Ranking OCR's list of potential 2011 Ducks Draftees

Ok these are my…well…they were supposed to be quick. Quick rankings and analysis of OC register's list of prospects we may draft in this year's entry draft. Since the playoffs ended, all I've done that relates to hockey is draft research. I can't really call myself an expert but I can say I have a good amount of knowledge at this point. Anyway enjoy. Contact me on twitter with questions, comments, criticsms. Whatever. @DucksFanZone.

 

JAMIE OLEKSIAK, D, NORTHEASTERN (NCAA): Our system has plenty of D, true. Normally I'd put a forward first, but our system lacks physicality and shut down D (Mat Clark is a huge question mark) and you can't pass on a guy that might be the next Zdeno Chara. The rest of the available D in the draft is passable. As in…we should pass on them. I've done research into the 2012 draft, and in terms of defense, there's enough well known talent to fill up the first and half of the second round.

 

MATT PUEMPEL, LW, PETERSBOROUGH (OHL): Most scouts agree that he is the best goal-scorer in the entire draft. Even though other areas of his game are lacking, they can be amended with a few more years at the junior level. Even if he never pans out as a top 6 guy, he can provide us with depth offense, a team need we've had for years

 

MARK SCHEIFELE, C, BARRIE (OHL): Ranked by some to be top 10. We should jump on this guy if we can. The only reason I have him ranked 3^rd is because he really looks like a Peter Holland clone who just did more to impress in his draft year, and my #'s 1 and 2 just seem like better fits in Anaheim, in my opinion.

 

JOHN GIBSON, G, U.S. UNDER-18 (NTDP): The only goalie I would justify taking in the first round. He's that good. And he's going to get better. He's better than the Pickard's and the Campbell's, and with Hiller hurt, and our G pipeline is pretty awful, this would be a great pick for us.

 

BOONE JENNER, C, OSHAWA (OHL): I'd say the same goes for Jenner as it did for Scheifele. He looks like he's got really Boom potential, but equal bust potential.

 

ZACK PHILLIPS, C, SAINT JOHN (QMJHL): Maybe it's not so great I have him ranked so low, but he is a bit of a late riser. He had 95 points at the Q level, and was instrumental in his team's Memorial Cup win. My only reservations are, that he comes from the QMJHL. I'm not so sure how well he would have performed in an OHL team, particularly one that wasn't so stacked. He wouldn't be a bad pick by any stretch. In face he probably will go earlier than 22. But I have certain doubts. Maybe he'll prove me wrong.

 

NICKLAS JENSEN, LW/RW, OSHAWA (OHL): Jensen would be a pretty good pick but not a great pick like the players listed above him. He puts up decent numbers and can play either wing. And offensive depth is a pretty big team need, as Sexton and Beleskey didn't quite work out.

 

BRANDON SAAD, LW, SAGINAW (OHL): Many fans want to draft Saad with the 22cd pick. But I have serious reservations about him. With all the time on my hands I've gotten to read scouting reports, draft previews, watch draft video. And he's received praise from some, and red flags from others. And my overall opinion has left me very unimpressed and scared that he will end up being a bust. Every player that I've researched has something going for them…one area that stands out. I really don't see any in Saad. In Murray we trust. Should we pick him, I hope he proves me wrong.

 

VLADISLAV NAMESTNIKOV, C, LONDON (OHL): One of the few players who just simply remains a mystery. The Russian factor will play a role. And he's another player who in all my scouting left me somewhat unimpressed.

 

TOMAS JURCO, RW, SAINT JOHN (QMJHL): Dynamic. Skillful. Creative. Master of the highlight-reel. Memorial Cup winning hero. Lazy. Inconsistent. Slow. Disappears for much of the game. All these have been used to describe Tomas Jurco. And as many pros as there are…the cons are scary. According to scouts, if we thought that Getzlaf and Holland were inconsistent and lazy, Jurco would teach us new meanings of the word. That means that the bust value is higher than the boom. Whoever does draft this guy is taking a big gamble and is drafting on name value. Can't have Couturier or RNH? JURCO!JURCO!JURCO!

