Plugging Holes: Pacific Division

With the Stanley Cup finals in the books, it's time for every NHL team to tinker with its roster and see how it can retool for next season. The analysts of Hockey Prospectus provide some help, identifying the biggest shortcoming on every NHL roster using their GVT valuation metric (explained here) and offering a unique suggestion on how to fix it for 2012-13. The series continues with fixes for the five teams in the Pacific Division, where the Ducks need depth at forward.

Anaheim Ducks

The hole: Depth scoring/possession forward

The last time the Ducks took more shots in a season than they allowed was 2006-07, the season they won the Stanley Cup. Since that success, the team has been relying heavily on its top line and goaltending to make up for a persistent negative shot differential -- a recipe that has had some success but was exposed as a risky strategy when the team's usually excellent goaltender, Jonas Hiller, struggled last season. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry can handle their own against opposing teams' top players, but the bottom two lines in Anaheim were completely outplayed on a routine basis.

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