Anaheim Ducks fans are losing confidence in management

Outliers

There are six metrics involved in the rankings, four of them are pretty consistent (not good) and two are significantly out of the range. The first area is Drafting and Player Development, where Ducks fans rated the organization third overall.

Look at the roster, all the key players are homegrown. The list includes Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, Cam Fowler, and John Gibson. Then there is the talent pipeline. It’s easy to see why fans would be optimistic about this area when players such as Max Jones, Troy Terry, Sam Steel, and Jacob Larsson are on the near horizon.

Contrast that high ranking with where Anaheim Ducks fans put the team in 27th place, Free Agency. Part of the reason for such a low placement may be unjustified. The Ducks don’t spend like a big market team, they have an internal budget, which is several million dollars below the actual cap. That isn’t management’s fault, it’s on ownership.

The other reason for poor marks is squarely on General Manager Bob Murray and company. Because of the internal cap, the Ducks are hamstrung by several long-term contracts for big dollars to older players. While Getzlaf is still at the top of his game, the declining play of Perry combined with a far less than 100% Ryan Kesler has put the team at a spending disadvantage. There have been no significant free-agent adds in quite a while.

Most of the Rest

In the other four metrics, Ducks Nation’s ratings put the team anywhere between 21st-24th place. It’s no surprise, that Anaheim fans ranked the team 21st in Cap Management for the reasons listed above, although the raw score wasn’t too bad. The fan population, in general, placed the Ducks 18th.

Roster Building is another area in the bottom quarter. This one comes back on Murray for setting expectations and then not following through. I wrote an article last month laying out why GMBM’s actions haven’t matched his words. Fans must feel the same way. After the playoffs ended in disappointment, Murray said the Ducks had to get faster to compete. The roster they are building, so far, for 2018-19 is almost status quo and doesn’t address the issue of being too slow.

Apparently, Ducks Nation is in step with the idea that “Big Deal Bob” has gone away and his replacement, “Minor Deal Bob,” isn’t doing so well. Their rankings in “Trades” has the team 22nd.

Aside from a splash here and there, the Ducks haven’t made many plus trades in the last few years. Additionally, the array of low talent, over-the-hill players Murray added to the team at last year’s trade deadline was more than disappointing. Combine that with post-deadline day spin Murray tried to put on those transactions, still leaves a bad taste in most Ducks fan’s mouths.

On the bright side, a few players hold the key to turning this one around. If Nick Ritchie (Bobby Ryan Trade) can start playing like a 10th overall pick, and Sam Steel (Frederik Andersen trade) lives up to his billing Murray will look much smarter.

Lack of Vision

Maybe the most disheartening of all the metrics was that Ducks fans ratings in the “Vision” category put them 24th. Believe it or not fans of Calgary (just traded Dougie Hamilton), Dallas (a two-man team), Carolina (in its umpteenth rebuild), Arizona (perpetually awful), and Los Angeles (rudderless) all have more faith in their teams vision, than Ducks Nation has in its own management’s vision. That is unbelievable.

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This goes back to Murray’s disconnect mentioned earlier. Visionaries don’t lay out a plan, publicly, and follow it up by doing the opposite. For example, imagine if the CEO of a manufacturing company came out in an interview and said: “we need to upgrade our facilities.” Then a month later, the company buys a factory built in 1955. Shareholders ask “what about the upgrades you talked about?”

Bob Murray has done the same with this hockey team. Fans have good reason to doubt the team has any vision whatsoever. Further, he called out the team’s veteran core for their lack of leadership in another interview. Then the organizational leadership he shows is all double speak.

I like Murray. He’s has gotten more out of fewer resources than almost any other general manager. This overall lack of confidence by his own fan base should serve as a wake-up call.

I don’t believe there is any problem here that can’t be fixed. Murray doesn’t have to make huge trades or sign a big fish, for the sake of doing so, to get back in the fans good graces. He does, however, need to be more transparent and follow through with what he says his goals are.

You can read the full rankings in The Athletic (by subscription).