Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf's poor 2015-16 season remains a mystery. A year after notching 25 goals and collecting 70 points, the fifth time in his 11-year NHL career that Getzlaf had surpassed the 70-point mark, Getzlaf is well on his way to posting career-lows in goals and, depending how the rest of the season shakes out, maybe total points as well. At 30, Getzlaf certainly isn't a spring chicken but neither is he yet at an age where top NHL players tend to break down. He's a power forward, which means he makes his bones by subjecting his body to a ridiculous amount of wear-and-tear in terms of physical play, so that certainly is a consideration. But for other teams watching Getzlaf play, there's no conclusion other than that the Ducks captain is, as a Western Conference coach put it recently, "a step slow."
"No. 1, I had a chance to have a long talk yesterday with a Western Conference coach," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said Friday, while appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960, per Today's Slap Shot. "I was chatting with him on something. They're a team that's played Anaheim a couple of times this year. I just said, 'What is it there?'
"He just goes, 'Getzlaf is a step slow. He's a step behind all the time.'
"I said, 'Why?'
"He goes, 'I don't know. I don't understand it.'"
The unnamed coach in question directed Friedman to some specific shifts to watch Getzlaf. His assertion that the longtime Duck is simply a step behind proved accurate.
"A play will go and a play will change directions and you see him, and he's slow to react, or he's way behind. It's unbelievable to watch. I don't know what's going on there," said Friedman.
Getzlaf did undergo a successful appendectomy in October 2015 and was "out" for approximately four to 12 days. But since then the team and the player have reaffirmed time and again that Getzlaf is fully healthy.
Considering Getzlaf is in only the third season of a mammoth eight-year, $66 million contract, it's likely troublesome both to fans of the team and Anaheim GM Bob Murray that Getzlaf suddenly looks so out of sorts.
Adding a forward ahead of the trade deadline, as Friedman also suggested may be in the cards, in exchange for one of the franchise's talented young defenders like Brandon Montour or Simon Despres, may very well help fix what currently ails the offensively deficient Ducks and allow them to steal a playoff spot in a closely-packed Pacific division.
But if Getzlaf's play this season is an indication of what's to come as he progresses into his 30's, then Murray's job is much bigger than previously thought and significant changes to the core structure of the team may very well be in store.
