Team: 2024-25 Anaheim Ducks

Initial Creation Date: Apr. 22, 2024

Published: May 4, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Wishful thinking. VERY wishful thinking before the draft lotteries. Consider this my idea of an ideal off-season even if the last question (below) isn't answered.

The Montreal trade could be part of the St. Louis trade instead. The idea is to transmute the Boston 2024 second into a 2025 second.

If this seems familiar, that's because it's virtually identical to my February 11 ACGM except for the draft day trades.

Boston, Nashville or Washington might want a bottom-6 LW given the lack of depth there on their current rosters for next season.

As to line constructions:

Gauthier - Carlsson - Killorn: this line showed some chemistry in the last game of the season against Vegas, so I'm keeping them together. (I know, I know, much too small a sample size.)

Zegras - Celebrini - Strome: Zegras seems to me to be the perfect linemate for Macklin Celebrini, and Strome is needed for defense and faceoff reasons.

Vatrano - McTavish - Terry: I don't think that there would be any appreciable drop-off in productivity from the first two lines to this one, considering that Frankie was the team leader in goals this season and Troy tied for the team lead in assists (with Cam Fowler).

Each line has one forward good in the faceoff circle and a "gunner" (Gauthier, Celebrini, Vatrano), a play-driving distributor (Carlsson, Zegras, Terry), and a defensively-responsible 200-foot character player (Killorn, Strome, McTavish).

Now to fill that hole at RD1 . . .

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