Pat Verbeek is seeing early returns on his offseason moves for the Ducks
The Anaheim Ducks are one of the stories of the hockey season so far as we approach American Thanksgiving. Despite dropping their past two games, they sit in first place in the Pacific Division with a record of 11-5-1.
They’re getting it done with a combination of newcomer veterans like Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider as well as young stars like Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier, and the job done by general manager Pat Verbeek to put this roster together is drawing plenty of attention throughout NHL circles.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the careful moves that Verbeek made this summer and how they’re all paying off as the Ducks look more and more like a contender.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I wanted to take a bit of a bigger picture look at the first month of the hockey season, and I labeled this one “Honeymoon Phase,” because it’s early on and things could change… Hutts, our focus today is kind of GMs and what they did over the summer and the early returns on those moves. We’re starting positive, which GMs do you think our feeling like they killed it this summer?
Carter Hutton: There’s obviously a few that you can talk about… I think about the Anaheim Ducks and Verbeek and what he’s done out there. I think things have gone so well for them. The fact that where they’re at in this build is going perfect, right? You look at some of these younger guys stepping into it.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I was going to give some love to Pat Verbeek too… anyone on that team who you think might be an ugly contract, they expire either at the end of this year or at the end of next year… it kind of lines up with when they’ve got to start paying some of these kids. They’re in a great spot right now… He made that trade for Cutter Gauthier. That’s a great piece of work. He goes out and acquires Chris Kreider for basically a bag of pucks.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…