Shouldn’t the Anaheim Ducks be Tanking Already?

After sixteen games, the Anaheim Ducks are currently sitting in the first wild card spot and just one win away from second place in the Pacific Division. That seems like a nice picture for them, but it is a big problem. For this Anaheim team that is retooling, they aren’t taking it very seriously. Although it’s still early in the season, they seem to be doing too well. So that begs the question, is there a reason that the Ducks aren’t tanking, and what would tank bring to this team?

The Anaheim Ducks have been an early surprise in the NHL, and they’re battling it out with two other surprise teams in Vancouver and Edmonton. But in reality, the Ducks need to be battling the LA Kings in the basement for their future plans. Although no team wants to tank or lose, there comes a time where a championship window closes and there has to be some work to get back into another window of victory. For the Ducks, it is looking like they are going for a playoff spot and not a high draft pick. In the end, having a bad year or two in order to rebuild or retool is not what will hurt the Ducks, what will hurt the Ducks is pretending that they are still a team that is worthy enough of a playoff berth. Let’s just start looking at why Anaheim should be doing worse by looking at how late draft picks have hurt the team before.