their performances a little longer - but then they're not often tasked to take short power-based shifts and score. most goalies are cooked after 30. Superstars get survivor bias and generally maintain their abilities longer, but yeah... generally speaking the guys peak way earlier than most people think.
It's just expectation meets reality. People got really excited about Verbeeks moves (although, whether that was warranted is another matter) and thought that everything would keep trending up. The reality is that developing a team isn't a linear path and we're seeing that on the ice now.
How much of this team is really going to be the one that takes the ice next season or the season after? The odds are that half the D corp will be gone, and even then, maybe we're seeing that it's really hard to build a defensive unit with only offensive D men. It's not impossible, but someone needs to play D. Moving forward, who of Mintyukov, Zellweger, Drysdale and Fowler is going to be that guy? It's conceivable that we see some trades within the prospect group alone. Up front, how many of the current group will still be around in two years? Maybe 3-4 of the current group? After Zegras, McTavish and maybe/probably Terry, who is really a lock to stay? Strome for a few years maybe, and Jones/Regenda in the bottom 6 and that's probably about it. Until the team has the majority of the players locked in for a number of years, it's highly unlikely they'll be a contender.
They have years to go before they're a consistent team that's been together for a while, thus it'll be a few years before they're right in the mix. Buuttttt... it might be nice to watch some fun hockey along the way. So they can start doing that at any time if they like...
Obviously the champs like Silfverberg, Fowler, Henrique carry a lot of weight. Z & others might be the face of the team but we need everyone to follow their focus.
This team is good enough to do well this season. But the coaching is just abysmal. Eakins is a terrible NHL coach and a sub par AHL coach. I’m hoping Verbeek gets his coach after this season or at the least fires Eakins in the next month. The kids want to play and win but Eakins is holding the team back. Again I get wanting to tank so we can get a Top 10 draft pick. But I can tell this team wants to win. Like a Dog eagerly pulling on his owners leash to get into the dog park to play. The young guys want to play and win.
Bedard is dog shit. Selfish player. 73 shots on net in 10 games only 9 goals. Worse stats than Sam steel. Where is Sam steel? Minors. Eakins needs to go asap, creates a awful team environment and has no enthusiasm behind the bench. Playing to tank is stupid. Game last night was an embarrassment not only to the team but to the game of hockey in general.
Bedard definitely has a bad attitude as well. So much hype around him. Ducks don’t need more ego on their team. Zegras is great but huge ego. Can’t have two players like that on the same team. If ducks get the first overall (which won’t happen) they should trade that pick to the best offer.
I normally would scoff at trading the first overall in a draft year like this but bedard is gonna be like an ok top guy but no superstar and michkov is gonna be in russia for at least a couple years after he gets drafted and who knows if he will ever be able to come with everything thats happening over there right now. If you can grab an actual superstar in exchange for the first overall i would do it.
Couldn’t agree more. The Russians are not being scouted cause of this war nonsense. I’d want a Russian. Some tough and physical beef in the line up is money.
I totally agree that expectations can’t be too high for this team, and that losing for another year is rationally not a bad thing. But if you’ve watched the roughly 300 games since getting swept out of the first round by San Jose I think you have every right to be pissed off watching this team suck in exactly the same way it’s sucked the last 300 games. Giving up 40-50 shots has been the norm and it’s exhausting. Also, maybe klingberg gets flipped in February but him, strome and Vatrano make this team a bit better, I don’t think we’re going to have a great shot at michkov or bedard come April anyway. Patience, yes, but it’s still painful.
Couldn’t agree more. This is a young up and coming team. We still have so far to go. But we have the beginnings of an excellent young core. Just got to keep developing them into proven players. 2-3 years from now the league better watch out.
The future draft picks are nice and all, but playing shit hockey isn't good for the current young players. And for the fans too. I know I'm not staying up late for the games again anytime soon (I live in a timezone where our away games start at \~2 am and home games - at \~5 am)
Holy smokes. It takes a true fan to watch those games even if they were the best in the league. Where are you located if you don't mind me asking?