 

SCOTT MAYFIELD, D, YOUNGSTOWN (USHL): As I said earlier 2012 is already panning out to produce the most NHL quality defensemen ever. Defensemen WILL fall this year (although don't plan on us picking Siemens, Beaulieu, Murphy, etc). And Mayfield has been getting lots of praise. But it's all very late praise. Despite being called the poor man's Chris Pronger, he doesn't play amongst top forwards that you find in the CHL or even the NCAA. He is reserved to playing USHL hockey where it isn't to hard for a draft eligible player to stand out. But that doesn't mean the scouts can't envision him in NHL situations. I just don't view this as a good pick at 22. Maybe if we had the 35^th pick, I'd be excited to take him. Hell if he falls all the way to 52 I'll be jumping for joy. But 22? No sir. 

 

JOE MORROW, D, PORTLAND (WHL): Not sure what to think of Morrow. Again, all the praise has come in rather late, and my opinion is that he is not better than Mayfield. Basically wherever Mayfield will go, Morrow should go lower than that. I don't envision him ever playing in the NHL. There is a drop off outside the top 10 in terms of talent, many believe. Drafting this year will require looking at who has the most. Not who MAY have more down the line. And sadly for Morrow, I see him being a second rounder.

 

 

And now the guys that we may draft (or may be available) that the OCR left out, without the reports because…well…I've got stuff to do :P Whoever our pick will be, you can be sure I will analyze.

 

LD Jonas Brodin – Farjestad (SEL)

LW Stefan Noesen – Plymouth (OHL)

LD Oscar Klefbom – Farjestad (SEL)

LC Alexander Khokhlachev – Windsor (OHL)

RW Ty Rattie – Portland (WHL)

 LD David Musil – Vancouver (WHL)

 

My Notes on a Wild Wednesday night

First of all, this is going to be a very disjointed, unprofessional blog. The night started with the Chicago- St. Louis game. Chicago won in overtime by virtue of a completely illegal goal. Firstly, hossa clearly kicked the puck, he lined up his skate blade, pulled his foot back, and kicked the rubber like a soccer ball. The puck then hits the post and slides across the line, never completely crossing it. The war room in Toronto deemed it a good goal. Had it not gone in STL could've easily won. Check out the game highlights, decide for yourself. Me, I decided, and I flamed TSN's Bob McKenzie because he seemed to defend the goal. I sent him about 10 tweets with the expectation that he'd never reply. Well he did, and he wasn't amused with my rage. Perhaps I overreacted, but this is serious business. Hossa kicked the puck like a soccer ball and it never went in. If you can't conclude that the puck crossed the line, you call no-goal, not the other way around. And the decision should've been made quickly after hossa's clear, most blatant example of a distinct kicking motion. Points hung in the balance for team's like Dallas and Anaheim. Had events played out correctly, Anaheim would've separated themselves from Chicago, and Dallas wouldn't feel as much pressure to do or die. Ok my rant here is over. Now for a string of random notes. First of all, this was perfect revenge for the game Saturday, a perfect effort given by the team, and perfect turnaround by Carlyle. Pretend it's April 2010, right now. Most of us are researching the draft and praying we pick Etem with the 12th pick. What would YOU do if I told you we would draft Cam Fowler with the 12th pick? Well last night he pulled a goal and an assist to give him 10 goals and 40 points. That's out of his draft year. C4 has outproduced Drew Doughty, Erik Johnson, and Victor Hedman's (all dmen who started the NHL at the age of 18). Those are terrific numbers for any defenseman, and the scary/great thing is: he's only going to get better. Ryan Whitney...if you can, make a mental tribute video to his "amazing" play in Anaheim. Now look at Visnovsky, top dman in the league, and Norris contender. We got THAT for Ryan Whitney. 3 more points for 70 on the year. I don't know how the NHL can justify giving the Norris to Lidstrom over Lubo. Ever play Black Ops zombies? You know the one zombie with no legs, that you let crawl around while you rack up points for the next round? Calgary was the West's handicapped zombie. Anaheim put in the kill shot. It is now impossible for them to make the playoffs. Ducks need one more win to clinch, or two OTLs, a Dallas loss, or two Chicago losses. 2 points is all we need. Captain Getzlaf continues to stay hot...he's been racking up points almost as well as CP. He's on pace for 94 points (well that's what he'd have if he played all 82). Can't believe all the posts I saw from Ducks fans demanding Getzlaf to be traded. I believe he's back to being a dynamic force on the ice. Teemu. Everything that needs to be said about this season for #8 has been said. But he needs one more goal to have 30 on the season, giving us 2 30 goal players. MVPerry. This game was a statement for CP's run at the Hart. He's getting serious recognition from big time names. Not to mention HFboards (check my timeline for a link to a CP thread. 90% of the posters give it to Perry, 50% give it to him despite their boldly stated disdain for him).  I want to start by apologizing to Perry. I never viewed him as special. I appreciated what he did, but for whatever reason I found it hard to love him as a player. Something was missing. He showed me he had that something all along. The way he stepped up and carried this team, and inspired the lineup...he never quit on the season. I'll love him for it forever.  I won't make my case for why Perry should win the Hart, other than a quick summary. He deserves to win because he produces almost as well as D. Sedin, but he didn't have supporters like H. Sedin behind him the whole time. CP did more, and meant more to his team than Danny end of story. He needs 4 points (assuming Danny goes cold) to win the Art Ross. At that point if he still doesn't win I'll be shocked. (that sounded like I did make my case, but I coulda written a novel on the topic) Lastly, the manner in which the Hatty was scored was very epic. He needed 3 to be the first player to hit 50. He did it against our potential 1st round matchup, in a must win, revenge game. Each goal scored brought down louder chants of MVP, which was bone chilling in and of itself. And who else to assist on his 50th goal? Teemu Selanne, the last Duck to get 50, and the first winner of the Maurice Rocket Richard (known for his 50 goal seasons) trophy. Perry kept the 50 goal trend every year since the lockout, going (brainfart, grammar fail). There's no better way to celebrate 50 then a downpour of hats. Looking forward, the Ducks play an injured and ailing L.A kings team in a home in home double header series. They need 2 points out of 4 to erase last year's failure. Thank you for reading. Hope you had more fun than me last night. Cause I was flying.

