Anaheim Ducks Sign Troy Terry But Where Does He Fit In?
By Greg Johnson
The Anaheim Ducks signed American Troy Terry to a three-year contract Monday. What does that mean for the Ducks? And where does Terry fit into the Ducks lineup?
Why Was This So Important?
The Anaheim Ducks drafted Troy Terry with their fifth-round pick in 2015. But Terry has really picked up his game since that time. He came to fame when he did his best T. J. Oshie impression in the 2017 World Junior Championships semi-final game against Russia on his way to winning a gold medal. He also played on Team USA’s Olympic team this year. Blake Navarro recently wrote about Troy Terry’s bright future.
Terry was a junior with only one more season of NCAA eligibility. If the Ducks failed to sign him this year, they would have risked losing him for nothing. College players who complete four years of eligibility without signing a professional contract are granted free agent status according to the NHL collective bargaining agreement. That fact gave Terry a lot of power in his negotiation with Ducks general manager Bob Murray. Everyone knows Murray didn’t want a repeat of the Justin Schultz fiasco.
What Does the Signing Mean?
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The benefit of this contract for the Ducks is obvious. Murray’s signing of Troy Terry means the Ducks have another young skilled forward in their system. So why would Terry sign with the Ducks so close to being turned loose on the free agent market?
The Ducks agreed that Terry would burn the first year off of his entry-level contract this season by signing this contract. As a result, Terry is one year closer to the bigger contracts that happen with restricted and unrestricted free agency than he would be if he waited until August 15 next year to sign.
The signing also means the Ducks can insert Terry into their lineup immediately. But will they? And if they do, where will he fit? The rumor is that he’s already on his way to Vancouver. That would be a good game for him to cut his teeth in the NHL.
Where Does Troy Terry Fit into the Ducks’ Lineup?
That’s an interesting question. The right wing is already loaded on the Ducks’ top three lines with Corey Perry, Jakob Silfverberg, and Ondrej Kase. And Terry is hardly a fourth line plugger. So if the Ducks are going to play Terry in the near future, something will have to give.
If it was up to me, I’d call left-handed Kevin Roy back up from San Diego. He had good chemistry with Antoine Vermette earlier this season. And Vermette has been scratched lately in favor of the bigger banging types who are playing on the fourth line; Derek Grant, Chris Kelly, and Jason Chimera. Kelly is already 37 years old. And Chimera turns 39 in a few weeks.
I’d play four lines of skill to give coach Randy Carlyle the option to play the hot line more minutes each night. For this to work, Terry must move to right wing, with Vermette at center, and Roy shifting from his normal center position to left wing.
The Ducks, however, like to use their fourth line in a grinding role. So they have a couple of options. They can plug Terry in for Chris Kelly on the fourth line and have him skate eight minutes a night with lower skilled players.
Another option they can employ is to move penalty prone Nick Ritchie down to the fourth line to let Terry play with a skilled right wing in Kase and a savvy center in Adam Henrique. Of these two options, Ducks fans have to hope Terry is given a chance to showcase his skills with Henrique and Kase.