During the playoffs and off-season, I plan to focus on each team in the West and look at their current roster, prospects, cap space, draft picks and impending free agents. I intend to dig a little deeper into the organization to see if the team is on the rise, fall or treading water heading into 2022-23.

We will begin with the Anaheim Ducks.

GM and Coach

Pat Verbeek is the new GM with the Ducks after taking over from Bob Murray in February 2022. Verbeek is a rookie GM after being an assistant GM in Tampa Bay for seven years and just under three years in Detroit.  Verbeek was busy leading up to the trade deadline by trading Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson, Nicolas Deslauriers and Rickard Rakell for draft picks.

Dallas Eakins will enter his fourth season as the coach of the Ducks but is entering the last year of his current contract. Anaheim exercised their club option on Eakins for the 2022-23 season. If they don't start well, his season could be brief.

Salary Cap

Next season, the club will still have a cap hit of $2 million for Corey Perry on the books, but will no longer have $6.875 million on LTIR for Ryan Kesler. As things stand now, they have $40.3 million of projected cap space for 2022-23 but have about five or six UFA NHL player contracts to replace for next season. The value of the unrestricted free agent contracts that have expired was close to $8 million. The value of the four restricted free agents that are expiring is about $5-6 million.  

Verbeek will need to take into account new contracts for Troy Terry, Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale after next season. I think those three players will require $18-22 million AAV, so this might give the Ducks about $12-15 million to focus on five or six UFA contracts if they spend to the cap.

Draft Picks

For the 2022 Draft, the Ducks have their first-round lottery pick as well as Boston's first-round pick which will be in the 20s. They also have two picks in the second and fifth rounds to go with their fourth found pick and Nashville's sixth-round pick. They have eight picks in total.

In 2023 they have nine picks overall with one in the first, three in the second and two in the third round.

Free Agents

Unrestricted free agents are Ryan Getzlaf (retired), Zach Aston-Reese, Gerald Mayhew, Dominik Simon, Vinni Lettieri, Andrej Sustr, Ryan Kesler, and Buddy Robinson, Trevor Carrick, Greg Pateryn and Brogan Rafferty.

I think the Ducks might bring back Aston-Reese, Mayhew and Lettieri.

Restricted free agents are Sonny Milano, Sam Steel, Isac Lundestrom, Urho Vaakanainen, Jacob Larsson, Jack Badini, Lucas Elvenes, Simon Benoit, Brendan Guhle, Roman Durny and Olle Eriksson Ek.

Milano and Steel could be on the trade block, while Lundestrom and Vaakanainen should be re-signed.

Roster

Over the past two years, I've been able to give players ratings based on their results for a game or a season. All it does is take metrics, like scoring, shooting, hits, blocks, faceoffs etc. and spit out an easy-to-digest number under 10. Elite skaters are around 6.7 and higher, while the average skater comes in at about 6.41. I've determined that a player around 6.25 or lower is right at the replacement level.

Goalies average a little better at around 6.5, but game-to-game performances are like a yo-yo.

Here is the Ducks projected roster as it stands.

As a whole, the Ducks are a below-average team heading into next season with more question marks than solid answers. 

In the forwards, the Ducks have Zegras, Terry, Adam Henrique and Jakob Silfverberg as the only forwards above the league average (based on 2021-22), with Henrique playing 58 games and Silfverberg playing only 53 last year.

On the left side, Sonny Milano tailed off considerably in the second half of last season and will be fighting to stay on the Ducks roster. Henrique is solid when healthy, but the team will need Maxime Comtois to be vastly better, while the fourth spot is wide open.

At center, Zegras is now the leader after Ryan Getzlaf retired, with Mason McTavish pencilled in along with Isac Lundestrom and Sam Steel. Verbeek will need to upgrade here in free agency or trade to give Zegras help. The Ducks will miss Getzlaf next year.

On the right side, Terry will need to duplicate the fine season he had this year, while the team hopes Silfverberg can play more than 53 games. Derek Grant is a solid bottom-six winger while Sam Carrick has proved capable as well.

I'm sure the team would love to sign a top-six winger and center, but they don't grow on trees or come cheaply.

On defence, the team has two solid defenders in Cam Fowler and Kevin Shattenkirk, while Jamie Drysdale should continue to improve on his way to being the best of the bunch. After those three, Urho Vaakanainen, Simon Benoit and Josh Mahura will all need to step up and become everyday NHLers as there isn't much depth other than Brendan Guhle or perhaps Drew Helleson ready to step in. John Moore and Jacob Larsson might need to play some games if the Ducks are paying them anyways. This is an area that needs two to three solid additions through free agency as well.

In goal, John Gibson was a little below average last season, while Anthony Stolarz played quite well. Gibson is signed at $6.4 million AAV until 2026-27 so he would have to implode to lose his starting job.

You can see the areas that the Ducks will need to improve upon and hope their young players continue to get better. This is a pivotal season for Maxime Comtois, Sonny Milano, Sam Steel, Urho Vaakanainen, Simon Benoit and Josh Mahura, to solidify their places in this league.

Could Anaheim take a run at Johnny Gaudreau, Ryan Strome, Andrew Copp or Filip Forsberg in free agency or be a possible trade destination for Kevin Fiala?

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you want me to focus on any players or topics by messaging me below or following me on Twitter @gampbler15.