Anaheim Ducks Sign Chris Stewart – Bargain or Bust?
We analyze Anaheim’s newest addition and toss around our two cents like we know what the hell we are doing!
The Anaheim Ducks signed right winger Chris Stewart to a one-year contract Saturday for a reported $1.7 million.
The question is, is this money well-spent for the Anaheim Ducks?
Forgot the price tag: no one is going to argue that $1.7 million is too much to pay for an NHL player who has scored 28 goals twice during his career. However, Stewart was not one of the free agents I was hoping to see the Ducks sign, and at first I wondered how well this admittedly low-risk decision will pay off.
Having not really watched Stewart play that much this past season, I reached out to my friends over at FanSided’s Sabre Noise to see what they had to say about the ex-Sabres player. Here is what co-editor Jacob Strozyk had to say:
"My thoughts on Stewart would be that he is a capable power winger with some scoring punch. He is very very inconsistent and can sometimes be lazy. He’s kind of like Drew Stafford but with more willingness to throw his weight around and stand up for himself. Is he a top level winger? No. Would he compliment Ryan Kesler? If he becomes more consistent, yes.Good overall hockey player and he’s worth the 1.7M Anaheim paid him."
Look: I’m always wary of a guy who has more than twice the number of penalty minutes (535) than he does points (264) in his career. The time they are a’changing, and besides, the Ducks did not lose to the Chicago Blackhawks because they met a team that played more physical. The Anaheim Ducks lost to the Stanley Cup champions because they were slower, less experienced, and could not find a way to get the puck in the net in Games 6 & 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
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Even so, Stewart is not a one-trick pony like Brian McGrattan; Stewart has scored 30+ points for times in his career, including a career-best 28-36-64 in 77 games with the Colorado Avalanche in 2009-2010. He actually led the St. Louis Blues with 18-18-36 in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season, so he has shown that he does more than just throw his body around – not that that’s a bad thing, by the way.
Still, my concern with the roster the Anaheim Ducks skated in the WCF was that it was too slow. Acquiring Carl Hagelin from the New York Rangers was a nice move, certainly, but should the Ducks stop there? Again, Sabre Noise had something to say:
@PucksofaFeather he has decent speed. At his size, it may be a little surprising.
— SabreNoise (@sabrenoise) July 13, 2015
At $1.7 million, it is hard to complain about this signing. I don’t know if Chris Stewart will work his way onto the second line with Ryan Kesler or not – frankly, I think Jakob Silfverberg is going to have a breakout 2015-2016 campaign – but he’s tough, has a quick shot, and is a threat to score 20+ goals if he’s so inclined. I still hope to see at least one more upgrade, speed-wise, added to the Anaheim Ducks’ roster this summer, but I definitely see why GM Bob Murray brought Stewart into the duck pond!