For the third season in a row, the Anaheim Ducks finished well out of the playoff race.
Despite the poor season, the Ducks didn’t really take action to adapt to their situation and failed to start trying to work their way out of it. Instead, Anaheim let the season run its course, without making any major moves.
It started back last offseason, where Bob Murray and the Ducks seemed determined to avoid a rebuild and added Kevin Shattenkirk as their major signing in free agency. While the price and term seemed pretty alright at the time and Shattenkirk was expected to round out the top-four group, things did not go to plan. The defender was terrible in his own end and the Ducks are likely regretting ever making the signing.
Other moves included bringing back Derek Grant and adding defender Ben Hutton. For a team looking to improve from being near the bottom of the standings, there weren't a ton of upgrades.
Then we can look at the trades, because it's pretty eye-opening to see how little actually got done.
If we don’t include seventh-round picks being swapped at the draft, the first trade made by the Ducks was moving Erik Gudbranson to Ottawa for a fifth-round pick before the start of the season. Not a bad trade at all to get his contract off the books but it was quite insignificant.
Next, the Ducks flipped forward Jack Kopacka to San Jose, in exchange for defenseman Trevor Carrick. Kopacka hasn’t produced much at the AHL level and doesn’t project to become an NHLer, while Carrick is 27 years old and spent the entire year in San Diego.
Anaheim did make an interesting trade in late March, acquiring Alexander Volkov from the Tampa Bay Lightning, in exchange for prospect Antione Morand and a 2023 seventh-round pick. Volkov is 24 years old and scored four goals and eight points in 18 games with the Ducks, while Morand is just 22 years old but hadn’t produced overly well in his first season and a half since turning pro.
The Volkov trade was followed up with a minor deadline move, sending Ben Hutton to Toronto for a fifth-round pick.
Lastly, the Ducks made their biggest deal of the season at the deadline, acquiring defenseman Haydn Fleury from the Carolina Hurricanes for Jani Hakanpaa and a sixth-round pick in next year’s draft. This deal certainly has the chance to be the most impactful move of the year, as Fleury is still fairly young and could end up being part of the Ducks' blue line in the years to come.
Overall though, we didn’t see any truly significant moves made. Whereas many other teams picked a direction and started moving that way, whether it was contending or building for the future, the Ducks just kind of stood pat, which didn’t really make sense for a team who finished 27th overall in the 2019-20 season.
Fleury and Volkov were nice additions but neither player will likely make a huge impact for the Ducks in terms of building for the future. The highest picks the Ducks acquired were in the fifth round and really, no steps were taken for the future. The issue wasn’t the trades themselves, which were generally pretty decent, it was the lack of significant moves made to pick a direction and stick to it.
You could say this season, the Ducks gave some time for their younger players to develop, which is certainly true. But nothing was stopping the team from kickstarting the rebuild and dealing off some pieces at the same time, to give those young players even more lineup opportunities while getting back key assets in the trades.
If you compare the Ducks to where the Los Angeles Kings are at, it’s not a pretty sight. Both teams generally started their decline to the bottom of the standings three years ago but the Kings acknowledged their situation and quickly started working on a plan to get out of it. They now have one of the league’s deepest prospect pools and are set to be a contender down the road.
The Ducks, on the other hand, seemingly convinced themselves it wasn't all that bad of a situation and avoided acquiring more picks, which would have helped to speed up the process. The exceptions to this are the Brandon Montour and Ondrej Kase trades, but those took place in 2019 and 2020 respectively, with no major recent moves being made.
Maybe it’s harsh to say but in my opinion, the Ducks basically wasted a year where they could have made real progress to speed up their rebuild. Instead, they’ve been stuck in the same spot, doing little to advance their timeline through anything other than the top-10 picks they've been gifted after disastrous seasons.
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Are you happy with the job that Bob Murray did for the Ducks this season?
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