How Do They Stack Up?
As speculative as this obviously is, it is difficult to say how a team made up of ex-Anaheim Ducks would stack up in today’s league. Lacking any star power whatsoever outside of Shea Theodore, and maybe David Perron, this squad doesn’t appear equipped to contend.
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Adding together the GSVA total gives a quantitative look at how they would fare. Luszczyszyn’s model gives ranges for what can be considered a true Stanley Cup contender, as well as team totals for the whole league. He considers a contending team one of the top six teams in the league according to the accumulative GSVA totals accrued by each team’s players. So taking the average of each position group numbers, his model is able to tell where a hypothetical roster of players might fit in.
By way of the almighty model, a true contending team’s forward group should add up to at least 18.3. Added all together, our ex-Ducks forwards reach 9.26. Definitely not contending status, but there are actually six real teams that come in below that number.
Considering defense, Luszczyszyn’s model expects contending teams to be able to add 6.7 points of GSVA. The ex-Ducks are well below again at 2.6. But still, there are five teams below that. So as of now, this ex-Ducks squad seems like they could give the real Anaheim Ducks a run for their money.
Goaltending is where this roster fares well relative to the actual league. They fit in nicely with the top third of the league due to the effective 1A and 1B tandem of Andersen and Khudobin.
Now, the sad part: comparing the current makeup of the actual Anaheim Ducks with the hypothetical roster made up of players that have departed for one reason or another. The ex-Ducks come out on top by a slim margin of .4 GSVA with their respective forward group.
On defense, the ex-Ducks take the crown again, this time leading by 2.1 points – a relatively large differential. Goaltending is going to be won by the real Anaheim Ducks by a landslide (John Gibson could’ve won it by himself).
Again, this is speculative, and not meant to make any points about the acumen of our management or anything like that. However, after doing this research, it is quite alarming to see the amount of fan-favorite players that have left in recent years, as well as what they continue to bring to their new teams. This leaves us with lingering questions of what could’ve been.
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