The Anaheim Ducks have gone up 2-0 on the President’s Trophy-winning San Jose Sharks after last night’s 3-2 win and the series now shifts to Southern California Tuesday night.
One of the key features of this strong Ducks squad is its strength on the blueline. In past seasons that meant talking about Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer, along with the formerly underappreciated Francois Beauchemin.
Now, however, it’s just as important to mention a key cog like Ryan Whitney. He was acquired in the Chris Kunitz deal about a week before the trade deadline, while James Wisniewski was obtained on March 4th.
In Pittsburgh Whitney was used to being in the position of a Pronger or a Niedermayer, in so far as logging big minutes and being a top offensive dog on D with stud Sergei Gonchar. The Boston-born rearguard produced 38 points in only 68 GP in his rookie season and followed that up with 59 points the following year. Now that he’s fully healthy again he’ll have a chance to truly shine, although expectations have shifted for now with his new coach.
The Orange County Register ran an article over the weekend noting that while Whitney downplays it, the trade required him to undertake a significant challenge; both in adjusting to the system favoured by Ducks bench boss Randy Carlyle and in being paired with Pronger, which often results in facing the opposition’s top offensive threats.
“We didn’t want to take away his No. 1 asset – his skating ability,” Carlyle said. “He’s a puck-moving, skating defenceman. We just wanted him to adjust some things from a standpoint of playing the middle of the ice; not being the guy that’s going to lead the rush. He’s going to come late on a rush. Not to take chances at the offensive blue line — that kind of stuff.
“He hasn’t done any of those things in a while, so if that’s what you call progress, he’s progressing.”
While that type of role might initially indicate decreased offensive numbers, Whitney has chipped in helpers in each of the two games of this series so far and he had 10 of them in 20 starts from his first start with the Ducks through the end of the regular season. So while he’s not necessarily as high up in the offensive food chain as he was with his Pens playing opposite Gonchar on PP1, he’s still actually finding ways to contribute for his poolies.
A possible barometer of future increased productivity too is that Carlyle is on him about using what’s actually a really effective shot more often.
“Obviously, sometimes I’m looking to pass, so you want to make sure you’re thinking shot first,” Whitney said. “There have been a few instances where he’s kind of gotten on me about being in the slot and looking to pass instead of just firing it.”
Once this playoff run ends for the Ducks, whenever that may be, the team will be faced with some tough questions on the blueline in terms of its existing structure. The depth Anaheim has now is a great luxury for the post-season, but not likely one the team can afford going forward.
Niedermayer’s contract ($6.75M) is up and he’ll have to decide between retirement or playing another year in the NHL, which would likely mean suiting up for Team Canada at the Olympics on home soil too.
Pronger ($6.25M) has one more year left on his current deal and Niedermayer’s decision will certainly play a big role in whether Pronger’s kept or not . Beauchemin ($1.65M) will be a UFA this summer and could no doubt command more money in a new deal, but whether that will come from the Ducks or someone else depends on where those first two key dominos fall. Wisniewski ($0.9M) will be an RFA this summer.
Whitney ($4M for another four years after ’08-9) should be around with this team for a long time at a pretty reasonable price in the grand scheme of things. As effective as he’s been to date with the Ducks, he’ll no doubt see an increase in his fantasy value once one of Niedermayer or Pronger moves on.
On a side note though, what would you do in terms of goaltending if you were running the Ducks?
Jonas Hiller has had a really outstanding season and has taken full advantage of his starting role in the playoffs so far, although we’re obviously only two games in. Jean-Sebastien Giguere has a $6M cap hit for two more seasons after this one, compared with Hiller at $1.3M for another year before he’ll be a UFA.
You could fill another roster hole with that sort of financial gap (it’s also worth noting that young Bobby Ryan has one more year left before he’ll be an RFA and earns good coin), even taking into account that Hiller would need a contract extension in the near future. As a comparable, former Ducks back-up Ilya Bryzgalov turned his starting shot in Phoenix into a $4.25M-per-year average hit.
Even assuming that you’d give JSG a mulligan for this season with his father’s passing and that the goaltender would come back with a strong effort in ’09-10, would you want to tie up $6M in cap space when you’ve got someone at a significantly reduced price that can clearly do a great job? Would another team even want to take on that salary, or would the Ducks be met with the cool reception given the Hawks when they tried to do the same thing with Nikolai Khabibulin earlier in the season? Things couldn’t have worked out better for Chicago, as it turned out.
The deeper the Ducks go with Hiller this spring, the more things might play out in the 27-year old Swiss netminder’s favour – regardless of the post-season heroics JSG has performed for this team in the past.
Such is the reality of this cap-era world.