Offseason Review: Anaheim Ducks

Now that the dust has settled on a wild NHL offseason, let's take a look at how each team did in regards to drafting and free-agent signings. Today, we'll look at the Anaheim Ducks.

Anaheim is now 3 years deep into their rebuild, although you could argue that they only committed to that rebuild this past season. The Ducks have been regularly drafting in the top 10 of late, building up a pipeline of exciting prospects to lead the team in the years to come. This summer would have theoretically been the most important offseason to do that, given that teams are opening themselves up to taking on bad contracts, and a ton of UFAs were on the move throughout the league. The Ducks had a chance to make a dent in their rebuild time, but for whatever reason, they chose not to.

Free Agents: 

Bafflingly, the Ducks stood pat here. The option to sign a free agent to be a part of their young core was there, as was the option to offload some players to make room for the bigger contracts their young core will eventually request. The Ducks did neither. They're still saddled to big contracts for Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg, costing them more than $11 million in cap hit for the next three years. Kevin Shattenkirk is being paid just shy of $4 million for two more years, at which point he'll be 34 (he scored 2 goals and 15 points in 55 games last season and was a -8). John Gibson is signed for 6 more years at $6.4 million, which carries him through his prime years, but will likely expire right as this team has started to be competitive again, and he'll be 34 years old by then. Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, and Josh Manson will all be UFAs next summer and will probably end up as trade deadline pieces for a team looking to make a run. Oh, and they're still paying Corey Perry $2 million for the next two years. The team had the opportunity to move on from some of these deals this summer, potentially recouping some assets to speed up their rebuild in the process. Instead, they'll be icing essentially the same team that saw them finish second-last in the NHL last season.

That said, the Ducks did bring in a couple of fringe NHLers in their late-20s to early-30s in Buddy Robinson, Greg Pateryn, and Danny O'Reagan. None of these guys are stars, but one may have a breakout year with some extra ice time on in Anaheim. They also re-signed their captain and Ducks' legend Ryan Getzlaf for one year at $4.5 million. That's all she wrote.

Grade: C; Getzlaf saved this offseason from being a complete wash, but unless there are more moves down the road, the Ducks did little to improve the team in any way.

Draft:

Selecting 3rd overall in this year's Draft, this was the highest pick the Ducks have had since they drafted Bobby Ryan 2nd overall in 2005. With it, they chose to reach for a player who was projected to go no earlier than 8th overall in Mason MacTavish. The Ducks could have traded down, maybe offloading a contract like Henrique's in the process, and MacTavish would likely still have been sitting there. MacTavish is not a bad prospect by any stretch, but there are a few guys who went after him that are practically locks to be top 6 forwards in their careers. MacTavish is not. Maybe the Ducks see something here that others missed, we only know so much when looking at it from the outside, but from a fan perspective this one is a head-scratcher.

With the 34th overall pick, the Ducks added Olen Zellweger, a mobile defenceman from the Everett Silvertips of the WHL. Zellweger is an intriguing prospect with a very strong grasp of defensive fundamentals for his age. He's extremely mobile, with an explosive first step. However, at 5'10, 174lbs, he'll either need to bulk up or spend some significant time in the AHL before he's ready to play against men the likes of Tom Wilson, or even fellow 2021 draft pick Owen Power. Sasha Pastujov, taken 66th overall, could blossom into a top 6 playmaker, but he's got a ways to go before that could even be a consideration. 

Grade: D; MacTavish isn't a bad pick, but a significant downgrade from the players the Ducks had available at 3rd overall, and none of their later picks do much to offset that.

Overall grade: D+; Top prospects Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale still project to be top-end talent on this Ducks' roster, but with their aging core and lack of secondary additions, there's little reason to expect much improvement from the Ducks in 2021-2022.

What do you think of the Ducks' moves this offseason?

Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports