Max Domi Could Help Fix The Anaheim Ducks Identity Crisis

Now to The Trading!

What then do the Ducks give up to acquire a player who, at 25-years-old has undeniable potential, but is maybe running out of time to realize it on a regular basis? It’s a tough one to puzzle out. The Canadiens defensive unit could clearly use an upgrade. Additionally, the Canadiens sometimes struggled to bury the multiple chances they seemed to generate on the offensive end.

Intrinsically, the Ducks could seek to trade them, Adam Henrique, to cover their goal-scoring needs. While most Ducks fans would consider him a salary cap dump, it can’t be denied that Henrique is a versatile forward who has rejuvenated his career with the Ducks.

Routinely scoring 20-goals and 40-points per season, switching between wing and the center position could provide the Canadiens with some short term value. It would seem likely that Henrique would eventually fall away towards the end of the final four years of his current contract, yet that only means the Anaheim Ducks need to add a little something to make up that value.

Would the Canadiens consider a younger defenceman such as Brendan Guhle or Josh Mahura as part of the deal? Neither has really set the world on fire, yet both are early in their respective careers and have visible upside as offensive defencemen.

As players like Shea Weber and Jeff Petry get older and less effective, the Canadiens will want someone to start taking their roles. Victor Mete may very well be one of the players they should build their back end around, but they’ll need others who can jump into the play if they’re going to pursue a team built around Kotkaniemi and Suzuki. With the acquisition of players such as Guhle, forward planning to execute this model can begin.

The Ducks could also easily throw in a 3rd round draft pick in 2020 and 2022 to help ease the deal over the line. All taken together, a trade could look a little something like this:

It seems like a lot. It is a lot. Yet, it helps the Anaheim Ducks in multiple ways. Firstly they acquire Domi. He’s younger than the outgoing Henrique and could give the Ducks good value over the next few years. Given his RFA status, it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to sign a contract extension for less than Henriques outgoing ~$5.8 million per season. Thus the Ducks could save some cap space to make future moves to get younger.

The outgoing defencemen may also help to narrow the field for the Seattle expansion draft and railroad them into taking a certain player. Certainly, the Ducks could have lost that player for nothing and not blinked, but moving him in this manner, means they can get an asset back that they really want moving forward.

At present, the Ducks would likely be leaving Mahura, Guhle, and Jacob Larsson exposed of the currently eligible players. One of them could go for nothing, yet now they move Henrique’s contract that is actively inhibiting the Ducks from getting younger in the forward group.

The 3rd round draft picks are a little bit of a lottery. Murray doesn’t have the strongest record after the 2nd round, thus while a lottery pick is nice to have, they weren’t assets the Ducks could absolutely bank on. There’s very little chance they would have been used to select a ~45 point player with upside.