As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads past the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. Let’s take a look at what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Anaheim Ducks.
What are the Ducks most thankful for?
The resiliency of their healthy players. To say Anaheim has been hit hard by injuries so far this season would be an extreme understatement. More than half of their roster has already missed time to an ailment or two and through the first quarter of the season, they had missed a whopping 130 man-games due to injury. That many injuries to that many key players (including Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Ryan Kesler, Cam Fowler, and now Hampus Lindholm) can derail the fortunes of a team in a hurry. Instead, the Ducks find themselves third in the Pacific Division and in a playoff spot. Considering everything they’ve gone through, that’s a pretty good accomplishment even if there have been some other teams that have underachieved thus far.
Who are the Ducks most thankful for?
For a team to have this many injuries and still be in a playoff spot, the goaltending needs to be at the top of its game. That has been the case thus far as John Gibson has posted a .927 save percentage through his first 18 starts, good for a tie for sixth in the league among qualifying netminders. He has faced the second-most shots of any goaltender in the NHL and has provided them with top-level goaltending most nights. Ryan Miller also deserves some credit as his numbers are only slightly off of Gibson’s and are among the best among backup goaltenders.
In terms of skaters, Lindholm was off to a really good start before his injury. Anaheim was asking him to play extremely heavy minutes (25:29 per night, more than three and a half minutes above his career average) and he showed he was up to the task. With him and Fowler now out, Josh Manson and Brandon Montour are going to have to pick up even more of the slack.
What would the Ducks be even more thankful for?
Beyond staying healthy, their top players being productive. While Getzlaf has hovered near the point-per-game mark, Rickard Rakell is off to a very slow start with only three goals on the campaign after seasons of 34 and 33. Adam Henrique produced close to a 30-goal pace after being acquired last year but has just five goals so far. Pontus Aberg, a waiver claim at the end of training camp (who later cleared waivers with Anaheim before being recalled in mid-October) is tied for the team lead in goals with six. Not surprisingly, this team is really struggling to score and that’s going to need to change sooner than later if they want to stay in a playoff spot.
What should be on the Ducks’ Holiday Wish List?
Adding a top-six forward would really go a long way towards stabilizing their attack in the short-term and deepening their depth if and when their forward group gets fully healthy. However, with extremely limited cap space to work with, GM Bob Murray is going to have to get creative to find a way to bring one in. In the short-term, it wouldn’t be surprising if he targets an underachieving player in need of a change of scenery in the hopes of getting a small uptick in scoring that way.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Silfverberg is a pending unrestricted free agent. With cap space issues, it’s not hard to see the Ducks trading him if they can get what Murray thinks is a fair return. And it’ll be much easier to trade him if the Ducks fall out of playoff contention before the deadline.