The Home stretch: Race for the Cup

First blog in quite some time here. Most of what I would have blogged about has been put into tweets anyway. We all know the Ducks are poised to make the playoffs this year, after missing last year's big game. Hopefully everyone is aware of how tight the Western playoff race is this year. If you don't, to give you an idea: the Ducks were one win away from being 3rd in the west. 3 pretty brutal losses later, they find themselves 10th in the West. They are also one of 5 teams that have 68 points.  22 games now remain in the Ducks season. Like it or not, this is the final stretch. In a western conference where every game counts, the Ducks must either step up, or falter once again. Sportsclubstats tell us how many points are needed to make the playoffs. 93 points=a 53.4% chance to make the playoffs, 94 points=77.7%, 95=92.6% 96=98.3 97=99.8 98 points and higher mean making the playoffs are a certainty. The site also says that to win the Pacific division they will need at least 102 points, and 107 points to clinch it. The Ducks, at the present time are on pace for 93 points. Below is an expanded breakdown of records from this point to get to a certain point total. 95 points.     96 points.   97 points 12-7-3        13-7-2.     13-6-3 11-6-5        12-6-4.      12-5-5 10-5-7        11-5-6.      11-4-7 9-4-9.          10-4-8.      10-3-8 98 points      99 points.    100 pts.     14-6-2.        14-5-3.      15-5-2.      13-5-4.        13-4-5.      14-4-4.      12-4-6.        12-3-7.      13-3-6.      11-3-7.        11-2-8.      12-2-8.      Ducks have 22 games left. 21 vs Teams in the west. 10 vs. Pacific teams.  Remaining schedule+record vs team LAK 1-1-0  MIN 1-1-1  COL 1-0-0   DET 0-3-0 DAL 2-1-0 VAN 2-0-1 NYR 0-0-0 COL 1-0-0 PHO 3-2-0 STL 1-2-1 LAK 1-1-0 CGY 2-0-0 DAL 2-1-0 NAS 1-2-1 CHI   1-1-1 COL.  1-0-0 CGY. 2-0-0 SJS 2-2-0 DAL 2-1-0 SJS 2-2-0 LAK 1-1-0 LAK 1-1-0 Of all the losses the Ducks have been in, only 4 were not in regulation. The Ducks have now pushed enough losses to overtime, that is why other teams in the West have an advantage over them. If they want to make the playoffs, even if they just barely skate in (2010 Philadelphia Flyers style) they will need to ensure that if they cannot come on top they need to try to pull at least one point out of games. They need to continue to find ways to win. No matter what deviation of required records you run, almost every time the wins outweigh the losses acceptable. Each facet of the team must rise to the occasion, the defense, the offense, and the goaltending. Getting lucky wins can get you into the playoffs, but you need to know how to really win once you get there.  They have 22 games to get it together. They have 22 games to solidify their team identity. They have 22 games to make amends for last season's failures. They have 22 games to earn their ticket to the big show. The rest of the season is now behind us. That portion of the year put us in contention. The race for the cup starts now.