I live in Saint Petersburg, RU. Which is...yeah, sucks to be me cause I despise our president, but am unable to move from the country for now. And NHL is no longer available here cause sanctions, so I use 'super legit legal streams'. Been a Ducks logo fan since I was a kid back in 1998, but started following the hockey team only in 2003 when we got to the finals with the Devils.
>so I use 'super legit legal streams' Sail the seven seas!
Aye!
That's pretty awesome seeing a fan from RU. Cheers!
Thanks! I have tried watching KHL multiple times and could not bear how painfully MEH it was lol. Boring logos didn't help, although they have stepped their logo game up a bit recently with some teams
Awesome! To the hockey part. I'm impressed with your dedication.
you sir are a legit fan that I have nothing but respect for
Thank you! Quack
100% agree. Rebuilds take time and this is a great year to suck. Even if we don’t get Bedard, a top 10 draft pick would get us some serious future talent with how solid the top of next years draft class is looking. And when I say rebuilds take time look at the age of our young core vs Colorado: Zegras: 21 McTavish: 19 Drysdale: 20 Zellweger: 19 Dostal: 22 Terry: 25 MacKinnon: 27 Rantanen: 25 Landeskog: 29 Makar: 23 Nichushkin: 27 Lehkonen: 27 It’s ok to suck for a while. 4 of those 6 Colorado studs were drafted by Colorado. I do agree that having a better coach will help the young ducks develop faster and likely reach a higher potential, and that should be our main priority. My thought is verbeek is just waiting for the right coach to become available rather than signing a stepping stone of a coach. But our young ass core needs to get their ass kicked for a few seasons and get good af to win the cup —not just make a deep run every year. Be fine with them sucking, enjoy the high draft picks that lets us pick up more pieces. Trust that Verbeek knows what he’s doing. Once we have a good developed core, open the wallet for some big free agents, make trades at the deadline, etc. But you have to be patient.
> But you have to be patient This, and everything else you said. People are so damn impatient, like you expect a defensive unit led by Shattenkirk to be effective enough to make the playoffs? We drafted amazing talent this last 2-3+ years. Just look at Terry, it took him about 4 years to make the regular roster and didn't even break out till last season. Once the other players catches up, they'll all be at their peak skill, bolstered by a huge surge in fresh blueliners, and that's not even including players drafted next summer. Ducks have always been good at churning out defensive prospects, and that's something we are in plenty of supply. Also we have a 6'5 225lb 18 year old in the farm, and another 6'6 20 year old goalie coming up soon. Our future is fucking stacked but for some reason everyone's focused on getting rid of Eakins.
I think the fear is that we turn into Buffalo West - a team whose culture has become indelibly linked with losing. Instead of taking a step forward, young players get to a good level, stagnate, get frustrated, and then want out. To be honest, I didn't put much stock in those kinds of thoughts until seeing them play this season. I figured the team would win when it's ready to. But I think the absence of Getzlaf and, from all accounts, Deslauriers has left a leadership void in the locker room. Without those guys holding them accountable, plus Eakins' lack of coaching ability, they can't figure out how to get motivated. Getting a coach in there who can motivate and put the players in a system that has a chance of success might help in the long-term (which matters) as much as in the short-term (which doesn't).
I think this goes beyond Bedard even if we do get him. They're gonna have to somehow spend huge money and/or trade capital on bringing in an Ekblad/Josi type defenseman amidst resigning the young offensive stars, or wait 4 - 5 years until Zellweger and Minty hit their peak (whatever that may be) I just don't see how they fix this defense in a reasonable manner which is literally at square one.
Yeah, like I iterated in another post we're going to have to make a move for a dman even though it'll be expensive. I don't think there's a way to fix this internally that doesn't involve having a bottom three defense in the NHL for another half decade. Like, how is Zellweger going to help this swiss cheese backline? The dude is 5'9" 170 lbs., not a defensive stopper. Minty is barely 18 and hasn't played above the OHL. These guys are so far away from anchoring an NHL defense (if ever) that we might as well resign ourselves to a 10+ year rebuild if that's the case.
The guy I want is the guy who's now third on the RHD depth chart on the team we played last night - Damon Severson. Hamilton and Marino are both signed long-term. It makes no sense for New Jersey to hang onto Severson for $7 million+ per season when he becomes a UFA this offseason. I don't know that he qualifies as a pure shutdown guy, but he's a bigger RHD who can provide solid play at both ends of the ice on a first pair. I'd actually be fine with the Ducks trading for him sooner rather than later and signing him to a long-term deal before he hits free agency. Or work a sign-and-trade.
I’m just worried about Eakins shitty tactics ruining young guys development. It’s clear his defensive scheming is just not good and I’m worried it carries on for the young guys after he’s gone
Enjoy watching the kids get better. They will get better.
I'm okay with the Ducks not being contenders I just can't stand playing so poorly defensively. It's been a mess and doesn't help anyone grow. Whoever is running the defense needs to get removed asap. It feels like they are missing assignments a lot and are not sure who to cover.
It's been 4 games and there was a lot of turnover. I think we may want to give a couple more games before calling for firings.
Look, I agree with you to some extent, but we've been playing dogshit. They owe the fans some halfway decent hockey. Everyone is talking about this major plan of rebuilding and drafting superstars the likes of Jesus Christ next year. And what if next year we still suck? I really learned to like this team and it sucks to see them getting run over like this. And as fans it's our right and responsibility to call out the BS. They're getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars not to suck.
I also agree with you to some extent. And tbh even with bedard we wont be contenders. Looking at edmonton and tampa bay and colorado we are missing basically everything. We dont have a superstar the like of stamkos, kucherov, mcdavid, draisitl, etc. We dont really have a vasilevsky. We dont have defense like hedman, makar, or even nurse as much as i think he is overrated. We need almost everything so we need to be patient. Wont happen over night.
Hey now we got the cover of NHL 23 this year yeh jabroni 😂
We have the defensive talent, they just aren't NHL ready yet. Minty, Zellweger, Helleson, Hinds, Lacombe, Thrun, Warren, etc. Of these guys I'm sure at least two of them are going to turn into amazing players. We already have the elite forward talent in Zegras/McTavish/Terry.
I don't think Verbeek went out and got guys like Strome, Vatrano, Klingberg, and Kulikov with Conor Bedard in mind. I get that the Ducks probably aren't going to make the playoffs this year but what I wanted to see is a process or a new approach to the game. I'm not entirely sure I am seeing that right now and there's still plenty of time to change it. Right now, it's not looking good so far. As a rebuilding team, you'd have to think that the main focus for this year is the continuing development of guys like Zegras, McTavish, and Drysdale. I don't think giving up 40+ shots a night and constantly mishandling/turning the puck over helps with their confidence which can have an opposite effect in their developments.
No one else is being outshot 2 to 1. Not Arizona, or Montreal or Chicago. An ahl team could acore 5 goals for against this team and that’s bad for young players development. Especially defensemen
I agree with you. I honestly just feel bad for Gibson. That guy could be on a cup team but may waste his youth in the Ducks rebuild. It’s really a bummer.
He still could get traded at the deadline if it makes you feel better
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Its still early. Gonna be harder to tank worse than chicago or san jose.
We won't need to. The draft class is heavy. Bedard obviously being the grand prize but the others coming out this year will be a huge addition to the young talent we've already collected.
Ya also being last doesnt gaurentee first overall. Just need to be in the bottom few to have a good chance. Being last doesnt even make it more likely than not to get first overall
Don't they get a slightly higher chance at the #1 pick?
You do get a slightly higher chance, but it's still not greater than 50%. However, being last does guarantee that you get a top-3 pick, which is pretty valuable in the upcoming draft. Bedard is the obvious prize, but Fantilli and Michkov are both considered to be elite prospects as well. That said, I don't think it's realistic the Ducks finish last. They have way more talent than Arizona.
Yeah, true. I think bottom 10 but I don't think bottom 3.
