Anaheim Ducks: 2019-20 season preview, predictions

Weaknesses

Scoring Goals

No team scored fewer goals than the Ducks last season. They were dreadful across the board, finishing with the second-worst goals per hour rate at even strength (2.23) and the 10th-worst goals per hour rate on the power play (6.00).

The full-time additions of Sam Steel, Max Jones, and Troy Terry should help. A healthy Ondrej Kase should be a huge addition, especially if he gets first-line minutes and keeps scoring at a first-line rate. It’s hard to imagine Rickard Rakell struggling to score as much as he did last season. However, the Ducks are still going to struggle to score goals.

Penalty Kill

Losing Ryan Kesler is going to make killing penalties a lot harder for the Ducks. Last season, they finished 20th in the league on the penalty kill, killing 79.70% of their penalties. It could have been much worse. No team allowed more scoring chances against per hour while shorthanded than the Ducks.

They also allowed the most expected goals against in the league while shorthanded at 61.05. This could change with some systemic adjustments, but Eakins has a long road ahead of him to improve this penalty kill.

Lack Of Elite Talent

Gibson’s an elite goaltender. However, the Ducks don’t have elite talent in front of him. Elite talent is a currency in today’s NHL. The best teams tend to have at least one skater who is either elite or close to it. Anaheim does not. That’s going to make it hard for them to make the postseason.