Ducks GM Verbeek: 'I believe in this group' after quiet trade deadline

ANAHEIM, Calif. – With just one move to open up a lane for their young defenseman and fill in a back-up blue-line role, the Anaheim Ducks concluded a quiet trade deadline on Friday afternoon with their general manager Pat Verbeek putting in a measure of trust with his group.

“I think we're kind of in a position right now. I gotta let the horses run,” Verbeek said on the team’s Ducks Stream platform. “We've got a lot of young guys in the lineup, and we've got to see what they've got to do. And I want them to experience it. It's huge for their development. It's huge for the organization to be able to have this opportunity to play.”

With the move of veteran defenseman Brian Dumoulin, it allows the team’s two 21-year-old left-handed defensemen Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger to both play in the line-up down the stretch run. Zellweger and Mintyukov had come in and out of the line-up, with Zellweger sitting in 16 of the last 28 games.

Verbeek filled in the vacant spot with 27-year-old Oliver Kylington, who is expected to be the team’s seventh defenseman and only play when called on due to injury or rest.

Anaheim was seven points out of a playoff spot entering Friday’s game against the St. Louis Blues, who are two points out of a playoff spot. It’s a game that puts the Ducks in position to control their destiny playing against teams they are chasing in the wild card race.

“We talked about having meaningful games,” Verbeek said on Ducks Stream, “and being in this spot, fighting for a playoff spot, and here we are. We're seven points out, and we've got the teams that we're gonna play, that we're fighting to climb over. We got them.

“It's in our hands, and we're here, and that's why I think the group's excited.”

Verbeek held an open media session before the game on Friday to discuss the trade deadline, the defensive corps and the future of the Ducks. Here is a full transcript of that media availability:

You made two deals yesterday. How many other deals did you kind of come close to over the course of the week? 


None. You know, there's a lot of talk, but nothing ever got to where I would consider serious and starting negotiating. So, really nothing. 

Did this deadline really set up to be that active anyway for you? 

For us? Not really.  We looked around and see. I talked to all the teams and just see if there's things that they're considering and looking at. 
So, we looked at a lot of different things. It's the same at every trade deadline, you know? It's the same during the summer. It's just things you kind of noodle around with and see if it makes sense or it doesn't make sense. 


I think once I got the Brian Dumoulin trade in place, it was really just a “kicked the tires” sort of thing rest of the time. 

Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said the trade had been in the works for a week or a couple of weeks. What was it that pushed it over the finish line?

I think that decision, it was a hard one. I stated yesterday I wanted to give the team the longest chance to really get through these two games and as long as possible to see if we could win. We go into Edmonton win, and then see what could happen in Vancouver. I delayed as long as I could as far as making the deal. At the end, I was kicking it around but it was probably after that night in Vancouver, I kind of decided to really pull the trigger on it. 

The alternative was to keep him as an own rental or something else?

Well, no, no. I talked to his agent a little bit and as I said when I talked to Brian the next day, when they got back, I told him we would explore talks this summer and see where it goes if you make it to the UFA. He's been an awesome individual. He's just a really good man on and off the ice. He was great for our young kids and mentoring them, taking care of them off the ice as well. He’s just a quality person. I was glad that I got to meet Brian.

The young talent on the blue line is mostly left shots. What kind of influence and impact do you think Brian Dumoulin had on them?

He's a leader, a quiet leader, but he goes about his business in a manner, just talks to these guys,has them over for dinner. I just think back when older players did that with me, it just makes you feel special and important, and you never forget it. As a young player when you get mentored, I think it was important for us to get Brian in here.I knew how high of a quality person he was, but I didn't realize it until he got here and  he started being involved with our group. 


You’ve got Pavel Mintyukov. You’ve got Olen Zellweger. Presumably, you can now have both of them in the line-up. How do you think it helps them the rest of the way?

When you're a young player and you've been playing and you get pulled out of the lineup and there's reasons that you get pulled out, and then there's other times there's reasons you don't deserve to come out of the line-up. 
It's puzzling to the players, and it wrecks their confidence. At some point, I don't want that anymore. 

We've gotten to a point here, I'm excited where our team is right now. It was kind of our goal to be fighting for a playoff spot and here we are, and I want the young players to go through this. This is an important part of the development process to play meaningful games, to understand the pressure, and we're gonna be playing teams that are fighting just as hard as we are. So it's very important that they go through that. 

So, the point now is to have Olen Zellweger as a more regular defenseman, and Oliver Kylington as the seventh defenseman?

That'll ultimately be the coach’s decision, but yeah, but that's sort of how it sets up.

Can you tell us a bit about Oliver Kylington?

He’s a guy who gets up the ice. He plays with a lot of speed, skates very well. A couple of seasons ago, played very well in Calgary. So, I know this player pretty well and felt comfortable in the deal to get him, especially  if one of our defense goes down, he's a guy that we can not miss a beat, and we can insert him in the lineup and  we just keep going.

