Ducks hot start overshadowed by lack of defensive depth
While shipping defencemen Josh Mahura and Kevin Shattenkirk out to acquire Patrik Laine has paid off in spades for the Ducks, an early season injury to defenceman Hampus Lindholm has quickly shown that the Ducks lack quality replacements on the back end.
Brendan Guhle and Jacob Larsson have both played adequately to start the season, but both were waived and passed over by the other 30 teams in the league within the last calendar year. 31 year old Greg Pateryn has also flip flopped between the NHL and AHL throughout his career, and doesn't appear to be a viable long term option for the Ducks. 26 year old Brogan Rafferty seems to have the offensive tools, but struggles in the area that the Ducks need help-his own end.
Larsson, the 24 year old former 1st round pick has never quite hit on his potential coming out of the 2015 draft, putting up poor possession numbers, and posting over four times as many giveaways as takeaways so far in his career.
What does this mean for the resurgent Ducks? It's really a question of "When", not "If" as to whether the Ducks hit the trade market again to try and upgrade their defence. When healthy, the Ducks present a relatively strong top 4 that can cover for a below average bottom pairing. If they want to be competitive though, they'll need to upgrade sooner rather than later.
Who's available? Looking back on our top trade targets list, we listed Jacob Chychrun, Travis Dermott, Justin Holl, Justin Faulk, and PK Subban as potential targets.
With Lindholm signed to a long term extension, we feel it's safe to cross Chychrun off that list. The remaining 4 offer some up side, but with the Leafs and Blues out to strong starts, Dermott, Holl and Faulk wouldn't likely be available without an upgrade going the other way, which the Ducks obviously don't have at this time.
Reports earlier this week made it clear that the Ducks were not currently negotiating on an extension with Josh Manson, which raises further question marks about the future of this defence core. Manson, a long time fixture with the Ducks, will be a free agent this summer.
The Arizona Coyotes are in the early stages of a rebuild, and while Chychrun might not be the right target, the expiring contracts of either Anton Stralman or Ilya Lyubushkin could make sense as short term fixes for the Ducks.
The Florida Panthers ended up paying handsomely to shed Stralman's cap hit just a couple of months ago. The 35 year old defenceman was a cap casualty for the Panthers, which resulted in them effectively paying two 2nd round draft picks to dump the remaining year of his contract. He has consistently played 20+ minutes a night, and puts up reasonable possession numbers. While the Ducks missed out on acquiring assets with him this offseason, it shouldn't cost much for them to acquire him today.
Lyubushkin may not be a household name to most, but he plays a similar game to former Duck Jani Hakanpaa, who signed a 3 year deal with the Dallas Stars this offseason. The right handed defenceman averages around 16 minutes a night, but often finds himself playing the tough matchups in his own end.
While the Ducks could wait it out and see branches shake at the deadline, it's clear that even though they've started 5-1-0, there are still a number of holes on this team.
Is there anyone in the system that could fill in? I feel like this would be the opportune time to insert the Michael Scott "NO!" GIF.
Looking at the Ducks system, they do have a few high(er) profile prospects in their ranks, but the closest to NHL ready (Henry Thrun, Jackson LaCombe) would likely require a full season in the AHL before they actually get a sniff, and the earliest that would happen would be after this years NCAA season concludes.
Final thoughts: At the end of the day, it's more about raising the floor for the Ducks than it is about raising the ceiling. Lacombe and Thrun, as well as 2021 draft picks Olen Zellweger and Tyson Hinds offer some upside in the future, but none of them are close to being NHL regulars at this point.
The Patrik Laine trade showed the GM Kevin Weekes was serious about moving this team forward, but it seems unlikely that he'd go all-in and potentially mortgage the future this early into the season.
It's not necessarily even targetting a top 4 option. There are plenty of bottom pairing defencemen out there that can reliably play up and down in the lineup. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be something that the Ducks currently have, unless we witness a surprising breakout from one of Guhle or Larsson.