yave1964 Posted June 29, 2017 Share Posted June 29, 2017 201617 A QUICK LOOK BACK: After losing in the playoffs the year before the big move was firing long time coach Boudreau and bringing back Randy Carlyle, the man he had replaced who won a cup in 207 with the team. The season began with promise, normal division rivals San Jose and Los Angeles looked to be down, Edmonton too young so many thought the Ducks should cruise through the season without much trouble in the division, they didnt exactly run away with it but they established themselves as the team to beat out West early and had a solid year. Beating Calgary easily, holding off a surprisingly difficult young Oilers team, the Ducks finally fell in the conference final in a heartbreaking series to the Predators. Ryan Getzlaf who had slipped a bit for several years came on and had a great year, Rikard Rackell was a vulture out front knocking in 33 goals, Kesler was his usual fantastic two way self. Patrick Eaves came over from Dallas and had 11 goals in 20 games. Vets such as Silferberg, Cogliano, Vermette and Bieksa played to script doing what was expected of them. Cam Fowler established himself as the king of the hill on one of the leagues best defenses. John gibson rewarded the Ducks faith in him by having a solid year while Bernier made a statement that while he may not be a true number one he is a solid number two. Josh Manson established himself as a hard hitting piece of work. As for what went wrong, the regular season of Corey Perry was very un Perry-esque as he only managed a weak 19 goals. Vatanen struggled at times on defense as did Lindholm although both were good, just not as good as in years past. Talented Nick Ritchie never quite found his role.Nate Thompson missed much of the year and never got going when he came back. At the end of the season they felt they were strong enough on defense to work a side deal with the expansion Knights to give them talented rear guard Shea Theodore and then they resigned Eaves, taking care of their own business ahead of the draft and free agency. Then long time Ducks Selanne and Kariya were just elected to the Hall of Fame. FREE AGENTS BERNIER is a free agent and after a solid season will get solid offers, the Ducks are waiting to see what his market is before deciding on either him or Ryan Miller as the backup to Gibson. THOMPSON is welcome back on a show me deal he likely will not get many offers elsewhere. OFFSEASON QUESTION MARKS: 1) SO CLOSE, NOW WHAT? Well in my opinion they answered that, they are going to stay the course and other than Theodore they will return more or less the same roster with some solid kids mixed in. . The hope is that the Perry/Getzlaf era has another run in them. 2) HOW ARE THEY STOCKED AS FAR AS YOUTH GOES? ARE'NT THEY ONE OF THE LEAGUES OLDEST TEAMS? Yes they have a few graybeards in Kesler/Getzlaf/Perry and a few more but the truth is this team has been quietly rebuilding on the fly and staying relevant all along. Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie both joined the crew last year and didnt embarrass themselves, more is expected this season. Sam Steel will likely be at the AHL level last year but is one to watch as a scoring center. Brandon Montour will join one of the leagues best defenses full time, projected first rounded Maxime Comtois fell to the Ducks in the second and helps to continue to stock their shelves. Jacob Larsson a first rounder from 2015 will be pushing Holzer and Bieksa for ice time and along with Montour and Manson may make Vatanen expendable. This is a surprisingly young team in terms of skill players and ready to stay relevant for the foreseeable future. 3) IS GIBSON THE ANSWER? Probably, he was solid, not great last year but solid in his first year after running Andersen out of town. He will continue to own the lion share of time in net but will likely be backed up by a safe vet such as Bernier, Miller or Mason who has started in the recent past just in case. The team is too well built for a goalie not to succeed, he just has to make the average stops and let the players in front of him do their thing. A well built organization made it to the final four, returning more or less the entire team, no reason not to expect more of the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 A great story for the Ducks... Very nice gesture. Bravo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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