Anaheim Ducks: Will the Prodigal Son Return to the Pond?

The Anaheim Ducks are about to enter their third week of regular season hockey, and Nick Ritchie has yet to sign a contract. This poses a question of monumental size. Will the prodigal son return to the pond?

The Anaheim Ducks have a lot of unanswered questions regarding their roster. As of right now, most of these questions can go unanswered, but only because of the annoying host of injuries that have plagued the team.

However, the Anaheim Ducks have a more prominent issue at hand, and the clock is ticking. Maxime Comtois is fast approaching his ninth game with the organization. Due to the fact that he is still only 19-years-old, Comtois is considered a slide candidate.

Eligible prospects, who are potential slide candidates, are allowed to play in nine NHL games without having the first year of their contract kick in. If Max Comtois only skates in nine games, this will allow the Anaheim Ducks to extend his contract one year into the future.

“In the event that an 18 year old or 19 year old Player signs an SPC (standard player contract) with a Club but does not play at least ten NHL Games in the first season under that SPC, the term of his SPC and his number of years in the Entry Level System shall be extended for a period of one year.” -NHL CBA, Article 9.1 (d)

This poses a problem for the Anaheim Ducks. Without Comtois, they are one man short on the left wing side. Of course, there is always the possibility of moving a player to their off wing. However, there is no justifiable reason in keeping one of the other rookies over Comtois.

Max Comtois has certainly made a convincing case for the club to keep him on the roster well past the nine-game threshold. With five points in six games, two of those being goals, he has been the most impressive rookie to watch so far this season. He isn’t afraid to get a little physical, yet he remains poised and in control of his emotions.

If the Anaheim Ducks decide to send Max Comtois back to Victoriaville, there is only one solution I can think of. It’s high time that the prodigal son of Anaheim returns to the pond. The Anaheim Ducks have less than a week to sign Nick Ritchie to a new contract, and the rumor mill is going wild, with reports that Ritchie will don a Ducks sweater for the next few years.

Giving Nick Ritchie Another Chance

Some of you are probably wondering why I have dubbed Nick Ritchie the prodigal son. For starters, a prodigal is defined as someone who spends money or resources freely and recklessly. They are wastefully extravagant. A prodigal is also defined as someone who has returned after being absent.

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Now, I don’t know anything about Nick Ritchie’s spending habits, but we can all agree that he definitely spent a majority of the 2017-18 season recklessly spending valuable resources. What do I mean by this?

Nick Ritchie was second, to only Kevin Bieksa, in penalty minutes last season. If we assume all of his penalties were minor, that means he took 36 penalties last season, spending 72 minutes in the sin bin. The valuable resource Nick Ritchie wasted was himself. While his team was on the penalty kill and short one man, he wasn’t on the ice. To be honest, and burst a lot of bubbles, the team was better when Ritchie was on the ice. As long as he wasn’t taking penalties.

Yes, because of his draft status, he was hyped up a lot more than he should have been. However, he is dubbed as a power forward. As the age-old story goes, power forwards normally don’t reach their full potential until around the age of 22. Nick Ritchie is currently 22-years-old.

Ritchie could have certainly benefited from another year of seasoning in the AHL, but he didn’t get that luxury because the Ducks needed him and they didn’t see a reason to send him back down. We cannot deny that he had great chemistry with Ondrej Kase and Adam Henrique last season. Even if his name didn’t show up on the score sheets, he opened up opportunities for his linemates to score.

Contract Negotiations with Nick Ritchie are Warming Back Up

Is he the first round draft pick we all hoped he would be? No. However, the glass is half full. The Anaheim Ducks top six is more solidified than concrete. If he was top six material, the Ducks would be doing him a disservice by keeping him in the bottom six. Nevertheless, it’s a win-win for everyone.

Nick Ritchie’s case for returning to the Anaheim Ducks grows stronger with each passing game. A 4-1-1 record may look good on paper, but their performance on the ice tells a different story. It could benefit the team to send a rookie down to the AHL and bring in another player who has spent the past few years growing accustomed to his teammates and building on-ice chemistry with them.

Yes, NR37 left a sour taste in our mouth. However, he has spent the summer trying to change his ways. He’s making an effort and, from the sound of it, Bob Murray is impressed. I trust Bob Murray, for the most part, to make the right choices for this team. He knows, better than any of us, what this team needs.

“The situation with Nick Ritchie and the Anaheim Ducks has been really from the get go a frigid process. But it looks like it’s starting to thaw. Now the deal is not done but it does look like it’s warmed up considerably to the point where there is a real possibility this could be done in the next number of days, so long as there are no further hiccups. There’s obviously been a breakthough of sorts. It’s expected to be a three-year deal for Nick Ritchie, assuming it gets consummated here in the next day or two.” -Bob McKenzie, TSN Insider Trading

If Nick Ritchie signs a three-year contract with the Anaheim Ducks, I will lead the charge in welcoming him back to the flock. Do I think Nick Ritchie is a fantastic out of this world player? No. However, he’s okay and I appreciate him and everything he’s done for the team. He just needs to keep himself accountable and it seems as though he’s willing to take those strides. I, for one, am okay with that.

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