This article will be another in my series of player profiles, where I’ll look at each player on the Anaheim Ducks and assess how their season went. This piece will focus on Rickard Rakell.
For a few years now, Rakell has been counted on to drive quite a bit of offense for the Ducks. He averaged the second-most ice time per game of any of Anaheim’s forwards and was also averaging 2:22 per game on the power play.
He scored 15 goals and 42 points in 65 games this year, a pace of 19 goals and 53 points per 82 games. His goals and points per 82 have been down in the last two years compared to where they were in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, but Rakell still had the highest points per game average of any player on the team.
His possession stats were strong, with a corsi for percentage of 50.5 per cent, which was quite a bit higher than the team’s overall corsi for percentage. His expected goals for percentage may have been just 48.3 per cent but that actually ranked seventh amongst Ducks skaters who played at least 15 games this year (according to NaturalStatTrick.com).
Rakell is just 27 years old and has two years remaining on his contract, which carries a bargain AAV of just $3.8 million. In my opinion, he’s in a similar situation to Hampus Lindholm. Both are still fairly young with two years remaining on their deal at a very reasonable price for the value they bring. With the Ducks going through a retooling, however, they could get a haul if they were to move Lindholm or Rakell. That said, you have to imagine that’s not the route the Ducks want to take.
Rakell was a key player for Anaheim once again this year and I’d imagine we can expect similar production from him next season, probably landing somewhere around 50 or 55 points.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Should the Ducks consider trading Rickard Rakell as part of their retooling process?
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