Greetings from the temporary command center in Williamsburg, Va. Today's blog will be kind of short, not because there is a tropical storm headed for us, but because I'm on vacation.
The Ducks came into last week's NHL draft with a BANG by trading for Ryan Kesler. He is probably one of the best second line centers in the league as well as an excellent penalty killer and can play the wing on the power play. Even better, the Ducks payed a more than fair price for him and didn't add much payroll.
Following the Kessler pick up, the Ducks had a BOOM of a draft. Three picks in the top 55 yielded some very good prospects. First Round pick Nick Ritchie has the foundation to be a quality power forward. In the second round, Swedish defenseman Marcus Petterson was chosen. Standing an impressive 6' 3… and weighing a paltry 150lbs, he is an intriguing prospect. No doubt he has first round talent, but Petterson needs to seriously bulk up in order to be an effective NHLer. With the 55th pick, Brandon Montour, a Umass-Amherst bound blue liner was selected. He was named as the USHL's top defenseman last season. The fireworks show sort of FIZZLED after that. The Ducks acquired center Nate Thompson from Tampa Bay in exchange for two draft picks. On this team Thompson is a third line center at best and may wind up on the fourth line. Thompson's arrival coincided with Mathieu Perrault's departure. Perrault, a Restricted Free Agent, was not offered a tender, but was offered a new contract; which he passed on in order to sign with Winnipeg.
Next came the DUDS. Defenseman Clayton Stoner was signed to a four-year, $13M contract. My reaction to that was “Are you kidding me?… Dan Boyle got $9M for two seasons, and there were better options available than Stoner. I don't believe he is worth the money. In the last four years with Minnesota, Stoner has not: played in more than 63 games, averaged 18:15 in average time on ice, or scored more than 10 points in a single season. The Stoner acquisition was followed by the signing of goalie Jason Labarbera. I understand that he was acquired as an insurance plan in case John Gibson or Frederik Anderson fails, but he has also had an underwhelming NHL career.
That's all for now. I'll check back in later this week.
-Ed