how about putting some of that money into the team instead of arena renovations and ocvibe? we all know the samuelis aren't exactly struggling financially
its pretty apparent that they see the ducks as just another source of income. as long as the team is bringing in $$$, they're content. no playoffs for 6 years now? damn, that sucks......but hey, at least we're still profiting
You're confusing ownership duties with GM duties. Our ownership is hands off on hockey operations, but is also supportive of what they want to do. Owning the Ducks without the playoffs is the owners losing money. This has been shared often, including by our owners.
The owners have other ventures to make up for the losses of owning the Ducks. The arena renovations and OC Vibe are part of their other ventures. The Samuelis rent out the arena for other functions beyond the Ducks in order to make up money for the loss of owning the Ducks when they're not in playoff contention. The OC Vibe is add more attractions for more functions at the Arena as well as a new form of income outside of Ducks.
Without the Samueli ownership, I think the Ducks would have either been contracted or relocated. The Samueli's have secured that the Ducks stay in Anaheim. They have done so much so the Ducks can remain in Anaheim such as buying their own AHL club and then creating an AHL Pacific division to bring more hockey awareness out west. They have helped develop high school hockey by buying rinks in So Cal and renovating them. Recently, they created Five Point Arena - Great Park Ice.
Eventually, the Ducks would have to go into rebuild mode like most teams that have been successful for a long time. Before GM Bob Murray went into a rebuild mode at the 2018-19 TDL, Anaheim has been playoff bound in 11 out of 13 seasons with Burkie and Bob as GM's. If we include when Bryan Murray was GM, then it's 12 out of 15 seasons.
2021-22 season came and many things went great for the Ducks, who were healthy to start the season and had some youth develop to help with the cause in Terry, Zegras, and Drysdale. Murray had to stepdown as GM due to his alcoholism outbursts in early November. It took until all-star break, in February, for the Ducks to hire a new GM in Verbeek.
Verbeek inherited a team that was 3rd in the Pacific at all-star break. Then he decided to blow up the team and re-start the rebuild. That was all on Verbeek, not the ownership. You gotta reframe the sequence that this is year 6 of the rebuild, but year 2 of the reset rebuild. A majority of our best talents are age 22 and younger. Therein lies the problem and reason why not much is happening until those youths develop into stars as well as acquiring proper support for them.
Controlling the cap is one of Verbeek's priorities. He was firm on term. He will pay higher cash for shorter term than lower cash and longer term. Which is why the reset rebuild suits him better because he's essentially playing with a clean slate and less complications of building off of what Murray had set up. Verbeek catfished us
when he said,
"This team doesn't need to be rebuilt; they're in the middle of their rebuild, so this is a great opportunity to take this team forward and turn them into a contender," Verbeek said during his introductory press conference. "You don't have to come in there and look to take a long time. There's good players in the NHL, good players in the minors and there are players that have been drafted. There's a lot coming to support the growth of this team. That's truly what I'm excited about."
The ownership wants playoff appearances to stop hemorrhaging losses. They thought the playoffs would come soon under Verbeek with that endorsement. Apparently, it did not. Please put the blame on the appropriate target why we are not in the playoffs sooner, which is GM Verbeek.
