Who Has the Better Rebuild? Montreal Canadiens or Anaheim Ducks
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked about who’s rebuild is further along the Anaheim Ducks or the Montreal Canadiens. Pagnotta says the Canadiens should be further along as the Ducks still have trade pieces teams will want.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Host: “When we look at the Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens, where do you place the Ducks and Canadiens at stages of the rebuild versus each other?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Good question. I think Anaheim is probably where they should be with everything going on. They still have some veteran guys that they want to move out. (Cam) Fowler’s name is still out there. (John) Gibson’s out there. They’ve got guys on expiring deals to (Frank) Vatrano among them, that are likely to move at some point later on this season. (Robby) Fabbri, a couple others. So they’re giving the younger pieces some, some opportunities.
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So to see this team give more ice time to the younger guys, and at the same time still understand that they are going through this rebuild. And they do have other assets they can move out you kind of expected them to be towards the bottom of the of the West. But hovering in that .500 range, I think is a decent step forward for this group.
I think the Canadians expect it to be in a better position, closer to .500 probably. Obviously, hasn’t gone the way that that a lot of people anticipated. But these are part of the growing pains, and both teams are going to continue to experience this over the next year or two.
Those types of growing pains, you don’t meet certain expectations and then you kind of don’t take a step back fully, but you just want to take a broader scope of what you’ve got ahead of you. I think that’s what both teams are trying to do, and that’s what both management teams are trying to do.
I don’t think, from the Ducks perspective, the addition of (Jacob) Trouba on (last) Friday is going to suddenly derail the rebuild plan. It just gives them a body on that back end that can fill the void once a guy like Fowler is moved out.”
NHLRumors.com Note: The expectations are the Ducks will be active later on in the season maybe again with the New York Rangers and Frank Vatrano. Montreal has pieces teams will like to get their hands on. Not to mention the Canadiens would like to add another defenseman as well.
These are things to keep an eye on as the seasons progresses with the holiday freeze right around the corner.
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