Hey ! I'm doing my preparation for some hockey pools. I'm a habs fan, but I want to know the other teams better. I have some questions :
1. Where will Anaheim finish in the ranking?

2. What will most likely be the PP?

3. Who is likely to have a breakout year or who will surprise in terms of point production? Who is advantaged by the line combinations?

4. Who is likely to have a bad year in point production?

5. How many games each goalie is likely to play?

The Ducks should finish 5th - 7th in the Pacific division and 8th - 12th worst overall. Outside of some miracle or disaster scenario pushing them better or worse.

Its too early to tell what the PP units will be. Klingberg will certainly be on the 1st unit and he's a new piece. Last year Fowler/Shattenkirk were the points on one unit and Drysdale/forward the other. Likely Klingberg pushes out Drysdale, but maybe they want to reduce Fowler's minutes or maybe Shattenkirk. Forwards on the PP will be the guys in the top 6 in some combination. McTavish is a bit of a wild card on where he'll fit in (both on the PP and at 5v5).

Most of the players should project to match last year's points or exceed it. That said, I'm not really looking for big breakout year from anyone. More just steady growth from the younger guys like Zegras, Comtois and Lundestrom.

Don't count on points from Silfverberg, he's not a top 6 forward any more.

Stolarz should play about 30 games. He was a really solid backup last season.

I don't differ substantively from anything my esteemed colleague @CHAR says above. My comments are merely my perspective on his opinions.

We MIGHT get as high as fourth, and MIGHT drop as low as seventh, but I think we're most likely to finish 5th or 6th in the Pathetic.

I think that they'll keep Drysdale at #2 PP QB just to keep his development going.

I don't know if you can call a rookie's first season a "breakout" year if he excels, but I think McTavish will justify his draft selection. And I think that Lundestrom is learning quickly. Henrique, Strome and Vatrano are very iffy -- they might be good, they might be real, real bad. I'd stay away from them in pools. I agree with CHAR that Silfverberg is basically a defensive forward now at this point in his career.

My preferred lines (but take this with a grain of salt because I differ from my fellow Ducks fans) are Comtois - Zegras - Terry, Vatrano - McTavish - Strome, Jones - Lundestrom - Crrick.

Honestly, predicting exact lines has a lot of the same problems as the PP units in that there are bunch of new pieces and none of us know how they fit together. I think you can safely say the top 6 is straight forward out of camp: Strome, Zegras, Terry, Vatrano, Henrique and Comtois. (You forgot Rico).

Does McTavish push one of those guys to the 3rd line? Maybe. It's certainly possible. But I'd start him lower in the line up out of camp personally and let him earn more ice time rather than hand him a top 6 role out of the gate. McTavish-Lundestrom-Silfverberg would be a pretty nice 3rd line. Leaving Jones-Grant-XX or Jones-XX-Grant as the 4th line that might actually score a little bit.

EDIT: I looked up the lines McTavish played on in his 9 game stint last season. The vast majority of the time he was on the ice with Lundestrom and a variety of other wingers. Silfverberg was by far the other winger most often. Then Milano and then Comtois.

**** man, even we don't know with how much this team has transformed from last year.

Gisbon should regain his all star form, at least until the all star break. More than likely you can pick him up in a late round as most people stay away from him, just be prepared to bench him after the break, as that's when the team finds out if they are selling at the TDL, and he will no longer have reason to stand on his head night in and night out.

Klingberg, Strome, and Vatrano are wild cards as they are new, Kling and Strome are likely on the PP, not sure about Vatrano.

It's McTavish's first full season, if he is still lying around during the finals rounds he may be worth taking a flyer on. Zegras and Terry should build on last year but don't expect significant increases. Terry was explosive last season, also until the all star break. Henrique probably dips a bit in production from last year, hard to say.

I guess potentially expect anyone who isn't a trade target to fall off after the all star break.