Actual 2014 pick: Nick Ritchie (W)
Our redraft pick: Dylan Larkin (C)
It was clear what the Anaheim Ducks wanted to do when they drafted Nick Ritchie in 2014. They wanted a power forward who could play the way they always wanted to play. They wanted a heavy, tough forward who could get to the net, score goals and beat up on opponents.
While Ritchie could do a lot of those things, he wasn’t able to do it consistently well enough in the NHL. With a redo of the 2014 draft, though, the Ducks would alter their focus slightly. With Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry leading the way, and Rickard Rakell on the way up, they would need more scoring punch up the middle. That’s where Dylan Larkin would take over.
Looking back, the Ducks were about to get old and injured fast, and they weren’t totally prepared for that. They were among the best teams in the Western Conference and were much more focused on the now instead of the later. And that’s fair, but that’s also how it got them to take Ritchie instead of any of the number of players taken after that who would’ve helped them in the long term.
