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

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.