Pucks of a Feather
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Shouldn’t the Anaheim Ducks be Tanking Already?

By Jordan German

NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 25: A dejected Anaheim Ducks goalie John Gibson (36) is shown during the NHL game between the Nashville Predators and Anaheim Ducks, held on November 25, 2018, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 25: A dejected Anaheim Ducks goalie John Gibson (36) is shown during the NHL game between the Nashville Predators and Anaheim Ducks, held on November 25, 2018, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Anaheim Ducks
PHILADELPHIA, PA – JUNE 27: Nicholas Ritchie is selected tenth overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft at the Wells Fargo Center on June 27, 2014 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Mediocre Drafting

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Before last season, the Anaheim Ducks had not missed the playoffs since 2011-2012. Since that time, they won five Pacific Division championships and had seen decent success as a team despite not making it back to the Stanley Cup Final. The area that they fell short in was drafting considering their high standings. And since the 2012 NHL Draft, they have only had five players pay off for them.

The five best players drafted since 2012 are Hampus Lindholm, Frederik Andersen, Shea Theodore, Brandon Montour, and Ondrej Kase. Notice how three of those five players are no longer Ducks. Lindholm is still an amazing defensive piece that holds the defense together along with Josh Manson and Jakob Silfverberg, and Kase is one of the best young skaters in the roster, but other than that, everything has been sub-par so far. When looking at the most highly touted prospects for Anaheim, it’s pretty plain to see that they have all struggled badly early on.

Let us just take a quick peek at some of the most hyped prospects and how they are doing now. Troy Terry looks lost every night he skates even though he managed to get four points so far, Max Jones already has six penalty minutes and he just managed to come back up from the AHL despite that, and Isac Lundestrom has two points in the eighteen games he’s played since he got drafted. Not very good, but two picks that have impressed so far are Max Comtois and Sam Steel. Steel already has five assists and Comtois has two goals and three assists. To be frank, it isn’t completely fair to expect all the prospects to play well in their first few games, but a lot of these prospects have had their fair share of games so far since they got picked. It is all those back-end first-round picks from Anaheim that has robbed them of many great players along with their one decent shot at a top ten pick being destroyed by Mr. Draft Bust himself in Nick Ritchie.

As unfortunate as it is, these “amazing” draft picks aren’t so amazing at all. 2019’s ninth overall pick in Trevor Zegras is incredibly promising though, and he is the kind of player that Anaheim wants to grab. But, they only got him by not playing too well last season, so why are they going to start trying now with a fantastic draft coming up? This Anaheim team would not be even remotely good enough to make it past the first round if they can even sneak in, so why have a repeat of 2018. All they got out of that last playoff appearance was an embarrassing sweep and a very unimpressive Lundestrom pick in the first round. It’s key to have more Zegras picks and less Lundestrom picks. And if they want to be playoff contenders, they are going to need a lot of changes that all start with the general manager.

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