Anaheim Ducks Monthly Mailbag – Your questions, our answers

Anaheim Ducks fans, you ask, we answer. It’s our newest Friday Feature, the Monthly Mailbag.

Q1) Who is most likely to be traded this off-season?

Would you believe the Anaheim Ducks have only eight forwards and five defensemen (including Korbinian Holzer) signed for next season? Ondrej Kase, Nick Ritchie, and Brandon Montour are all restricted free agents. Obviously, the three of them will get nice raises this summer. When they do sign, it still leaves Anaheim three forwards and two defensemen short and close to $70M of cap space used.

Even if the cap goes up 3% (iffy) it would be $77.25M. Somebody needs to go and it will probably be Jakob Silfverberg. 2018-19 is the last year of his current contract that pays him $3.75M. GM Bob Murray is going to need that money in order to field a competitive team. Remember the Ducks have an internal budget which is a bit lower than the cap.

Adam Henrique is in the same contractual situation as Silfverberg and makes $250K more. The reason he stays over Silfverberg is that Henrique is a more flexible player. plus it’s hard to find top six centers for what he makes.

I think Murray should also deal Nick Ritchie. The former 10^th overall pick in 2014 isn’t a bust, rather he hasn’t excelled under Randy Carlyle. A change of scenery would benefit his career. Ritchie’s trade value will continue drop, so he should be dealt sooner rather than later.

Q2) Look into your crystal ball, what will the Ducks top six look like, 2 years from now?

If I could really do this accurately, I’d have a prime spot in the Anaheim Ducks offices. I can, however, make an educated guess as to who will be in the mix.

First and foremost is Rickard Rakell. He is the Ducks best offensive player now and he won’t be 25-years-old until May. If his career scoring trend continues, Rakell may be a 75 or 80 point per season player.

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Ondrej Kase is a top-six player in waiting. His current line with Ritchie and Henrique is a quasi-second line now. The Czech Republic native is only 23 and is already half point per game performer. With a little more seasoning, he could be a legitimate scoring threat.

One of Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry will still have an offensive role with the team in two years, not both. Both of them are physical players so a third line checking role is not out of the question. By then they will be 35, but I’d lean toward Getzlaf in the top six due to his playmaking prowess.

Next year both Max Jones and Sam Steel should see significant time with the club. By 2019-20, the pair of 2016 first-round draft picks will be important parts of the team. Or so, the plan is.

That still leaves one spot and I don’t have a clue, but whoever it is probably isn’t part of the organization right now. It could be this year’s first-round pick or maybe he’ll be the player Murray gets for either Silfverberg or Ritchie.

Q3) Who is your under-rated Duck of the year?

This is the easiest question to answer so far. Derek Grant has literally come out of nowhere to become an important part of the team. Before joining the Anaheim Ducks this summer, he played for four teams over parts of the previous four seasons totaling 86 NHL games including only six games with Nashville last year.

He has scored 22 points in 58 games as an Anaheim Duck, tripling his previous career scoring output. Grant has filled a variety of roles this season from filling in for Getzlaf on the top line to anchoring the fourth line with new arrivals Chris Kelly and Jason Chimera.