The NHL season begins in under two weeks and the Anaheim Ducks will be playing in a new-look division. Leading up to the start of the season, I'll be looking at how the Ducks' lineup compares to other teams in their division.
I’ve already released two articles in this series, which you can read here:
Today’s article will focus on a comparison between the Ducks and the Colorado Avalanche.
FORWARDS
The Avalanche truly have about five forwards who have higher offensive upside than any forward on the Ducks. Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky make for a pretty scary forward group.
The Avalanche also acquired Brandon Saad this offseason and in addition to that, the team has depth options, with the likes of Matt Calvert, J.T. Compher, Joonas Donskoi and Tyson Jost. Unfortunately, the Ducks lack true top-six talent and the likes of Adam Henrique, Rickard Rakell and Jakob Silfverberg just don’t have Anaheim’s forward group anywhere near where the Avalanche are at.
Advantage: Avalanche
DEFENSE
The defensive gap between these teams isn’t necessarily as large as the gap in talent up front but Colorado still has the advantage here as well. Cale Makar is poised to become one of the NHL’s top defensemen, while Samuel Girard keeps getting better and new addition Devon Toews will be a solid addition to the top-four group. The likes of Ian Cole, Erik Johnson and Ryan Graves also give the Avalanche better depth.
The Ducks do have two very capable defensemen in Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson and other good options in Cam Fowler and Kevin Shattenkirk. While there are several options for who could earn spots on Anaheim’s bottom pairing, however, we still don’t know who will be able to develop into a legitimate NHL defenseman. Colorado has the star power, as well as the better depth.
Advantage: Avalanche
GOALTENDING
This is the one category that’s close. John Gibson should rebound this season and be back to form as a quality starter. That said, Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz formed a very solid tandem for the Avalanche last season and put up great numbers. While I think Gibson is the top netminder of the three, we can’t disregard his down year or Colorado’s success in goal. As a result, this matchup comes out looking fairly even.
Advantage: N/A
Unfortunately, this matchup isn't all that close for the Ducks, as Avalanche should be considered a legitimate Cup contender this year.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Ducks Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_Ducks for updates on articles, Ducks news, etc.***
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you think the Ducks will finish ahead of the Avalanche in the standings this season?
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