Is it Finally Time to Fire the Coach?

Bob Murray made it very clear that he will not be firing Carlyle any time soon.
He has faith in the head coach becuse he brought us a cup. He went on to say
that a major change to the line up would come before Carlyle loses his job if
the Ducks continue to lose games. Meaning he might potentially break up the top
line of Ryan, Getzlaf, and perry.

He went on to say that putting blame on the coach is an excuse for the players
not to play well. These are dangerous comments from the general manager of the
Ducks. The RPG line is widely regarded as one of the top trios in the nhl. Their
play in the 09 playoffs was among the only reasons the ducks defeated the Sharks
and took Detroit to game 7. And Ryan has yet to fully develop into a 40 goal
man.

Breaking up this line is not the answer.

Yes, Carlyle brought us a cup. And his system brought us regular season success
the two seasons after the cup victory. But the game has changed since then, and
Carlyle has refused to change with it. His system is now outdated and beatable.

Ever wonder why some players play much better when they leave Anaheim?
Wisniewski's play in Anaheim the season before he was traded was shaky at best.
This season in New York, he has been wonderful and is considered to be in the
running for the Norris if his play continues. Here he was a second pairing guy.
Now he's in the top 30 among all skaters in points. And that's just one example.

The players obviously aren't responding to him as a coach anymore. They take
dumb penalties. They are inconsistent in odd man situations. The defense, as
bad as it is could be better and has been bad for the last 2 years. How many
games can you remember that we surrendered fewer than 30 shots on goal? Our
coach is a former Norris winner. Explain that.

When you watch other teams play you can find glaring differences in the way
successful teams play and the way the Ducks play. Teams that do well in this
league give 100% every night, they fight for possesion, they make smart passes
that are well thought out, they almost never stop moving their feet, they all
get involved and have a job to do on the ice, and more than anything they fight
hard every minute they play to make sure they win. Watching the Ducks you don't
see that. And it's been like that the last two years, getting gradually worse as
time has progressed.

And a big question has to be, how is Carlyle's behavior as a coach? Last year as
the season was ending he told the media something that has bothered me to this
day. He told them that he didn't know what to do or say anymore to make the team
win. First of all that shows signs of weakness and lack of dedication on the
part of the coach. There should always be things to say, new plays to run,
something. Secondly, coaches are supposed to watch what they say when speaking
to the media. If he was careless enough to let that one slip, what kind of
things is he saying in the locker room?

Going back to having nothing left to say or do, Carlyle never seems to learn
from his mistakes. He continues doing the same things even when they obviously
fail. The line juggling, constant dump and chase, and this addiction of playing
the puck along the boards are among a myriad of things that don't work but never
seem to change. A good coach is a coach who realizes change is necessary and
learns from his mistakes. Carlyle makes changes in all the wrong places and
doesn't seem to notice when the same old thing fails again and again and again.
Maybe he can't advance his game style. Why would we want someone like that to
stick around?

And maybe his game style is better suited for another team. But it clearly isn't
working here.

Murray can seek ways to turn things around. There may be little things that
could help, but think (amazing I just realized this is the second time I'm
making this argument) about all of the teams that were under performing and
turned things around with a new coach. We all know how great a team Washington
was but does anyone remember how bad they were before Bodreau was made coach?
They weren't in playoff position. The Penguins weren't a Stanley Cup winning
force until their coaching change. The coyotes wouldn't have made the playoffs
last year if Gretzky had not been replaced with Tippett who had been fired by
his last team. The ducks need something fresh and new to turn things around. But
the first step is ditching Carlyle. And Murray shouldn't feel bad for Carlyle.
It wouldn't take him long to find work.

