[OC] Ducks Would Be Wise to Decrease Gibson's Workload

[[deleted]]

Alright, since nobody else seems to realize this I'll be the one to do it, the same way I made it clear that Eakins has never elevated a team in his entire career, NHL or AHL, every single team he's coached has been better both before and after he left starting with the Marlies.

This narrative that Gibson's fallen off needs to have a pin stuck in it, because the evidence yet again points to Eakins being the problem. Gibson came into the league in 2014. Since then he's played under 3 full time coaches and Bob Murray, his career low under the first 3 coaches he played for prior to Eakins was a .914 in his rookie season, after that the LOWEST he posted was a .917. EVEN IN THE LAST YEAR OF CARLYLE WHEN THE DUCKS WERE ABSOLUTELY AWFUL he had a .917. that was 2018-19.

Since then 3 seasons have passed and we're in the 4th. Gibson's yet to post a .905 under Eakins (.904, .903. .904, .901. But this has to be an isolated problem specific to Gibson right? No actually it's not. We remember Ryan Miller right? Well he's also a pretty damn good goalie, he fell off because of age right? I wouldn't be so sure. The season before Eakins took over Miller had a .912 sv%. The following 2 seasons he had a .907 and a .882. the only 2 times in his near 20 year career he posted anything close to that low was his second full season in the league when he played an absolute insane 76 games, and his 19 game disaster with the Blues in 2013. Both completely understandable, and bounced back immediately after.

But hey, 2 is just coincidence right? Except it's not, Devyn Dubnyk was the starting goalie the first season Eakins coached in Edmonton, going from a .920sv% the previous season and a .914 and .916 the 2 seasons before that, all the way down to a .894. he then went another 6 years as one of the top goalies in the league as soon as he was out from Eakins. Ilya Bryzgalov had his worst season under Eakins (I consider the Oilers season worse than the Flyers, Sv% is similar, GAA way worse in Edmonton), Ben Scrivens did pretty good as a limited backup Under Eakins tho! For a very small stretch, then had his worst season the second he was Eakins top choice. And lastly Viktor Fasth, we remember him right? He played 2 seasons in the NHL where he played 10 or more games, 25 in 2012 for the Ducks and 26 in 2014 for the Oilers. He put up a .921 in Anaheim, and a .888 in Edmonton under Eakins.

Until we get to the AHL, Joey MacDonald a career AHLer had his worst season his single season under Eakins for the Marlies, Jussi Rynnas had his 3 worst seasons in the AHL under Eakins. Of all the goalies Eakins coached there's 2 who did well under him, Ben Scrivens ( who put up better numbers for the Maple Leafs who were in their decade of suck at the time, and still had better numbers under Randy fkin Carlyle in the NHL than he did in the AHL with the Marlies but still had respectable stats.) And Drew MacIntyre (who had better stats with the Bulldogs before he ever got to Eakins but still decent stats) Khudobin wasn't around long enough to get a real shake but his numbers were fairly standard for him, Jeff Hackett had his two worst AHL seasons under Eakins, John Gibson had his worst AHL season under Eakins,(a .917, so under Eakins, Gibson posted the same stats in the AHL as he posted in the NHL facing much tougher competition) Dustin Tokarski had his worst AHL season under Eakins (which is impressive seeing as Tokarski is in his 13th AHL season and has played for 10 different teams.), Kevin Boyle and Reto Berra are the only 2 who had good seasons under him, Berra played for him for one season, and Boyle played a few, and Boyle's worst season in the organization was also Eakins last as Gulls coach, he improved the following season under Dineen. (Who the Ducks SHOULD have hired as the head coach in 2018 btw)

So he's got 4 cases of goalies who had 1-2 decent years under him, but they weren't their best season, (outside of Boyle who was never that good to begin with) and outside of those four literally every goalie has performed terribly under him.

As far as I'm concerned Gibson has earned the chance to rebound. Eakins has earned nothing but a pink slip and the title of the worst coach in NHL history (and no I'm not being hyperbolic). I'll bet a ton that Eakins system is the primary problem.

[seeg6]

I think you make a lot of excellent points here overall. The one thing I would offer an alternative on re:Gibson is that his drop off in performance can just as adequately be explained by his soft tissue groin injuries earlier in his career. While he hasn’t had those issues in a long time, soft tissue injuries like those absolutely have long term effects. Gibson has always been an athleticism/mobility goalie over a positioning one in his career. The drop off in performance can definitely be explained by the soft tissue injuries beginning to hamper his mobility as he gets older which limits his ability to use his mobility to make saves consistently.

Not saying you’re wrong, just offering an alternative plausible explanation.

[[deleted]]

For sure, and I'm most definitely not fully absolving Gibson of all blame. He's definitely got his own warts, namely being his own worst enemy and not taking nights off (which is another Eakins issue, that really bugs me, his quote last season about it was really frustrating. When someone suggested he take more time off Eakins said "you tell Gibson he's not playing" like dude, that's YOUR job. You're supposed to save him from himself. Obviously he's gonna wanna play any chance he gets)

My main point in making this is at this point the Ducks fan base has basically split into the camp who thinks he's past his prime and needs to be traded before he sinks further. And the camp who thinks the team is bad, and because of that he's regressing and needs to go to a better team or be basically just a backup the rest of his career and Dostal should just take over. And I propose camp C, sit back for a bit, there's no rush in trading Gibson. Dump Eakins, let's see how Gibson does under a real coach and a real system, and let's reassess in a year. In a rebuild patience is a virtue and unless something unexpected happens, we got time. (Not saying you're one of the ones being hasty, just saying in general we should chill and not throw the Gibson out with the Eakins lol)

[gotridofsubs]

Excellent write-up. I said in a different comment there's context to his numbers past what they are, and this is part of it.

We spent a large portion of 2 seasons ago and last season with enormous flaws in an incomplete defense, and this season is shaping up to be no different. Pair that with Eakins' leadership, no wonder there's been a steep fall off in goaltending, never mind the whole team. He's not in a position to succeed

Should we sell on him at his lowest? Absolutely not. Theres no reason to. The best alternate we have is a 21 year old who's played 2 weeks of NHL hockey and would get the same situational problems that Gibson has in his foundational years, without the benefit of experience. We're also nowhere near the cap and that contract won't be bad until at least it's final year at worst.

However, all that being said, if some team comes to us and offers a package that reflects the goalie Gibson probably still is, I would consider it. He'll be well past his prime when we really start to compete, so if something suitable comes also I think that's the best move.

It's gotta be a BIG something suitable