Transcript of Anaheim Ducks 2024-25 NHL Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

The Anaheim Ducks were not last last year, which is pretty shocking, but they might be-There's still time. Yeah, there is still time to bottom out in Anaheim. What's crazy about Anaheim before- Last. Before I... All right. Preview done. Preview done. It's the last. Preview done. It's last. Under. We're going to hit under. What's crazy about the Ducks is for so long, this team has had identity pieces that you immediately go, Yeah, I know who plays there. And The problem with the Ducks right now is you don't know who plays there. I want to run through some of the greats. '90s, Korea Solani. You could even say Oleg Tewerodowski's in there, too. Yeah. Right? Maybe. And Guy Herbert, Skeevy Bear. Then when they won the Cup, it was Niedermier, it was Prog, and then there's these young guys. Who are the young guys? It was Cory Perry. Oh, my God, it was Ryan Getzler. Then a few years ago, they all left, and we've been left wondering what's there. Guys, here's a little Who does Daily Face-off have listed as Cam Fowler, top right shot defenseman for the Anaheim Ducks, left side defense partner?

I don't know. And I looked at this last night. Who is it?

I don't know. Jesse, you have a guess. Who is it? That's 2021 Anaheim, 34th overall, second round pick to you, Olen Zellweger. Oh, okay. With 26 games under his belt.

I was going to say Rako Goudas.

No, Goudas is a right shot. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

But Kam Fowler is a left shot.

Yeah.

Oh, okay. Well, they have- So he plays on the right side, doesn't he? Oh, does he? Anyway, that's who they have. Olen Zellweiger.

Okay. Yeah.

I'm right. So Daeli Vesov has it. Here's the left side. Zalwegher, Minzukow, and Dumalan. Right side, Fowler, Goudis. Jackson-lecombe. Jackson-lecombe. Listen, they have... So what I remember about the team that won the Cup, right, is Perry and Getzlaff were so, so young, and they were great little additions to a team that was already great. The Ducks have pieces for the future, like cornerstones for the future.

Mark Pisling.

And they're probably going to play this year. They have not insulated them and are not insulating them at all.

Here's the top line. Again, this is all going to change. But if Daily Face-off has these guys listed, I'll give you the top six. Alex Kalorn, Insolation. Sure. Yeah? Yes. Leo Carlson, great pick a couple of years ago.

Good young player.

Troy Terry. A guy that they need to see something from, I think. He needs to take a step forward.

Troy Terry is 27.

No.

What step are we taking?

He is what he is. I think he can score you. He's good for a bad season, he'll give you 50 points. A good season, he can give you 70, 75.

Okay. Next line. And I think this one's interesting. Cutter Goche.

There's a bit of a wild card.

Great pickup.

Very good pickup. Trevor Zegris. I don't know how old he is, but he feels like a guy that maybe needs to take a step forward. I can't believe he's not a Canadian.

So I highlighted him here. For a guy who is, as far as I can tell, really good hockey player and really high draft pick of the Ducks and should be part of their future, he's in Trade Rumors every day.

Oh, yeah. It seems like they want to get rid of him. Why? I don't know.

Why? You stink. You stink, and he's young and good at hockey. That's what teams who stink should need.

Well, this is the question, right? Because you bought him out so that you can rebuild. But the question is, is Pat Verbeek up to the challenge? The Trevor Zegris thing to Montreal. Okay, so my question is, if Zegris ends up in Montreal, and I actually love that idea because I think he, and Montreal fans are going to hate me for this, I think he might be a better fit at center next to Line A than Kirby Doc would be.

You got to get off Hab's Reddit and Twitter and all that because every available player is going to Montreal.

Well, I think same with Leaps. But what I'm saying is-I agree. The Zegris to Montreal rumors are the strongest.

The idea behind trading Trevor Zegris is that you're selling him at the height of his value because he's been in the league for a few years now. His value is probably what it is. If you're trading him, that means you don't expect him to be this next level of NHL star. You think he's peaked. Right. That's the idea behind trade because you don't move him unless that's how you feel. So I'm just explaining the reasoning behind the Ducks move like that. Because you can get a whole bunch of assets from Trevor Because if you're like, Hey, maybe he could be a 40 goal scorer. We projected him to be a 100-point player, all this stuff. And then Montreal send you a bunch of assets. But then he never amounts to that. But you got all those assets back. That's the idea. But what do the Ducks think?

I don't know. Man, it's tough to know.

I never know because remember a few years ago? Like, oh, yeah, they're shopping Troy Terry. And now he's on the team and he's been fantastic for them. I don't know what they want. I have no idea what they want to... I don't even know what they want to be.

I don't know if this is a Troy Terry Dump Fest, but I don't think he's been fantastic for $7 million.

Well, he was good for them.

Right. Yeah. He earned a $7 million for the season where he had in the '21, '22 season, 75 games. He had 37 goals, 30 assists. Since then, 23 goals, 20 goals.

What do you have in terms of points last year? What do you have in terms of points last year?

54 last year.

54? That's what I was about right with. But that's the low end of what I was saying.

That's seven million dollars. It's not enough. It's just not enough.

This is what I'm saying about insulation. Frank Vetrano scored at a rate of, I think, five goals a game. Is that going to repeat?

Can you even-Well, they also have- Can you even count? They also have Robbie Fabry and Ryan Strom. Yeah.

Okay. Can you even count on the things that went well for you last year, repeating?

Well, so I wonder I wonder about that, and I wonder about things that went well repeating in Mason McTavish. That seems- There's a great player.

