Ice-Capades 7: Hot Take Time

Hot takes dominate sports media, websites, and newsletters. So even though I try to use data to support my opinions, I know the power of a hot take in expanding my newsletter’s reach. Here’s one of mine:

Just kidding, I’m going to give you the reason why I believe this. Before I talk about the Ducks, we have to talk about the Nashville Predators and their roller coaster of a 2024-2025 season.

The Nashville Predators became the 2023-2024 off-season champions. After yet another first-round loss in the playoffs, Predators GM (and former coach) Barry Trotz went all in on signing playoff legends. Elite players like Lightning captain Steven Stamkos and Golden Knight Jonathan Marschassault, hitting the free agent market, are a rarity. And Trotz did not want to let them go anywhere except for his Predators. The Predators already had great scoring with Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg, who came off netting a career best 48 goals. Acquiring Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marschassault should help with that. And how about bolstering the defense by adding Brady Skjei from the Carolina Hurricanes?

Forwards Stamkos and Maschassault have three Stanley Cup rings, 874 goals, and a whopping 1,733 points. Skjei amassed a plus-minus of 46 in his five years in Carolina; it also did not hurt that he played alongside Jaccob Slavin, whose performance in the Four Nations tournament has resulted in international acclaim. Nashville showed in their offseason acquisitions that anything less than a deep playoff run, i.e., not losing in the first round, would be a disappointment.

Nashville did not make the playoffs in the 2024-2025 season. They instead contended for Tank Bowl status after starting 0-6. How did the offseason champions move to the bottom of the barrel? Well, all their players regressed, from the new arrivals (Maschassault, Stamkos, and Skjei) to Forsberg, Josi, and goaltender Juuse Saros, freshly extended to an eight-year contract. The Predators could not, for the life of them, hit the back of the net or keep the puck out of the net. Nashville’s lack of scoring put them at thirty-first in goals for, and they were sixth in goals against, but the statistics don’t even begin to match how demoralizing this is for the Predators. When noted scorer (sarcasm) Luke Schenn says, “‘I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a group like this that literally can’t score a goal,’” that’s a problem (Jacob Punturi, Sports Illustrated, February 28, 2025). Turns out getting the second-oldest team in the league means that most of the league (including my Flyers, who had a dismal year) can win by simply outskating them! It doesn’t matter how many combined total points any Predator can amass if they’re growing older and getting slower on the ice!

And to make matters worse for Nashville’s future, they don’t have many players in the prospect pool coming up. The acquisition of Stamkos, Marschassault, and Skjei led to Trotz emptying the Predators’ prospect pool. Younger players in Nashville’s system, such as Eeli Tolvanen, Alex Carrier, Dante Fabbro, Cody Glass, Juuso Parssinen, and Philip Tomasino, got traded or put on the waiver wire to make way for the three players alongside other veterans acquired during the 2023-2024 season, such as Ryan O’Reilly from It’s safe to say that New Jersey, Columbus, Seattle Also, Trotz spent $110 million on all three players’ contracts; that alongside other pricy contracts including Saros’ aformentioned extension leaves Nashville with a paltry $9, 341, 039 in cap space (thank you Puckpedia for your hard work in tracking cap space with each NHL team!). Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs how investing a significant portion of their cap space in four players worked out for them.

Like an albatross on the neck of Coleridge’s ancient mariner, the contracts hinder the Predators from rebuilding. Oh, and they might lose another young player, forward Luke Evangelista, due to a contract holdout; have fun with that. Smashville? More like Passville, am I right?

While Nashville has tried to pretend that they don’t need a rebuild by getting old vets for that good old NOSTAGIA™, Anaheim is mired in one. Since the last made the playoffs in 2018, they have gone through the steps that many playoff contenders on a downturn do—pretending that they don’t need to rebuild, getting forced into one, and then acquiring young players by tanking Unfortunately, their young players in Trevor Zegras, Cam York and Jamie Drysdale were more often than not lame ducks, either shelved for injury or used a similar strategy to the Nashville Predators—acquire veterans. They acquired Rangers captain Jacob Trouba during the 2024-2025 season, as well as former Rangers Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano. To top off the veteran infusion, Flyers and Panthers legend Radko Gudas serves as the Ducks’ captain.

But the People’s Elbow must have his adjutant, Chris Kreider. The Ducks acquiesced to his wishes and acquired him in the offseason. Trouba did okay in Anaheim this season, or about as well as one can do given the fact that Rangers GM Chris Drury’s repeated attempts to trade Trouba regardless of his family concerns. However, Chris Kreider comes off a down year, netting a low of 21 goals without a pandemic-shortened season to blame for his lack of production. They also got rid of John Gibson, the goaltender who did his best to keep the team in games they had no business hanging around in, to add a old goaltender in Petr Mrazek. Lucas Dostal will now have to continue Gibson’s herculean play to keep his team in games, while hopefully gaining more mentorship from Mrazek.

