The Anaheim Ducks are in an interesting spot right now, where they aren’t necessarily committing to a rebuild but they are shifting to a younger core.
With Josh Manson turning 29 years old around the start of next season and two more years remaining on his contract, it raises the question as to whether he’ll be kept long-term or traded at some point for future assets. I had floated this idea in an earlier article which examined whether the Ducks could efficiently “retool” without actually rebuilding but I wanted to dig a bit deeper in a separate article.
Manson would be 31 years old for the first season of a new contract two years down the road, which is certainly getting up there in age. You have to imagine he’d be looking for another deal around four years and considering Anaheim is in the process of getting younger, would they really want to lock up a defenseman in his thirties?
I imagine if they were to move him, he’d be able to fetch a return very similar to that of Alec Martinez this season. Martinez was traded with a year and a half left on his contract at almost the same AAV and fetched Los Angeles two second-round picks. Manson does have a no-trade list of 12 teams but that would be somewhat easy to work around.
The big problem though is that unlike Los Angeles, the Ducks don’t really have anyone who’d be able to step in to replace Manson in the next few years. Manson is Anaheim’s top right-handed defenseman and logged over 20 minutes per game this year for the third season in a row. As a result, he wouldn't be easy to replace. Almost all of the young defensemen in the organization are left-handed, like Brendan Guhle, Jacob Larsson and Josh Mahura, with Axel Andersson as the notable exception. There’s certainly nobody who’s close to being NHL-ready who could replace Manson anytime soon.
I think we won’t really know which direction the Ducks are going to go on this until we see how the Ducks start next season. If Anaheim isn’t going to be competitive again, however, it could make sense to move Manson while his value is high, even if there’s no immediate replacement within the system.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Ducks Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Ducks for updates on articles, Ducks news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted this weekend):
If the Ducks aren't in a position to compete again next season, should they trade Josh Manson?