Great future piece of the organization. Right. Great.

So you're good with that? A hundred %. Okay. If all of those guys are pretty good. This is still not a great team. No. Remember how in one of the other previews? I was like, Yeah, but who do they expect to beat in the division? Who do they expect to beat in the conference? In that particular case, I was talking about the LA Kings, and I was talking about the teams that are better than them. I look at the Ducks and I go, I'm not sure you can beat anyone. They're going to win games. I get it.

Probably the Leifs. They'll probably be- A million %.

They're going to crush the Leaps. I get that. But a normal game, who do they go in as the favorite with?

Maybe the Sharks.

Maybe the Sharks. And even in the Eastern Conference, I still give the Montreal Canadians an edge over them.

It's Black Hawks.

You may be the Black Hawks. This is rough. And then obviously, we talked a little bit about the lineup on defense, Zalweg, or Minchukoff, Goudas, Fowler. I think Goudas might be the captain this year.

Minchukov was really good.

Should throw that out there. Here's the other guy that they've always in Trade Room. It's John Gibson.

I don't understand that. To me, Dostal is their... It's a tandem right now, but to me, he's their starter. He's far and away the better goalie. He was last year. It's not It was because of that freaking game against Elyce.

It was a really good goal. It was a little bit. It was a little bit. I think some form of team that features Leo Carlson, Mason McTavish, Cutter Goche, and then Trevor Zegris, probably.

Carlson got hurt, too.

Leo Carlson? Yeah. And then Zellweiger as well. Some form of that, that collection of young players is a decent team. It's just one, it's way not there yet. And two, there needs to be more of that. They need to be insulated, obviously, by good talent, but they just need to keep building here. They're in the crevice here of the rebuild. It needs to keep going.

Another team. Now, there are some teams that finish near the bottom of the standings, but you know it's going to be a tough out. They're not very good, but they're going to play the hell of you. That's not the Ducks. They've been a miserable... Even if they start okay by midseason, they're a miserable sadsack excuse of hockey. They're not worth watching. They are road kill on the schedule. They're brutal. So I'm being kind. Some of the games, and I'm not talking in leaps again, I would tune in, just be flipping channels, and I'd be like, These guys hate their job. And that is not going to be the frigging case this year. And I'll tell you why. Dickey. Dickey Clune has joined the Anaheim Ducks as an assistant coach, and he has quads as thick as your waist, and he will put you in a Lex Luger torture rack if you show up to the rink and say anything other than God bless the world for making me a hockey player. At some point, what's lacking with the ducks, we look at them and we're like, Yeah, there's skill there. You'd like more of that.

There's future there. There's been a deep lack of pride there.

If they play with a little bit of it, you'll be in it most nights. Right.

One guy that, obviously, we haven't mentioned, but we should, is Beckett Seneca. Obviously, he is injured at the moment, but Macy games? I don't know. If he's missing training camp, do you just even bother?

That's a right winger.

Oh, that's Steve.

Yes. Wait, did you say D again?

No, I didn't. No, Steve. No. Okay.

Who famously called him a defenseman. A couple of It's every five years.

I do that every five year. Yeah, Robertson was 2019. Every five years.

Just give me one second here because my Internet reset and I have had the odds up. Just give me a minute.

We can do some Ducks 2023, 2024 team Trivia. Let's go, Jesse. Steve, how many players on the Ducks scored over 20 goals?

Two.

Correct. Name them. One's a free square because he almost had 40.On the Ducks?Yeah.Oh, Vetrano.Yeah, you mentioned.Yeah, my bad. Who's the other one?How many goals he had?20. Exactly. Son of my God.

Zegriss missed too much time.

Yeah, Zegri's played four games last week.

And Terry, I'm almost...

Zegri's played 31 games.

I'm almost positive. You told me Terry had 18. Mctavish?

It was Troy Terry. Damn it. He had 20. How many players on the Ducks had over 40 points?

Oh, boy. Three.

No, surprisingly, five.

Vitrano.

Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Oh, sorry. No, no, no. Name five.

Vitrano. And now it gets hard.

The guy who had 20.

Yeah, Troy Terry.

Troy Terry, yeah. An older gentleman. He's 33 from Brantford, Ontario. Number 14. His last name starts with an H. Place Center. Oh, Henry. Henry, yeah.

Yeah, I forgot. He was Renaissance man, and now they don't have him.

Double M..

Mason Mctavish.

Yeah, and one more. He's a brother. He's a brother. Famous brother. He has a brother.

Oh, he has a brother.

His brother's name is Dylan.

Oh, Ryan. I was wondering when that was going to get in. I don't know, man. We're looking for Strom here. All right. I have found the odds if you guys carried a group. The Anaheim Ducks had 59 points last year, and they were not last. The Bet MGM's odds have them improving by 10.5 to 70.5. Oh, my God. Are you over or are you under on the Ducks? 70 8.5 points.

See, you can tell how good a first overall pick is going to be by how trash the bottom five teams are. Celebrini is going to be good. Just not for them. I'm doing under, and I'm doing eighth.

Okay. Jesse Blake.

I got them in eighth, and I'll take the under.

And I will make that a three. They're terrible. No, not third. That means they're going to finish last.

Oh, you're picking them And they're going under.

We're going under 70. In fact, I think they're going to have less. I'm going to be bold than 59 points this year. I think they will be even worse. But we'll see. We'll see. That's your Anaheim Ducks. Tried not to make it depressing. Ten minutes season.

I'm sorry, Troy Terry. I was a little hard on you..