Anaheim Ducks Round Table: Advice for the 2019-20 Roster
By Ciara Durant
Over or Under: The Anaheim Ducks have an 80 point season.
Jonathan Morris: Going back to how I answered the previous question, along with John Gibson, the Anaheim Ducks will eclipse 80 points this season.
TJ Watson: Way over. I’m thinking around close to 95-100 points. I think they stay healthy this time and they finally figure out how to beat VGK and stick it to San Jose and Nashville.
Ed Stein: Over. The Ducks will be better this year. So will other teams in the Pacific Division. I think the Anaheim Ducks finish around 85 points in 2019-20 before kicking it into high gear the next season.
Ben Thomasian: I was going to say over (aiming for ~84) until I realized 80 points was what they had last year. Coming into this season compared to last, the Ducks are down a top 4 defenseman (who was a top 50 scorer), and they haven’t added to their offensive line-up. The youth will likely be youth, meaning that they’ll be inconsistent. Some nights they’ll look incredible and on others, they’ll disappear.
They won’t, however, make up the 50 goals it would take for the Ducks to reach the middle of the table for goal scoring last season. Combined with the Ducks lack of additions to the roster, I believe that most of the teams that the Ducks would be competing with, both in the Pacific Divison and around the same 80 point mark, all got a bit better in the offseason. The Ducks will absolutely continue to lean on Gibson to win games, and he will certainly help with that. But, will it be more than last season, given a lesser defense, and a slightly older Ryan Miller backing him up?
The Ducks team, to my mind, will compete for the lottery. With the Ducks taking a leaf from the Oilers rebuild over the last decade and adding a coach who is well versed in taking NHL teams to the lottery, they may just have a shot at drafting the big Swedish Left Wing, Lucas Raymond, in the next entry-level draft.
Jordan German: In almost every aspect of life, I’m an extreme pessimist, and while most of the articles I write don’t show it off too much, I won’t lie when I say that I’m not too optimistic for this season’s outcome. The Ducks will finish over eighty points, but that doesn’t mean it will be enough to make a playoff push.
The season could either be one to remember, or be one of the worst in recent years. It really hinges on how head coach Dallas Eakins runs the team, and how the lines shape up. If Eakins can blend the superb youth with the gritty veterans, I think things will work out really well, and the youth will truly come into their own this year. But, we won’t know any of that until it happens.
In the best-case scenario, the Anaheim Ducks will finish with somewhere around ninety-four points, just squeaking in for the 2nd Wild Card spot. Worst case scenario, the Ducks finish around eighty-two points and miss the playoffs again. The playoffs would most likely be pretty short, second-round exit at best, but I couldn’t see a team with this much unlikely talent tank too horribly in good health. Make sure to knock on wood for that one.
Khalid Hart: I’ve been very vocal in that I believe the Ducks will get 80 points or better and land a wild card spot or even 3rd place in the Pacific. Outside of Phil Kessel coming to Arizona, the Pacific Division hasn’t exactly gotten any stronger. In our current state, we’re a bubble team, so anything is possible.
Jake Robles: I say over, but not too much over. Maybe 85-86 points. I don’t think we’re in for another year like last year, but with the youth movement taking over, there’s going to be some growing pains, especially with Dallas Eakins taking over at the helm. I have confidence that they’ll return to their winning ways and I believe we’ll see a super motivated group, but I’m not putting my expectations too high.
Ciara Durant: Over, but not by much. My guess is that they end the season somewhere between 80-85 points. This isn’t because I think the team is going to be awful again. However, there are a lot of teams that were worse than the Ducks last season who have taken significant strides to make their teams contenders again (New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers for example.)
I think they’re going to have a much better season, but that doesn’t mean they will win more games. Just as long as they make the season entertaining and give more effort than they did last year, I’m totally fine with them having a low point total and possibly getting a decent draft pick for the 2020 draft because let me tell you, that’s a draft we should all be excited about!