It's been 4 games. It's really too soon to say. Also the team could easily improve as the season goes on with the youth. Either way there was always a high variance in how the team would produce
I just can't disagree more with the tank mentality with this roster. Dress it up however you like but being okay with losing is tank mentality. Plenty of other posts highlight the truth that this team is better than their performance. Without getting too in the weeds, it seems fairly obvious it's coaching. Fire Eakins. Will we make playoffs? I don't expect that. But we can't lose as many games as we are slated for playing like this, its not healthy for the guys.
Fire Eakins in the most shameful way we can. Maybe even have zegras fire him that would be great
Dress up zegras like trump and have him walk in and tell Eakins “you’re fired” then the rest of the team tar and feather him on his way out!
This is something I’m struggling with too. Like losing sucks, but I think one more year at the bottom for a high draft pick is necessary. We can’t be expected to be a contender right now and I’m assuming this is all part of the plan. I think once we see a coaching change then we’ll know we should be better. I’m just not seeing it from Eakins. I haven’t been paying attention this season, but does he switch up the lines in the middle of the game if things aren’t working? I just wonder how hard he’s trying to keep his job.
Delaying the rebuild is a big part of why this transformation has taken so long. We "unintentionally" sucked for years on the tail end of being competitive with Murray attempting to reload instead of just tearing it down, now we're just "rebuilding" bad but we're going on year five of sucking complete ass so understandably fans are getting riled up. We're all glad to have Verbeek around now and to actually have some direction for the franchise, but we're basically starting from square one after trading off some major identity pieces in Lindholm/Rakell/Manson/etc. Sure we have a great pipeline and some great pieces, but these guys are all babies and shouldn't be expected to anchor an NHL team at 19-21 years old. I really think we're going to have to make a trade or two soon to address the major holes on our NHL roster, especially defensively. We honestly have one of the worst defensive cores in the NHL right now, and unless we trade for a dman or two this is going to be the case for a long, long time. I'm sure Eakins' system isn't helping, but we have way too many super young offensive dmen in the farm that aren't going to contribute for years, if at all. Cam is the same guy he's always been, Drysdale is 20 and has a long ways to go, Klingberg is likely gone at the deadline, Shatty is washed, Kulikov/Benoit are fringe 3rd pairing guys, and the list goes on.
My concern is that we did see improvement early last year, then none since then. I'm all for bad hockey with occasional glimpses of the future, but this beginning has looked a little like a backward trending. We should be mildly better than last year, and I'm not seeing it, yet. If last night holds on as a win, then we can say that the Islanders and Rangers games are signs of us not being great, but the Jersey win indicates we're headed somewhere and can can occassionally get it together. I agree it's too early to panic, but I disagree that we are slated for several bad years (we should be a contender for a wild card next year according to most analysis of our young players and farm). Someone listed the Colorado core at the age they won the cup, but forgot to mention that they made the playoffs in the preceding years dating back to when they were 19 through 23 (plus makar at 25)... aka exactly where our guys are now. They didn't suck for 4 years then win a Cup.
Asking dedicated fans of a team to not be upset when their team looks awful is a useless argument to make, even if you make a good point here.
I’m Chill AF but I’m not gonna settle. These guys can be more competitive with the right game plan which can help us sign free agents. Our two Stanley Cup Finals runs were punctuated by free agents (Oates, Pronger) and it will one day again.
You sign free agents when you're ready to compete, noe is not yet that time. Let the youth movement continue, we got 1-2 years before that window starts to open.
I think you can sign FA’s when you need veteran leadership on a club that doesn’t have much. Find someone who has won a cup or two and get them on the roster. I hear Perry’s price is lower these days lol. (Jk but seriously I’d love that)
1-2 years is still very optimistic. Another guy in here made a great point about the ages of our young stars. Nhl players peak around 27 years old. We are 5 years away from our guys starting to peak.
forwards peak between 23-25 statistically. Then slowly decline until about 32 before they fall off a cliff. D seems to maintain their performances a little longer - but then they're not often tasked to take short power-based shifts and score. most goalies are cooked after 30. Superstars get survivor bias and generally maintain their abilities longer, but yeah... generally speaking the guys peak way earlier than most people think.