Defenseman Tristan Luneau is having a fabulous season in San Diego. Can you speak to his development and the opportunity to be a leader down there?

He's really grown. He didn't play a lot of hockey last year, and we got to the point where we made the decision we're gonna leave him there, and we're just gonna let him keep going. There's little details that he needs to keep working on in his game, and he's doing a fabulous job offensively, which is something that he did in junior, and he's just kind of continuing to do it in the AHL.

From what I understand there's not many kids since, I don't know, early 80s or something that have been able to produce the numbers that he's been able to produce as a rookie. We're excited for him, but we're gonna just we're gonna slow-develop him for the rest of this year

Obviously not a lot of deadline moves to be made, but when it comes to pushing this team forward and taking those next jumps, what sort of bigger pieces does this team need to make those next moves? 


I think if I'm looking at things, I'd like our group to be able to score more. If you look at the top teams, they score minimum 250 goals. So, that's something that we're going to look at more goal scoring in the future, and we're hoping that our young players continue to keep taking steps. I think since the break, our young players have really taken a step and actually carried this team through this. I hope that they can continue to do that over these next 20 games, and it'll give us a good insight for–hopefully make the playoffs–and then good insight forr next season and what we need to do throughout the summer. 


It feels like the young group has gained some traction under head coach Greg Cronin. What do you make of the team’s play from the start of the year until now?

There's a couple of things. When you look back last year, I think it was culture shock for the group. I think it was culture shock for the group, and the accountability that they were required to have as a group, and I think coming into this year, they knew what the expectations were. It was a different mindset for the players to come into. 
They've slowly–we've tweaked a little bit some of our system things–and they slowly gotten used to playing with each other, understanding how to play. 

The only thing that probably–if our special teams were better on both sides, this team would be in the playoffs. We'd be sitting in a playoff spot. I liken team play to a golf game. One day you got the driving going and the putting is going, but your approach shots stink. And so that's kind of how I see it right now with our group. We've got five-on-five play. Now we've got to get going in the special teams department. 

There's things that are constantly evolving. Sometimes a power play is gonna be going, and then five-on-five. So it's a constant battle, but I feel confident in the group that they're grasping all the things that they're being asked to do, and we're gaining traction. And I think the young players have really started to understand  the responsibilities defensively, and now being able to gain more traction offensively. 

Defenseman Jackson LaCombe has taken off like a rocket ship. Did you foresee this kind of a jump?

I probably wouldn't say no. What you're seeing how he played in college his last year. The ability and how he plays was there. This isn't an easy league to play in. Obviously, last year, Jackson was kind of in and out  struggling to find his confidence. Understanding playing an 82 game schedule is completely different than playing at most a 40-game schedule. I think you're seeing that with Cutter (Gauthier) too. The college hockey game, you don't play as many games. So, it's an adjustment not only mentally but physically. So having him go through that last year, understanding what he had to do this summer, he looked great in training camp and then he kind of got sick, and he kind of took a step back. 

Honestly, once Drew Hellison seemed to get here, his game just took off like, what you said, a rocket ship.
It just took off. I think having Helly here, who he's been a long life friend, friends with since they were kids, has really been helpful for Jackson. 

What do you like about prospect Herman Träff coming back from New Jersey in the Dumoulin trade?

He’s a big kid that has some nice skill. He has nice hockey sense, and he plays with a little bit of edge. He's a big kid, and I like that. He’s got an aggressive attitude when it comes to this physical game. So, just another piece that we can kind of look at to add to this team in the future. 

Leo Carlson's had a real good jump out of the break. What have you noticed in his growth this season? 


I think defensively, he's been real solid, but the thing that–I think coming back from the 4 Nations, I was hoping that it would do–playing against the best players, but seeing what the best players from the country do, seeing the best players against Canada, US. I think it was a confidence thing in the sense that he could realize that he could  play with those players, right? And I thought the game that he played in, I thought he played extremely well in that game.
I thought his pace was good. I thought his skill–I was thinking it just makes me really excited for our future having seen that. 

Now, confidence is a funny thing. These kids have to realize that they can do it. But I think the other thing with Leo coming out of here is he's had a more aggressive mindset with his shooting, like you're starting to see him shoot the puck a lot more versus pass the puck. That leads to another thing of being confident, to want to shoot the puck to score. And so he's got a great shot. It just frustrates me sometimes not seeing him shoot the puck when he can shoot the puck. His mindset has been completely different since he got back and he's been great. 

Going back to the deadline, do you think it was quiet for you guys in part because you didn't see a lot of players with term move for picks or futures. There was hockey trades, but mostly hockey trades and rentals. Were you looking at a guy maybe with term or anything like that?

Only if I felt that it could improve the team, but, you know, honestly, I'm happy with this group. I like this group. I believe in this group. Are we gonna in the future probably look? Yeah, we're gonna look always to keep improving. That's just our mindset here. At the same time allowing our young guys to pushing ahead in development. 
We're gonna see how this group can do in the last 20 games and I'm excited for this group.