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Vancouver Canucks Pacific Division Opponents: Sizing Up the Anaheim Ducks |
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Jim Benning surprised us last week by pulling the trigger on the Brandon Sutter trade, but there's a good chance that'll be the last of the player personnel moves we'll see until we get to the prospects camp in early September.
For that reason, I'll start broadening the scope of the blog this month, looking at some bigger-picture issues that could affect the team next season.
When there's news, we'll dissect it. When there isn't, let's take a closer look at the lay of the land surrounding the Canucks next season.
There has been a lot of talk about how the other teams in the Pacific Division this summer have improved much more than the Canucks. I'll go through them team-by-team over the next couple of weeks, looking more closely at the changes they've made and where they stand.
First up: the Anaheim Ducks.
The Ducks finished first in the Western Conference last season and third overall in the league with 109 points—winning the tiebreaker with the St. Louis Blues by virtue of one additional regulation/overtime win even though the two teams finished with the exact same record.
The regular-season result was a drop of seven points from the previous season, not bad considering the team scored 30 less goals and gave up 17 more. The losses of Teemu Selanne, Saku Koivu and Jonas Hiller could have contributed to those numbers.
So did Corey Perry's tumultuous season, in which he went through a bout of the mumps and a serious knee injury that caused him to miss a total of 15 games. Perry's point production dropped from 82 to 55 and he scored just three game-winning goals last season compared to nine the year before.
Of course, Anaheim's big addition last season was our old pal Ryan Kesler, who's currently gracing the team's splash page after signing a massive $41.25 million contract extension a couple of weeks ago.
Kesler delivered almost exactly as promised, posting 47 points and four game-winning goals in 81 games after putting up 43 points and five game-winners for Vancouver the year before. He also delivered his solid face-off numbers, ranking ninth in the league with a 56.3 success rate.
The Ducks organization was more than willing to accept a regular-season backslide if it meant a better performance in the playoffs. After missing completely in 2011-12, they were eliminated in Game 7 of the first round by Detroit the following season, then Game 7 of the second round by L.A. in 2014-15 and—yep—Game 7 of the third round last year. All three of those Game 7 losses were home games for Anaheim—that's the kind of record that can leave a fanbase feeling mighty disillusioned.
Kesler was solid in the playoffs with 13 points in 16 games and tied for second on the team with seven goals, but the Ducks haven't won a Game 7 since the first round of 2005-06, the year before they won their Stanley Cup. As for coach Bruce Boudreau, he finally made it past the second round for the first time as a coach, but he has only one Game 7 win to his credit in his entire coaching career—in the first round against the Rangers when he was coaching Washington back in 2008-09.
The Ducks rolled over in Game 7 against the Blackhawks this year, losing 5-3, but the organization elected to keep Boudreau and his coaching staff on board for another season and build around its existing core.
Here are the personnel changes the team has made this summer.
Departures:
• Francois Beauchemin (D) - now 35 years old, Beauchemin was the Ducks' high-minute man last season at 22:44 per game and was second to Hampus Lindholm at plus-17. Beauchemin scored a career-high 11 goals as part of his 23 points for the Ducks last season, and added nine assists in the playoffs.
• Matt Beleskey (LW) - third on the Ducks last season with 22 goals, 27-year-old Beleskey had a breakout season that earned him a tidy $19 million free-agent contract with the Boston Bruins last month.
• Tomas Fleischmann (LW) - playing just 14 regular-season and six playoff games with the Ducks after he was acquired from Florida at the trade deadline, the 31-year-old UFA will not be re-signed.
• James Wisniewski (D) - acquired from Columbus at the trade deadline after a short stint in Anaheim earlier in his career, Wisniewski played 13 regular-season games but was a healthy scratch for the entire playoffs. He was traded to Carolina at the draft for insurance backup goaltender Anton Khudobin.
• Kyle Palmieri (RW) - a versatile forward who can play all three positions, 24-year-old first-rounder Palmieri was dealt to New Jersey at the draft for second round and third-round draft picks. Palmieri had a tough season with injuries last year, playing just 57 games due to ankle and shoulder issues.
• Emerson Etem (RW) - coming out of his entry-level contract without having scored more than 11 points in any of his three NHL seasons, the speedy Etem was dealt to the New York Rangers at the draft in exchange for the rights to RFA Carl Hagelin.
• Marc Fistric (D) - after dealing with a rash of injuries and seeing limited action at the NHL level during two seasons in the Ducks organization, former Vancouver Giant (and former first-rounder) Fistric has been bought out of the last two years of a contract extension that took effect last season, with a cap hit of $1.266 million a season.