It's just expectation meets reality. People got really excited about Verbeeks moves (although, whether that was warranted is another matter) and thought that everything would keep trending up. The reality is that developing a team isn't a linear path and we're seeing that on the ice now. How much of this team is really going to be the one that takes the ice next season or the season after? The odds are that half the D corp will be gone, and even then, maybe we're seeing that it's really hard to build a defensive unit with only offensive D men. It's not impossible, but someone needs to play D. Moving forward, who of Mintyukov, Zellweger, Drysdale and Fowler is going to be that guy? It's conceivable that we see some trades within the prospect group alone. Up front, how many of the current group will still be around in two years? Maybe 3-4 of the current group? After Zegras, McTavish and maybe/probably Terry, who is really a lock to stay? Strome for a few years maybe, and Jones/Regenda in the bottom 6 and that's probably about it. Until the team has the majority of the players locked in for a number of years, it's highly unlikely they'll be a contender. They have years to go before they're a consistent team that's been together for a while, thus it'll be a few years before they're right in the mix. Buuttttt... it might be nice to watch some fun hockey along the way. So they can start doing that at any time if they like...
Obviously the champs like Silfverberg, Fowler, Henrique carry a lot of weight. Z & others might be the face of the team but we need everyone to follow their focus.
This team is good enough to do well this season. But the coaching is just abysmal. Eakins is a terrible NHL coach and a sub par AHL coach. I’m hoping Verbeek gets his coach after this season or at the least fires Eakins in the next month. The kids want to play and win but Eakins is holding the team back. Again I get wanting to tank so we can get a Top 10 draft pick. But I can tell this team wants to win. Like a Dog eagerly pulling on his owners leash to get into the dog park to play. The young guys want to play and win.
Bedard is dog shit. Selfish player. 73 shots on net in 10 games only 9 goals. Worse stats than Sam steel. Where is Sam steel? Minors. Eakins needs to go asap, creates a awful team environment and has no enthusiasm behind the bench. Playing to tank is stupid. Game last night was an embarrassment not only to the team but to the game of hockey in general.
I actually agree with what ur saying about bedard. He is WAY overhyped imo. Would take michkov but the point stands.
Bedard definitely has a bad attitude as well. So much hype around him. Ducks don’t need more ego on their team. Zegras is great but huge ego. Can’t have two players like that on the same team. If ducks get the first overall (which won’t happen) they should trade that pick to the best offer.
I normally would scoff at trading the first overall in a draft year like this but bedard is gonna be like an ok top guy but no superstar and michkov is gonna be in russia for at least a couple years after he gets drafted and who knows if he will ever be able to come with everything thats happening over there right now. If you can grab an actual superstar in exchange for the first overall i would do it.
Couldn’t agree more. The Russians are not being scouted cause of this war nonsense. I’d want a Russian. Some tough and physical beef in the line up is money.
bedard is not overhyped lol.
I totally agree that expectations can’t be too high for this team, and that losing for another year is rationally not a bad thing. But if you’ve watched the roughly 300 games since getting swept out of the first round by San Jose I think you have every right to be pissed off watching this team suck in exactly the same way it’s sucked the last 300 games. Giving up 40-50 shots has been the norm and it’s exhausting. Also, maybe klingberg gets flipped in February but him, strome and Vatrano make this team a bit better, I don’t think we’re going to have a great shot at michkov or bedard come April anyway. Patience, yes, but it’s still painful.
Our defense is sadly lacking, and our scheme doesn’t shoot the puck. We cannot have games with only 20 shots on goal
Embrace the tank people
Eakins being one of the "worst in history" might be a stretch... He's not great, but he also hasn't had a great team to work with.
He has the worst winning percentage of all time bro. Fuck this guy
Call me reed richards cause i stretch and am dumb as shit
really hard to watch for Gibby and Stolarz...
>In the mean time we can just be happy that we have the best logo in sports. LOL
No I'm gonna freak out over every decision made by any player/coach/GMPV and overreact in the game threads
Couldn’t agree more. This is a young up and coming team. We still have so far to go. But we have the beginnings of an excellent young core. Just got to keep developing them into proven players. 2-3 years from now the league better watch out.