Ducks add Artyukhin and Pogge

Hey all since my last post the Ducks made two new additions.

First was the former Team Canada WJC Gold winning goaltender Justin Pogge who was drafted by the Leafs in the 3rd round of the 2004 draft, he just turned 23 and has spent the past 3 seasons playing for the Toronto Marlies. Pogge is a big goaltender at 6'3 205, unfortunately the Ducks no longer have Francois Allaire around to work with him, Allaires work with the Ducks speaks for itself, he's helped mold 4 NHL goaltenders, 3 of which are quality starters, JS Giguere, Ilya Bryzgalov, and Jonas Hiller.

What the acquisition of Pogge does is help create a bridge, because by this time next year absolutely 1 of Hiller or Giguere will be playing for another team. Hiller will be an unrestricted free agent and Giguere will be on the final year of his 4 year deal. Teams will be lining up to sign Jonas Hiller(Can you say Detroit or Los Angeles?) so Jonas will be looking for a committment between now and next July.

The goalie situation will be a hot topic all season, but if nothing else, for Justin Pogge he knows he's only a year away from atleast being a number 2 goalie in the NHL, but what's interesting to me is that the ducks have AHL affiliate, so there's no guarantee he gets alot of playing time so it could mean Bob Murray is prepared to trade a goalie soon.

Artyukhin to me, is a very interesting player. He's a train out on the ice, his big and he can skate he's not known for his hands or hockey sense but I could see him put on a line with Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry at times, if you remember they have always been very successful with so called "pluggers" Brad May, George Parros, Todd Fedoruk, of course they've also been very successful with offensive players like Christ Kunitz, Bobby Ryan and Dustin Penner. Essentially the 3rd man on the line is not THAT important as long as they are able to play with some grit. He'll probably play in the bottom 6 alot as well but Randy Carlyle is on record saying he wants less dependance on the top line.

So sometimes you could see lines like this.

R2-Getz-Perry
Ebbett-Koivu-Selanne
Ryan-Carter-Lupul
Brown-Marchant-Beleskey/Parros

As you can see, each of the top 3 lines have atleast 2 guys capable of 50 or more points as well as a "passenger" who can also chip in, Ebbett with his speed and passing, Carter with his forechecking and fearlessness in going to the net, and the aforementioned Artyukhin with his forechecking and size.

The Ducks have options the depth is really outstanding because you have a little bit of everything, you have goal scorers, you have passers, speed, size, and toughness alot of people are sleeping on the ducks In My Opinion but this is a darkhorse cup contender with the quality goaltending and forward depth.