How Ducks GM Verbeek chose to trade McTavish, Zellweger for picks, not players

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – From no first-round draft picks to two first-round draft picks, from employing Mason McTavish and Olen Zellweger to trading them both away, it was a busy Friday for Anaheim Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek, and one that opened up plenty of questions.

There was certainly a tidy bit of work done in acquiring the aforementioned picks and using them for highly regarded talents in Nikita Klepov and Marcus Nordmark–both considered steals at No. 15 and No. 28, as the offensive talents trickled down the NHL Draft board in a defensive-heavy draft.

However, as the rumors had swirled regarding the trading of Zellweger and McTavish, the general thought would be the Ducks would be trading for NHL roster players or acquiring picks that would be flipped for NHL roster players. That was the conventional wisdom, as Anaheim looks to build off its first playoff appearance in eight years and first playoff series victory in nine years.

That’s not what Verbeek did. The Ducks acquired those first-round picks from St. Louis for McTavish and went with eyes toward the future in making those picks, as well as acquiring prospect forward Anton Wahlberg in the Zellweger trade from Buffalo.

In dissecting those moves and where they leave the Ducks going into Day Two of the NHL Draft and free agency, which begins on Wednesday, Verbeek provided some more clarity along with a fair share of intentional murkiness in analyzing the day and the path forward.

Verbeek spoke with local media on a video call after the first round on Friday.

Below is a full transcript of the media call with Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek on Friday (questions and responses edited for clarity):

In trading Mason, you freed up $7 million more cap wise, in addition to the cap space that you already have. How much of that will help you get Leo, Cutter, and Minty re-signed, and how much of that will go toward addressing the rest of the roster and and possibly upgrading it, whether through trades or free agency?

It certainly gives us a lot of flexibility in regards to Leo and Cutter. It allows us to be more open-minded, but at the same time we want to keep pushing ahead and address some spots that we think where we can make improvements in our roster. So, I guess it boiled down to opportunity for the players that we wanted to draft, as well as allowing us to have flexibility. I think Klepov, he might have a chance to fast track to the NHL, and so that was kind of another scenario that went into the decision.

How active do you see yourself being over the next few days or weeks or whatsoever?

Well, free agency's coming up, so it's certainly–we're gonna be very active and try and fill our holes through free agency, and/or possible through trade. There's gonna be multi scenarios that we're gonna be exploring and looking at. So, I see us very active in trying to make our roster as strong as it can be.

You obviously had Mason locked up for several more years. How much did you consider just keeping him if you didn't get the deal that you wanted, and see about, not rehabilitating, that's a bad word, but back on track?

Listen, it wasn't an easy decision. I lingered over it for a couple weeks because there was a lot of discussions and that sort of thing. It became kind of clear as we got into the draft a little bit. When Klepov was there, that really helped us make the decision. That was the primary drive behind it. And then, at the same time, allowing us to have flexibility.

Klepov, Nordmark. Good players that obviously you targeted, and I imagine really had a lot of time for in targeting these guys and specifically trading for them?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's why–having no picks in the 1st round, and all of a sudden, being able to go to two, and then analyzing the free agency market, that's kind of what–like I said before, we're excited to get these two players. We're excited to be able to add them to the group in the near future. At the same time, allowing us more flexibility to bolster our team for the upcoming season to kind of keep pushing this football down the field, so to speak.

How much of a terminating factor was Klepov being available in making this deal?

If he wasn't there, we wouldn't have made the deal. So that was kind of the decision that was in our minds. It was a big part of why we did this.

And you talked about addressing needs and holes and free agency as well as the trade market. What would you identify as your needs right now? I mean, obviously, you didn't have a lot of right shot forwards before. Now you're down Troy. A lot of departures on defense, out of the 10 guys you use last year, one's gone, three are up in the air.

There's still a couple things that’re still kind of on the table. So we'll kind of address that here after tomorrow's over. If you look on defense, I'm confident in defense with the young kids kind of coming in. They need a chance. They have to be able to spread their wings as well. So there's gonna be opportunity, a lot of opportunity for them to get better and to grow and really help this team in pursuit of the playoffs and winning in the playoffs. A lot of that is driven by letting these young guys play. We'll explore some other things with our forwards and see exactly what we can do in the free agent market that we feel that's going to improve our team overall.

On Stian Solberg and Tristan Luneau. Luneau, obviously a guy. We've seen for stretches at the top level. Where do you project maybe their opportunity to be next year?

Well, I think Stian, we'll see at training camp. He went to the worlds and did very well again. Tristan Luneau we see as making our team and adding a lot for us. He has the ability to be able to play with speed. He's obviously done some really good things in the American Hockey League, with his point production. I think last year was a very good year for him to kind of really round out his game in the defensive zone, and just playing just a little calmer, quieter game overall, and picking his spots of when to jump up into the rush. I think there was things that he learned a lot, and when I look back on last year, he scored a huge goal for us in Nashville. And so, we think he deserves an opportunity. And we're gonna let him run with it.