Like the Predators, the Ducks also traded a handful of younger players to get veterans like Trouba and Kreider. One of the more notable younger pieces that has been traded elsewhere is Trevor Zegras, the former face of the franchise’s rebuild. While injuries as well as misuse by coach Greg Cronin hampered his ability, the fact that a linchpin of their rebuild, a player who was supposed to get them back into the playoffs, now plays elsewhere is disheartening for the Ducks. They also traded Jamie Drysdale to the Flyers, as well as Cam York, both of whom were supposed to be a part of the rebuilding core. While they did get a great player in this year’s draft in Rodger McQueen, he is a few years away from starting at best. The same goes for the players they have in the AHL. This fact begs the question for Ducks fans: Do you really want to sit through another rebuild after the core pieces of the last rebuild now play a coast away?

I am also not sure that the Ducks’ hiring of Joel Quenneville (aka Coach Q) is the right move for them. First, the obvious reason as to why he left—his role in covering up the sexual assault of Kyle Beach as well as John Doe by equipment manager Brad Aldrich. The NHL and the Ducks have used quite opaque language concerning their Coach Q.’s rehabilitation. While the Ducks said they did speak with Kyle Beach, it does not seem like they did with John Doe. Doe’s lawyer released a statement of concern regarding Coach Q’s hiring. Coach Q may also have to testify in John Doe’s lawsuit against the Blackhawks alongside Oilers GM Stan Bowman—barring an appeal against said subpoena from his former GM because Bowman’s statements saying that he’s changed haven’t meant anything.— I know Coach Q has expressed remorse, but will he throw his remorse in the trash the moment he’s back in the league? I don’t have much hope in that regard, given the Boy’s Club and the non-transparency regarding his rehabilitation.

Second, the game has changed a great deal since his last coaching stint. Look at the team he had to leave his coaching position when the scandal broke: the Florida Panthers. After making it to the second round for the first time since 1996 in the 2021-2022 season, they went on to make an improbable Stanley Cup Finals run in 2023 and then won the last two Stanley Cups. Their style of hockey has become the gold standard for other teams to match. I’m not sure to what extent he has followed the league, or has been able to because of his relative exile from the league while going through the NHL’s “rehabilitation.” The Blackhawks dynasty he helped to create is a whole decade behind him. If he keeps using that knowledge from a decade ago rather than adapting to the league’s changes, the Ducks will yet again sink to the bottom of the Western Conference.

The purpose of getting veterans is to have a young core get mentored by them. If Ducks GM Pat Verbeek wants the conglomeration of veterans and young talent to work, he has to have young talent around to make it work. Mason McTavish is an RFA, and as of this post, has yet to get a contract. Cutter Gauthier’s rookie deal expires after this season. The same applies to young talent like Ryan Poehling (whom they acquired in return for sending Zegras to Philadelphia), Pavel Mintyukov, Olen Zellweger, and Jackson LaCombe. If I subtract the four players, the average age of the Anaheim Ducks is 30. The exceptions are threefold: Lukas Dostal (25), Drew Helleson (24), and Sam Coleangelo (23). Signing said young core instead of trading them away is paramount for Verbeek. I mean, it’s not like the Ducks have a similar cap crunch like the Predators do; CapPedia reports that the Ducks have $20,538,811 left in the cap. He should start using said ample camp space by signing UFA Mason McTavish to a contract. But as of this writing, like Predators’ Luke Evangelista, McTavish does not have one.

If Verbeek misuses the cap space to asinine moves to trade away his young stars for more old veterans, they become the second Nashville with a dash of Sabres with the never-ending rebuild in place. That’s a level of suffering that I do not wish on any fanbase. While I started getting into hockey by watching Sabres games, following them consistently became too painful for me to bear. And I’m a Philadelphia sports fan—I’m used to my sports teams inflicting misery upon me.— At least get to see the glory of Rod Brind’Amour coaching, even if the Canes lose. Ducks fans get to see Joel Quenneville pine for the days of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Corey Crawford.

Now, if Verbeek turns his team into another agony mill in the Western Conference before the Flyers face them next, I would like to suggest that the Flyers simply move faster than the Ducks when they face them next. I don’t care about what defensive or offensive strategies Rick Tocchet and co want to impose among the Lame Ducks. Old dogs (or veteran stars, in this case) can only perform so many tricks.