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• Nate Thompson (C) is still with the team, but had shoulder surgery in June and is expected to be out 5-6 months
Arrivals:
• Kevin Bieska (D) - for all intents and purposes, it looks like Bieksa will be expected to fill Beauchemin's role, which could be a rude awakening for the Ducks and their fans. Bieksa's tougher than Beauchemin, but he posted just 14 points in 60 games last season—a significant drop-off from his performance in past seasons.
Bieksa is also injury-prone. It's hard to say how durable he'll be now that he's getting up there at 34 years of age.
Bieksa has the highest cap hit of any Ducks defenseman this year, at $4.6 million, though he's only due $2.5 million in salary. Anaheim has already signed him to a two-year extension at $4 million a year.
• Carl Hagelin (LW) - the speedster acquired in the Emerson Etem trade, Carl Hagelin is 26 and has performed consistently during his four seasons with the New York Rangers, to the tune of about 15 goals and 35 points. He's an upgrade from Etem, offensively, but still needs to be signed to a new contract that will pay him as such. Hagelin also hasn't shown much in the playoffs in a pretty big sample with the Rangers: he has 26 points in 73 games over four seasons for .36 points per game.
• Chris Stewart (RW) - a value signing at just $1.7 million, I think of Chris Stewart as this year's Dany Heatley for the Ducks—low risk, but with high possible reward.
It didn't work out with Heatley, who played just six games for the Ducks in 2014-15 before spending the rest of the season in the AHL. Still just 27 years old, fellow former first-rounder Stewart has a better chance to re-claim his game. Stewart scored 28 goals and 64 points in his sophomore season with Colorado in 2009-10 but hasn't scored more than 36 points since. He looked pretty good after the trade deadline when he was picked up by the Minnesota Wild, but managed just two assists in eight playoff games.
• Shawn Horcoff (C) - Horcoff will be 37 by the time the season begins and will be a decade removed from his career-high 73-point season that set the stage for the Edmonton Oilers' run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2005-06. His 29 points and plus-nine rating in Dallas last year actually weren't too bad for an old guy playing in a depth role.
The Ducks picks up Horcoff on a one-year deal at $1.75 million. He'll win the team some face offs and provide depth down the middle while Nate Thompson is sidelined.
• Anton Khudobin (G) - with a cap hit of $2.25 million, 29-year-old Khudobin the oldest, the most experienced and the most expensive of Anaheim's three goalies. His 91 games over three seasons beat the 82 played by Freddy Andersen in his first two NHL seasons, though Andersen has playoff experience which Khudobin does not.
General manager Bob Murray picked up Khudobin from Carolina after Eddie Lack's acquisition made him expendable. Murray downplayed the Khudobin acquisition as "insurance" after he was forced to sign an aging Ilya Bryzgalov and rely on minor-leaguer Jason LaBarbera when his starters dealt with injuries last season.
Insurance or not, it's unlikely that the team will carry three goalies on its roster. That probably means it's back to the minors for John Gibson, who struggled with injuries last season. With just 26 regular-season and four playoff games on his NHL resume, Gibson can be sent to the AHL without needing to clear waivers.
Work to Be Done:
Amazingly, the Ducks currently sit 30th on the NHL's salary list—below Arizona with just $55.3 million committed to 22 players, including those three goalies.
That cap number will increase when Murray inks his two unrestricted free agents. Carl Hagelin was dealt from the New York Rangers because he'll earn a significant increase over the $2.25 million cap hit that he carried for the last two seasons, and Jakob Silfverberg is in line for a big increase over the one-year deal he signed for $850,000 last season after scoring a career-high 39 regular-season points and, more importantly, 18 points in 16 playoff games—the one player on the Ducks other than Kesler who really stepped up his game in the postseason.
Outlook for 2014-15:
After getting rid of steady Beauchemin and a crop of their young forwards in Palmieri, Beleskey and Etem, the Ducks will have a decidedly different look next season.
If Bruce Boudreau expects to see Kevin Bieksa eat Beauchemin's minutes and mentor the team's younger blueliners—well, that'd be good news for the Canucks and Anaheim's other opponents.
The Ducks draft so well that they have another crop of youngsters looking to play bigger roles up front next season, including Richard Rakell and trade-deadline acquisition Jiri Sekac.
If Corey Perry gets back on track, that'll help, but my first impression is to expect the Anaheim Ducks of 2015-16 to take a step backwards.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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