And Murray is not exempt from blame either. Sure, Burke left and we'll never
know how he'd do in Murray's place. I'll have another blog on why Murray
deserves to go.

But as a preview I can give you the newest one. He'd break up our strongest
offensive weapon before he ditches Carlyle. The RPG line is more valuable than
Carlyle. They are our future. And Murray thinks desperately latching onto a cup
winning coach who refuses to evolve will bring him success. This is nothing
short of insanity. He is disagreeing with an entire fan base (and I'm sure some
members of the front office) on this.

This blog is more of an attack on Murray then Carlyle. He is threatening to do
some serious damage to our line up in order to protect a losing coach in the
hope that he restores his status as a cup winning coach. If I were the owners, I
would be greatly disturbed and would replace both Carlyle and Murray. And this
is coming from someone who vehemently stood up for both men.

This team is broken, let's fix it already.

Is it Time to Forgive?

So I think we've all heard the rumors that Paul Kariya may be coming back to Anaheim.

Multiple NHL rumor sites, Twitter accounts, and members of the media have reported that the Ducks are pursuing him. GM Bob Murray confirmed that he has been looking at him as an option, not to mention Selanne has been lobbying both parties to bring him back.

His possible return remains total speculation, but active Ducks fans have been discussing his possible return after Selanne's signing to no end. Topics like: what his contract should look like, how they will react, whether or not they need him if Jason Blake is in the roster.

But what seems to remain constant is the large group of fans who still have not forgiven him for leaving the Ducks in 2003. All the hatred wasn't just because of his departure, it was the fashion in which he left. Kariya led the Ducks to their first Stanley Cup final in a Cinderella run back in 2003. Upon losing he made a promise to fans that he would bring them a cup the following year. Then he pulled a LeBron and left us to play with Selanne in Colorado for a dirt cheap contract in the hopes of getting a Stanley cup ring.

The fans did not react well, and ever since then Paul Kariya has been public enemy number one in their eyes.

But does he really deserve it anymore?

I used to loathe Kariya like any devoted Ducks fan. The season that followed our cup run was horrible. I blamed it all on Paul Kariya.

Fans collectively wished for Kariya to have a bad career.

Wasn't our wish granted?

Kariya has not won a single cup in his career, his production has slipped since his departure, and in the meantime our team has had better playoff success than Nashville or St. Louis, including a Stanley Cup victory. We can look at our Stanley cup banner and say we were all along for the ride, he can't.

Expectations for Kariya's career were always high, he and Selanne were expected to be the next great NHL legends. One will be remembered forever as a Hall of Famer and one won't. Selanne is just 4 goals away from the top 15. Paul hasn't even cracked the top 70. Selanne is in the top 25 in points Kariya is down in the low 70s. And how many more times was Selanne an all star and olympian?

Needless to say the fans got the last laugh. You could say we are even now. Kariya will never be the franchise player he could have been, and he will not be a hall of famer. He could have been, but he won't. He got what he deserved and we are even.

I can't help but pity Kariya, because I know that if he returns he will be hearing the boos. He still has a home in Orange County and lives here in the summer. If he is brave enough to return, doesn't he deserve a little forgivance? Especially if he works hard for our team every night? And what if he takes a paycut?

I'm not saying you should forget what he did, forgiving does not mean forgetting at all. But I do believe that if he wants to return he deserves the a second chance to repay for what he did, after all he did put our franchise on the map.

But based on the hand that karma dealt him, it's not incorrect to again say that Kariya got what he deserved. Now he can have a clean slate. He can have the chance to win back our approval. We won't love him like we used to, but is he does things right we might not hate him anymore.
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That is if he is signed of course...

Ducks Draft Recap

The ducks had themselves one amazing draft day.

Arguably the winners of the draft they had the luck of being able to draft the number 5 and number 10 ranked players, Long Beach native, Emerson Etem, and Cam Fowler.

It was a perfect situation for Etem who lives in California to be drafted, and a huge honor for Fowler who received his sweater from his favorite player and idol, Scott Niedermayer.

It is difficult to say who was happier that those players were drafted, the players themselves, the fans, or Bob Murray and the rest of the Anaheim Ducks management.

Cam Fowler was a total steal at number 12. Apart from the Hall-Seguin debate, experts had trouble determining who the best defenseman was among the Gudbranson-Gormley-Fowler trio was. Gudbranson came fourth, but Fowler and Gormley fell to 12th and 13th respectively.

