Ducks' early-season struggles no surprise after disaster offseason

The Anaheim Ducks were one of the league’s exciting young teams last season, as their rebuild finally came to fruition and they not only made the playoffs, but they even won a series against the Edmonton Oilers before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round. But after a disastrous offseason saw an offer sheet run up the salaries of their young players and force them to sell off their depth, they find themselves struggling out of the gate with a 5-7-1 record, only good for 11th-best in the Western Conference.

Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton talked about the Ducks and how their slow start should be expected with their depleted depth.

Tyler Yaremchuk: You got to be pretty concerned if you’re an Anaheim Ducks fan. They’re sitting right now with the 5th worst 5-on-5 goals against per 60 in the NHL. And that is not just bad goaltending or anything like that. It’s really poor play. They’re 4th last in the NHL in expected goals per 60, according to Natural Stat Trick. It has been a very, very tough go so far this season for the Anaheim Ducks. A lot of people expected that there could be a step back. They’re 21st in the league in penalty kill as well. So they’re struggling to keep pucks out of the net at every turn.

But they lose Jacob Trouba, they lose Radko Gudas. They don’t really do a whole heck of a lot to replace them. And that’s kind of why a lot of people sat, looked at the Ducks and went, “Oh man, could they maybe be a team that after taking such a great and exciting step forward out of their rebuild last year, could they maybe be ready to take a step back?”

Remember, they also lost Mason McTavish and Chris Kreider. As much as fans of the Ducks were saying “Well Kreider’s old and slow, and Mason McTavish was inconsistent, he got healthy scratched last year”. You’re looking at a team that’s playing Jeff Malott and A.J. Greer in their top six. This team on paper just looks so much less threatening than it did 8-12 months ago. And then you look at the blueline, you look at all the pressure on Lukas Dostal is under on a nightly basis.

Honestly, I’m sitting here and I don’t want to be too reactionary over 13 games of the season, but it’s really hard to envision this Ducks team being able to compete with the Oilers and Golden Knights like they did last year.

Carter Hutton: 100%. And then the other concerning side for me is, now you look at the way the team is structured for the future. And you look at Beckett Sennecke, who’s got your team lead in goals. He’s got eight goals in 13 games. You’ve got this year and next year on his entry-level deal. What do you think he’s thinking right now as he’s leading the team in goals and he’s watching these guys demand all this money? Now you’re in another tough situation where, we’ve seen this firsthand, how are you supposed to win when your team is structured like that? And it’s going to be so tough.

And again, it’s wild how the script of the Anaheim Ducks and what we saw and the future and we compared them to so many other teams, got flipped so quickly because of the offer sheet, because of the Gauthier situation. Now we’re watching a team struggle where we thought this was an up-and-coming team in the Pacific. They were going to push.

Now it’s just going to be a very interesting way that they can do this rebuild with players like this. And I’m telling you, if you’re sitting there and you’re leading that team in goals, it’s really hard not to sit there and see Leo Carlsson’s $18 million, see Cutter Gauthier’s $13.5 until 32 and 31, and you’re Beckett Sennecke being like, “what’s my number then?” Pat Verbeek has put himself in a very, very tough spot with this team, that is just in the mushy middle now with all these younger players.

Tyler Yaremchuk Yeah, it’s a really tough spot to be in. Last year in the playoffs, they were so good at getting under the skin and shutting down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. They had players that could do that. And then you go and look at last night. That trio of Krebs, Benson, and Thompson, the shot attempt at 5-on-5, it was 15-2 to the Buffalo Sabres when they were on the ice. The shots were 9-2 and the goals were 4-0, the scoring chances were 8-2. I could go on and on, but it’s a little bit redundant. The point is, they absolutely dominated the Anaheim Ducks last night.

Anaheim, again early goings here, but they only have five wins in their first 13 games. They’re a team that, maybe as the year goes on, I would imagine Seattle’s gonna slip up at some point, and maybe that allows Anaheim to linger. But yeah, it’s not great for Anaheim Ducks right now.

You can watch the full episode here…