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Opportunity beckons for Ducks newcomer Sbisa

July 16th, 2009, 7:00 am · 4 Comments · posted by Dan Wood, Staff writer

It worked wonders for Francois Beauchemin, so why not Luca Sbisa?

Shortly after the Ducks obtained Beauchemin, a young, virtually unknown defenseman, in a 2005 trade that dispatched center Sergei Fedorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Coach Randy Carlyle paired Beauchemin with team captain Scott Niedermayer, who was coming off a Norris Trophy-winning campaign with the New Jersey Devils.

Beauchemin almost immediately became a reliable partner for Niedermayer and played mostly steady, big minutes for much of four seasons before taking advantage of free agency to land a three-year, $11.4 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs last week.

Without Beauchemin and former Norris Trophy winner Chris Pronger, whom the Ducks sent to the Philadelphia Flyers in a June 26 trade that landed Sbisa, winger Joffrey Lupul and a neat collection of draft picks, Carlyle faces the prospect of melding together a revamped blue-line corps that also includes free-agent addition Nick Boynton.

“We feel on paper that we should have a decent group, but we have to find the best combinations,” Carlyle said.

Sbisa, 19, was a 2008 first-round pick by Philadelphia who played in 39 games with the Flyers last season before being returned to his junior team, the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western League. He appears to be walking into an enviable situation with the Ducks.

“I would like the Sbisa kid to have the opportunity to play with Scott Niedermayer to start,” Carlyle said. “We want this kid to develop into an NHL defenseman. With his body makeup and whatnot, he has a lot of work to do.”

While it is notoriously dangerous to try to predict the career path for talented, young defense prospects, all indications are that Sbisa is the real deal. He received rave reviews from Lupul after their time together in Philadelphia.

Ryan Whitney and James Wisniewski, who came to the Ducks in separate deals before the March 4 trade deadline, are expected to play key roles. Boynton, extremely motivated to atone for a disappointing one-season stint with the Florida Panthers, is also slotted as a top-four performer, with holdover Sheldon Brookbank the front-runner for the other regular job.

Wisniewski, Boynton and Brookbank give the Ducks a rare luxury of three right-hand shots on defense, while Niedermayer has always been equally comfortable and effective on either side of the ice.

Carlyle has long stressed the importance of “competition for the position,” and it will be no different on the blue line come training camp.

The Ducks have also added another free agent, former Chicago Blackhawks first-round draft pick Steve McCarthy, who played last season in Russia. Youngsters Brett Festerling, Brendan Mikkelson and Brian Salcido, meanwhile, will continue to try to establish themselves after having split last season between the Ducks and Iowa Chops of the American League.

Coming Friday: Carlyle reflects on having coached Pronger.

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 4 Comments

  • Shaquille Bzhezinsky says:
    July 16, 2009 at 8:02 am

    nice.

  • Chaz says:
    July 16, 2009 at 8:13 am

    Though Prongs and Beauch will be missed, its looking like we’ll have pretty good depth at D again. Whitney’s going to have to up his game on the PP this year and fill that void. We’ll see if he can use his body to his advantage a little more too.

  • backcheck says:
    July 16, 2009 at 10:57 am

    Our D will be different next season. It’s a good thing we’re strong down the middle and in goal. The center is the 3rd Dman. We have good ones in Getzlaf, Koivu & Marchant.

    I get a real sense, especially given Coach Carlyle’s twosomes up front, favorable match up style coaching that we won’t see much in the way of set anything next season.

    This tends to frustrate many fans but is not necessarily a bad thing.

    As I posted before, you don’t replace a guy like Chris Pronger. You change, you adapt and you move on.

  • Ducked Up! says:
    July 17, 2009 at 12:39 am

    This is how I see it.

    Scotty & Sbisa for periods 1 & 2 (Replace Sbisa with Boynton when protecting a lead after 2 periods).