Murray was in total shock.

Fowler has received extremely high praise leading up to the draft. He has received comparisons to Erik and Jack Johnson, Brian Leetch, Thomas Kaberle, and even to an extent, Scott Niedermayer.

Watching his very first interview gave viewers the impression that he is intelligent, mature, and eager to work hard to make his way into the lineup as quickly as possible. It also helps that Scott Niedermayer may end up mentoring him. Isn't it also ironic that he has Fowl in his name? Yes I went for the lame duck related pun, but that is an awesome coincidence.

With the addition of Fowler, the Ducks' defensive pipeline appears to be the strongest in the league. Just thinking about Luca Sbisa, Jake Gardiner, Mark Mitera, and now Cam Fowler, it's enough to leave any fan drooling.

Etem luckily fell even further. It isn't a good feeling to have to wait as long as he did, but it almost seemed like fate that the speedy Californian managed to fall all the way to the team closest to home. I spent the last week with my family on a lake, but when I opened my phone at the hotel, I was in shock first to see that we actually drafted Fowler, my fourth favorite player in the draft, but with the 29th pick we took Etem. I honestly believed he would be taken 12th.

Not to say that Etem only got drafted because he is a California product. He has speed, size, and natural scoring talent. He received comparisons to Glen Anderson and Joffrey Lupul. But what is most impressive is Etem's determination and work ethic. From a young age Etem dedicated his life to hockey, going from city to city for hockey camps. In an interview he said he has already stopped caring about how far he fell, and that he is ready to make himself the best player selected in the draft.

That is very refreshing to hear. Many drafted players get caught up in the euphoria of being drafted and assume that they've reached their goal, by making the big time. They end up thinking that they will just continue improving physically and they will hit the big time without any problems. TR Goodman even said that he has the same focus and drive as Sidney Crosby.

Etem's mentality is what real stars are made of. They are always trying to improve themselves, they fight to be the best, and when you have the kind of talent that Etem has, a work ethic like that allows you to work out the weaknesses that caused you to drop in the draft. Expect Etem to be ranked among our top 10 prospects the next time THN and HF release their player rankings. He is an excellent pickup for the Ducks.

The draft was a step in the right direction, we will have to see if free agency will follow suit. If so, this upcoming season will be an exciting one.

Offseason Updates

It's been a rather uneventful offseason for the ducks so far. Fans have been hungrily waiting to see what Mr. Murray will do to make up for last year's Stanley cup absence.

Other than a couple of prospect signings, the Anaheim front office has shown no signs of life.

But fans can breathe a little easier knowing the silence will only last a little bit longer.

Fans who follow twitter, were given a major buzz of excitement when the official account of the ducks announced a signing would be made. This created some serious speculation, as everyone thought this was the first piece of big news they, well, we were waiting for.

Anaheim as an organization has never been known to tease fans with transaction hints. The Anaheim front office has always been more clandestine than other clubs. Nevertheless fans began to expect a big name like Ryan or niedermayer to be the signing.

In the end, Eric Stephens of the OCregister uncovered that the signing was for defenseman Sheldon Brookbank.

Not to bash on Brookbank, as he is an adept 3rd pairing defenseman, but fans were left expecting something big after so much time spent in silence. The hint dropped by the Ducks was almost like a message saying that the wait was over.

On the bright side, news is coming. Even if we have to wait a little bit longer.

Bobby Ryan's contract negotiations were described as being in their "early" stages a little over a week ago. The announcement of his signing should come within the next two to three weeks as a maximum, if he hasn't signed by draft day, it will be a safe bet that he will go to restricted free agency. Although it seems doubtful as both sides have sounded optimistic.

It has been announced that Scott Niedermayer will be announcing whether or not he will retire "soon". This is on the heels of Nicklas Lidstrom's recent desicion to return to his team for another year (at a million dollar paycut). Some could say that based on his interview, things aren't looking good, but Lidstrom (a fellow Norris trophy winner and future hall inductee) desicion could tilt the scales in the ducks' favor.

The draft is only a few short weeks away, and Murray is going to have to get a few signings done before then, to have a better picture of what kind of trades or free agent signings he needs to make.

So rest easy Duck fans, the silence will soon be broken.