Anaheim Ducks mid-summer review: Are they better now?

Goaltending

This is the Anaheim Ducks greatest strength. The combination of John Gibson and Ryan Miller is outstanding. There were no changes here other than exchanging third-string goalies. Reto Berra left for Switzerland and Jared Coreau was signed to replace him.

Both Gibson and Miller are a year older, ironically their respective birthdays are three days apart. That’s both good and bad for the Ducks. Gibson is now 25, more seasoned and hopefully in better condition. He’s had another summer to reflect and study.

The Pittsburgh, Pa. native has been around long enough to play 178 regular season and 26 playoff games. By now, he has a good read on opposing players and teams around the league. The Ducks will go as far next season as Gibson can take them.

Miller turned 38 this week. He’s at an age when a goaltender’s skills are in rapid decline. Last year, he had his best season since 2009-10, albeit in a somewhat reduced role. Most important for Anaheim, he was, at the least reliable, and most times outstanding, when called on to play by Randy Carlyle.

Miller has an important role on the team as both Gibson’s backup and mentor. To get the most of the future Hall-of-Fame goalie, he’ll need to to be more protected than he was last year. The Ducks can’t afford to play Miller more than 22-25 games in 2017-18.

Defensemen

This time last year the Anaheim Ducks were stacked on defense. The mid-season trade that brought in center Adam Henrique in exchange for Sami Vatanen forced some of Anaheim’s young blueliners to grow up in a hurry. In an ideal world, Brandon Montour would have had another season on the third pairing and Marcus Petterson would have gotten more time in the minors to develop.

That didn’t happen. The younger defensemen had to step up, because the senior members of the group, Kevin Bieksa, and Francois Beauchemin, were too slow to keep up in an increasingly faster game. Those promotions may have negatively affected the Ducks last year, but going forward the experience they gained will be an asset.

GM Bob Murray said his goal this summer was to make the Ducks a faster team. He didn’t accomplish that goal with his recent free agent signings Andrej Sustr and Luke Schenn. While the new players may be faster than Bieksa and Beauchemin, nobody accused either of being speedy.

The top four defensemen from the end of 2017-18 remain intact. Hampus Lindholm, Cam Fowler, Josh Manson, and Brandon Montour will all be back. There is potential for the core group to be among the best in the NHL. They aren’t quite there yet but continue to improve every season.

What the defense will look like next season is easy at the top and quite complicated at the bottom.

Pairings

Lindholm-Manson

Fowler-Montour

Fifth defenseman – one of Pettersson, Andy Welinski, or Jacob Larsson

Sixth/Seventh defenseman – Sustr, Schenn

Is this group better than last year? Probably. The core four should be improved. Sustr and Schenn are a small improvement over the two departed vets. On the whole, the defense has been mildly upgraded, but not to the point where it will be significant.

Forwards

This is a tough area to gauge because there are a few variables to consider. The most important variable is Ryan Kesler. Last season he was a shell of himself after he returned to the lineup following hip surgery. There are rumors that RK17 may miss all of 2018-19. If he does, the middle two lines are in flux. The Ducks will most likely promote another center from San Diego.

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The other “X” factor is Patrick Eaves. He missed all but two games last season with what was thought to be Guillion-Barre Syndrome (GBS), a debilitating auto-immune condition. Months of seeing doctors around the country and undergoing many many tests, GBS was ruled out. He spent the last seven months in arduous rehabilitation. Eaves said he’s been given a clean bill of health and will be ready to start the season.

Adding Eaves to Corey Perry, Ondrej Kase, Brian Gibbons, and Jakob Silfverberg creates somewhat of a logjam at right wing, but its a pleasant problem to have. Either Gibbons or Kase would move to the left side. One issue that Murray has to account for is Perry’s decline. He is playing his way out of a top-six role. If anyone on the Ducks needs to have a bounce-back year, it’s Perry

Speaking of left wings, the Anaheim Ducks have players for each of the four slots filled. Scoring leader Rickard Rakell, fast skating Andrew Cogliano, and enigmatic Nick Ritchie, and either Kase or Gibbons will play on the top three lines. It’s a position still in need of an upgrade Here are the potential lines. One group has Kesler, the other doesn’t.

With Kesler

Rakell-Getzlaf-Eaves

Kase-Henrique-Perry

Cogliano-Kesler-Silfverberg

Ritchie-Rowney-Gibbons

Without Kesler

Rakell-Getzlaf-Eaves

Kase-Henrique-Perry

Cogliano-Rowney-Silfverberg

Ritchie-Steel/Terry-Gibbons

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The re-addition of Eaves makes the forwards better. Kesler’s presence, however, is the final determinate of whether or not the group is improved. One thing Murray hasn’t done is make the Ducks appreciably faster on the ice. For that to happen, more changes have to be made.