What do you think of the teams defense?

I think the organization has done a good job over the last year at rebuilding the defensive blueline. Now i'll admit I was not high on Slava Smid at first but I saw some footage and some scouting reports and I think i'm going to eat my words, alot of people are high on this guy and it looks like he could become a good top pairing defensemen. Popovic is going to be a solid contributer for many years probably a number 3 defensemen who can do a little bit of everything, don't be surprised if he is a 30+ point defensemen in a few years. I think we can all agree Popovic is going to be an upgrade over Havelid this year and over the long term, Tomas Malec is an interesting guy he seems like a Ruslan Salei clone if anything to me I don't know how many agree. Then my personal favorite Aaron Rome, this guy is going to be a fan favorite I have a feeling he is just a good stay at home defensemen who plays a physical game...I personally feel he's going to be a good 2nd pairing defensemen and he's going to make the Kings pay for not re-signing him.

But what makes me think this teams defensive depth is so good is the experiance that guys like Skoula and Vishnevski have, both are 24 both have been in the NHL for a few years(Vish 6) I mean we should be very optimistic about this teams future if Vishnevski takes another step forward this year we could have two very good top pairing defensemen for a very long time(Smid,Vish). The Ducks also have some good veteran defensemen if Carney's ankle is better we all know the rock that he is this guy is so smart he could play until he was 40 if he wanted to. He's also in great shape, I think this is going to be a bounce back season for him, most of us noticed he wasn't himself last year. Ozolinsh made this team so much better when he played the transition game was literally 100 X better. Now I know he's not a great defensive player and that he'll make turnovers but he plays alot of minutes so if he was the liability he had been billed for many years he wouldn't get the ice time he does. I hope we get a full season with him, I think him being healthy and playing atleast 70 games is key for the team. Then theres Salei who will take some bad penalties but I can live with it because he brings a physical element to the game, he works his backside off every night, he's not very big but he is a good 3 or 4 guy for the team.

Now I realize most of you are not optimistic about this teams chances whatsoever and since about last December I haven't been either but lets remember how many guys had down years. I mean is it unreasonable of me to expect Sykora and Giguere to play better?I don't think i'm being unreasonable when I say Popovic is an upgrade over Havelid either. chistov will score more than two goals, Leclerc is going to play more than 10 games and a healthy Carney makes all the difference in the world to me. Anyways I know this thread is about the teams organizational depth so fire away.

There are just a ton of question marks going into this season thats all.

The biggest question is of course will there be a season. But if just looking at the team there are a bunch of questions that need to be answered. Which Giguere will we see? because honestly our chances begin and end with him. We are very thin on defense....what if we take on the injuries like we did last season? If we lose Carney or Ozolinsh for an extended amount of time who is going to contribute in their place? Malec? Foster? Popovic? Having even two of these guys in the lineup at one time makes me think we are in trouble.

And what about the offense? Who is going to contribute in Prospals place? Will Chistov wake up? Will Lupul slump? Can Leclerc stay healthy? Will we get any effort out of Fed? Who the hell is going to score on this team?

You talk about Malec and Popovic and Rome but how many times do you see three young defenseman come in and make a solid impact? Almost never, percentages say two of them will probably fizzle away or at best be 5th or 6th d-men.

Chistov scoring more than 2 goals, Leclerc playing more than 10 games will probably occur but do things like this make this a playoff team? I guess that is the ultimate question.

The Ducks defense is pretty good. The top 3 is solid and the injuries to Carney and Ozolinsh really hurt us last year. On the other hand salary might force one off the team and that would make for a really painful season, IMO.

Vish, I'm just not sold on him ever becoming a top pairing D-man. He's too scrawny still and his positioning isn't the best. If he can be a solid part of a 2nd pair I'd be happy.

Skoula, I see in much the same way. Not a top pair guy, but he'll do OK given most of Havelid's minutes.

Popovic/Malec/Foster give us pretty good hope for improved depth, but be realistic. The chances of any making an impact this season, much less replacing Havlid's 23 minutes, is crazy. For as bad as he was last year Havelid was damn good two years ago. Being #4 on the depth chart is a big difference from being #2/#3 and Nick just never stepped up while others were injured. Same deal with Sauer, IMO.

There are just a ton of question marks going into this season thats all.

The biggest question is of course will there be a season. But if just looking at the team there are a bunch of questions that need to be answered. Which Giguere will we see? because honestly our chances begin and end with him. We are very thin on defense....what if we take on the injuries like we did last season? If we lose Carney or Ozolinsh for an extended amount of time who is going to contribute in their place? Malec? Foster? Popovic? Having even two of these guys in the lineup at one time makes me think we are in trouble.

And what about the offense? Who is going to contribute in Prospals place? Will Chistov wake up? Will Lupul slump? Can Leclerc stay healthy? Will we get any effort out of Fed? Who the hell is going to score on this team?

You talk about Malec and Popovic and Rome but how many times do you see three young defenseman come in and make a solid impact? Almost never, percentages say two of them will probably fizzle away or at best be 5th or 6th d-men.

Chistov scoring more than 2 goals, Leclerc playing more than 10 games will probably occur but do things like this make this a playoff team? I guess that is the ultimate question.
You could ask those questions of just about any team though.

If our players just play like they normally do...that means not a bunch of down seasons from players I think this team has a good shot.

Health is the biggest issue, Having Leclerc,Rucchin and Ozolinsh healthy should make a significant difference. Chistov should score more than 2 goals too and I am not worried about the goaltending situation one bit.

You could ask those questions of just about any team though.

If our players just play like they normally do...that means not a bunch of down seasons from players I think this team has a good shot.

Health is the biggest issue, Having Leclerc,Rucchin and Ozolinsh healthy should make a significant difference. Chistov should score more than 2 goals too and I am not worried about the goaltending situation one bit.

Well whats normal? One year we are good one year we aren't. There is no consistancy to this team. Rucchin and Ozolinsh were playing for about half of last season together and we were still horrible.

I agree you could ask alot of those questions of any team. I guess my point is that this team has a lot to prove to themselves, other teams and the fans before people are eager to jump on the bandwagon again, we have just been fooled to many times before.

I'm not too concerned about our blueline, we could use a true #1 horse, but so could many teams. The usual concern that seems to have been true since the kariya/selanne duo was broken up is getting consisent offensive production. It will be interesting to see if Babcock loosens the reigns at all on his system to allow for some more offensive creativity.

Normal for me would be not sucking an entire half of the year which just about everybody did until about January.