So with Mason, obviously just 10 months ago, you signed him to a big deal. He was kind of determined as a cornerstone for what this team was going forward. What led over the course of that year to making the decision, to having to part ways with a guy for picks?

Well, I think I'm always looking for opportunities. We have to keep looking for ways to improve the team, and I think that sometimes it looks like we're taking a step back, but there's other ways to address needs in our organization for the future. And it might not seem like it's in the now, but these things change rather quickly, especially with Wahlberg. Like, we feel he's gonna be close to ready to play next season. So we got time with him to kind of give him some games and that sort of thing, but the following year, we see him as being on the NHL team. So there's certain things that we're making moves that are actually to help us moving forward as well.

With the strides the team took last year and the want to continue to build off that and kind of play in the now, how much effort was there to move, whether it was McTavish or Zellweger, for roster players, guys that were going to be on the team right now, impact right now versus what you ended up with, with the picks and futures?

I think both players, you could kind of look at–and we did. We explored adding different players to our team. And as it turned out, we made the decision to kind of go with draft picks to kind of solidify some spots. Looking in the free agent world or through the trade market, I think there's going to be chances for us to make those moves that we need to make to deepen the NHL team. 

How deep do you see this free agent class right now? How much of it is a trade market versus a free agent market for you?

I would say that it's the free agency market’s probably not as strong as it's been in past years, but there are certain players that we have our eye on to try and target. Through trades, it's funny, after you get through the draft, you get through a little bit of free agency, teams start looking at their rosters again, and there'll be lots more discussions as the offseason unfold. So there'll be some opportunities that we'll keep looking at and we'll keep discussing over the next couple weeks.

Some of the players that you did acquire today. You mentioned that if Nikita Klepov wasn't on the board, you wouldn't have made the deal. What was it about him that you liked and that made you identify him as your guy?

Not only our scouts were super excited, but I was super excited to get to him. Just because I think he provides what I call a 50-50 player in a sense. He's like equal part goal scorer, equal part playmaker. He does have creativity, has really good hockey sense, and obviously, with an 18 year old, they need to get stronger, and I believe over the next year, so if we get him stronger, he's gonna be in a place that's gonna be really good to play in the NHL. We just like his compete level. We like the drive that he has to score goals, and obviously, right now, it's just a matter of getting them stronger, because there's a lot of really top=notch athletic ability with this player as well.

And then with Nordmark, you moved up one spot. What goes into that decision? Were you worried Vegas was gonna take him or was it just another one of this is our guy?

That's the deal. When you start looking at your board and you start looking at your list, you don't want to take a chance. I didn't feel like we had the chance to do it, and I don't like taking chances to hope that that player is going to be there. We like the player a lot, and we wanted to be aggressive and make sure that we got that player.

Anything on Anton Wahlberg real quick?

We kind of see him as a second line potential. He's a big guy that skates well. He gets to the net. He's a really hard worker. Something that we kind of really target our players. Adding that size to the left side, and someone that's kind of closer to playing was important in this trade. Zellwigger, he's a really solid NHL player, but we were kind of looking at the future of our left side and Wahlberg fit that piece, fill in our organization on our left side.

With McTavish out of the picture, is the expectation moving forward that it would be Carlsson and Granlund as the 1-2C?

Well, as we see it now, we have options. Cutter's plate center before. Roger McQueen, we're gonna see what he looks like when he gets to camp. We have options, and so we're just trying to see where these players are gonna shake out when training camp arrives.

And then in moving Zellweger, he and Pavel Mintyukov have kind of been competing for playing time a little bit over the last couple of seasons. Was it just a matter of maybe just choosing one over the other?

Well, I don't know if it's choosing one over the other. We had some interest with Zellwigger, and just trying to find the right fit, as far as what we were looking to do with our organization and our future roster. And I think with Zelly as well, it allowed Mintyukov, it's gonna allow Solberg, it’s going to allow Hinds. It just opens things up to where we can fill other spots with players. You can look at it the same way as when I moved Jamie Drysdale to get Cutter. Just to kind of rearrange pieces in our roster to close other holes that we feel that we have.

And how's the progress going with extension talks for Leo and Cutter?

Well, they're ongoing. That’s all I can say. We're talking, and we'll see where it goes.

Any prognosis for your other veteran right defense, Trouba and Gudas?

The door is obviously still open, so we're sorting through that over here in the next–we got three, four days before they hit the market. So we're kind of working through that right now. And we'll see where it goes.