No no no no no no

Don’t even put this out there!

Mannnnn...Do you know the can of ACGM worms you're about to open?!?! This is going to cause like 80 "Engvall+Kerfoot+Holl+2027 5th for Terry 50% retained and Klinger double retained" trades a day.

I think it’s a legit possibility. Contract talks aren’t happening in season and this team is awful.

Leafs can’t afford him anyways without moving any of the big 4.

It's madness. MADNESS I SAY!

Ducks have a TON of cap space, one of the top farm systems in the league (about to get stronger), and there's no reason to think they can't upgrade the heck out of this over the next year-two

But they'll think they can...

I think both he and Trevor get matching 8 x 8.5+ this summer along with Verbeek getting his guy to replace DE (Grönborg please!)

I wouldn't worry too much about it yet, if he asks out it would probably be late in the 2023 off-season. If Anaheim lands a top 3 pick, maybe he doesn't want out, especially if they land Bedard. Their free agency could also be a factor that makes him want to stay rather than leave.

Why would Terry trust they can get better after the team taking a solid step last season just to fall off the cliff this season? Also if ducks fans are all aboard the tank then moving Terry makes sense in that regard too.

Sure but 8.5M will be doable by quite a few competitive teams with a decent cap rise. Verbeek screwed up.

I'm all aboard for tanking, but this year. This will be the 5th consecutive year of missing the playoffs. While it's only Eakins first full season, there should be a clear kickstart coming, or what was the point in signing Strome and Vats this summer?

I know it’ll be in the offseason but I still wonder why another young player would change his frustrations? Obviously this is just a thought and there’s nothing pointing to him actually being frustrated enough to ask out. Just pointing out its could be a problem with how bad they are.

Verbeek tried by adding players but neglected the biggest hindrance of the team with Eakins. It wasn’t supposed to be a tank but has turned into that which is why Vatrano’s name has been talked about in trades.

Bedard really is a high end talent, he could make an impact year 1. If the Ducks land him, they are probably going to be very active in free agency and attempt to move towards contention. I wouldn't be surprised if they resign Klingberg for example (if he doesn't resign with his new 'tdl' team), and go after some other free agents to fill needs. If a big fish like Pastrnak hits, then I also expect them to be active regardless of the draft outcome.

Eakins will then have a very short leash at the start of the 2023-24 season or just replace him off the bat since I think his contract expires.

It's true that, if Verbeek wanted to, he could get a ton of value out of him in trade. But I see him as cornerstones of that club, for a long time. All it takes is one meeting with Terry where Verbeek lays out the roadmap and he would be on board. They have a ton of talent in the NHL and in the pipeline, there are tons of exciting options for free agent picks ups through the next few years, and a ton of high end talent in the 2023 draft and beyond. Either way, I think Anaheim will be ok. But I think they'll be doing everything possible to keep him around.

Agreed. The hype is real. Bedard is going to be an absolute phenom in the NHL.

Though if he ends up in Arizona, I won't have any expectations.

Eakins won’t be back next season or at least shouldn’t be. The D is a mess and some of that is because they just don’t have a “shutdown” guy so I doubt we see Klingberg back especially with Zellweger coming. Yes they could add a big fish in free agency to go with the high pick (Bedard, Fantilli etc) but they just added some UFAs and look where they are.

Obviously this is all hypothetical but if Terry is frustrated why would he trust there to be a different outcome next season just because a high pick comes into the team?

Here’s the problem with that roadmap, Verbeek added what he thought were solid UFAs and they’ve fallen off the map. They took what should have been the first step in getting back last season with a solid half season and now they’ve seemed to have taken 3 steps backwards.

Are you afraid to experiment with a European coach?

Yeah, we've been going through this **** in Buffalo for years now, with a losing culture, terrible coaches and idiot GMs destroying young players and the team, so we're in a perpetual cycle of rebuilding. You probably really need to fire the coach.

If his frustration is just because the team is losing, it shouldn't be too hard for Verbeek to sell him the direction the team is headed. If he's going to be traded, where will he go? Probably, to a middle of the pack team which Anaheim could be the minimum expectation for the Ducks next year depending on their off-season. I htink they do resign Klingberg or someone who can be the PP QB now and eat big minutes. Zellweger is probably not going to be playing 20+ minutes. As for a shutdown d-man, they could also sign one of those in free agency potentially or trade for one if they are moving towards contention. Strome and Vatrano aren't huge ufa signings. Strome can easily be a 3C on a team that is deep down the middle, which I think is the goal. So don't be too disheartened that they aren't doing well.

If the plan is to still slowly rebuild and turn the team younger, and try to compete when Zegras is 24, then sure I don't see why he would want to stick around, and it wouldn't make much sense to keep him either.

Maybe. But I don't think anything they did put them anywhere close to over the top, and it is still early enough in the season that we shouldn't be coming to any conclusions yet. But this is a great season to be in the bottom of the standings, regardless. There is SOOOOO much talent in the 2023 draft. For all we know, Eakins could have been an intentional attempt to tank for a high pick in the draft. Because we know the talent is there, so there are obviously other factors at play. This league is too close and volatile to jump to conclusions.

Klingberg has already been moved off PP1. And when I mention Zellweger I don’t mean to play 20+ min but he’s another offensively gifted D which is what Klingberg is. Just makes sense Zellweger takes the offensive role over re-signing Klingberg.

And sure Vatrano and Strome aren’t big UFA signings but they are signings that shouldn’t have this team just marginally better than AZ.

The disheartening thing isn’t that they aren’t playoff contenders, it’s that they’re barely competitive in like half the games they’ve played. They aren’t even fun to watch. They’re just bad.

They didn’t do anything over the top but they also didn’t make moves that should have made them this bad. Sure the league is close as a whole but the ducks aren’t close to anyone outside of AZ. They’ve been that bad.

And keeping Eakins seems to have been intentional for the tank. And that’s where the problem lies, if there’s enough frustration built up in Terry why would he trust this team?