Ducks Look to Be Flying High Again

By Glen Miller

Let me preface this blog by asking you, the loyal readers, a question; has any GM done a better job in the last 6 months or so than Ducks GM Bob Murray. If there is I can’t think of who it may be. Randy Sexton has done well in his status as interim GM of the Panthers, mainly because he was able to squeeze some assets out of Calgary for the rights to Bouwmeester. Holmgren has done some nice things by adding Pronger and some gritty, veteran leadership in the form of Ian Laperriere. But for my money, no one has done as well since the first of the year as Murray.

They had just won the Stanly Cup in 2006/2007 but then both Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne considered retiring after that season. Former GM Brian Burke was put in a position of managing his team that off-season without knowing whether or not two of his best players would be returning. Burke decided to prepare for the worst and signed both F Todd Bertuzzi and D Mathieu Schneider to 2 year deals.

When Niedermayer and Selanne both decided to return the the Ducks for the 2007/2008 season, Burke was pushed perilously close to the salary cap ceiling. So close in fact that when Edmonton came along and offered ridiculous money to RFA Dustin Penner Burke had no choice but to pass and let Penner leave to join the Oilers. This poaching of one of his RFA’s prompted Burke to re-sign two other of his prospective RFA’s, Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf in order to keep other teams from trying to sign them away.

These signings put Burke and the Ducks in an even tighter spot with the cap ceiling. In fact, Burke was almost forced to give Mathieu Schneider away early last season to stay under the salary cap. It appeared to me at the beginning of last season that despite some great young talent and veterans like Niedermayer and Pronger, the Ducks time in the Stanley Cup spotlight might be at an end.

The Ducks didn’t do much to inspire confidence otherwise with their on-ice performance through February 20^th last season either. The Ducks were hovering around the .500 mark with a 28-27-5 mark and were outside of a playoff spot. With salary cap issues looming and the chances of even making the playoffs diminishing almost daily, new GM Bob Murray rolled up his sleeves and went to work. Murray had taken the reins from Burke when the Ducks let Burke out of his deal so he could take the GM position in Toronto.

The first significant move Murray made was to pull the trigger on a multi-player deal with the Penguins sending F Chris Kunitz to Pittsburgh and bringing back D Ryan Whitney. This move showed me that Murray was already preparing for the inevitability of losing Francois Beauchemin to unrestricted free agency following the season. Whitney has #2 potential and was a great addition both last season and moving forward. This deal was fairly even as far as cap numbers go too as Whitney’s hit is $4 million for each of the next 4 seasons while Kunitz’s is $3.725 million for each of the next 3.

As the trade deadline approached, Murray made several moves shipping out veteran role players like Travis Moen, Steve Montador, and Sami Pahlsson to contenders while adding young players like Peterii Nokelainen from Boston (for Montador), James Wiesnewski from Chicago (for Pahlsson) and Erik Christensen from Atlanta (for youngster Eric O’Dell). Dealing those players didn’t do much toward creating additional cap space for the 2009/2010 season as each of the players dealt were UFA’s in the off-season. Murray would save his Cap Dancing for the off-season. What the moves did do is add affordable youth to the roster. Wiesnewski in particular looks like a player that could develop into a top 4 defenseman and added depth to a blue line that was to undergo significant change this off-season.

Heading into this off-season, Murray had 2 significant challenges confronting him; first he had to create some cap space while at the same time needing to add scoring depth up front. One of the Ducks weaknesses last season was a lack of secondary scoring after Perry, Getzlaf, Selanne and rookie Bobby Ryan. Murray had two potentially valuable trade chips to cash in to accomplish these goals; Chris Pronger and J.F. Giguere. It didn’t take him long to make his move.

Just prior to the 2009 draft, Murray dealt Pronger to the Flyers for former Duck F Joffrey Lupul, D Luca Sbisa and 3 draft picks. Sbisa made the Flyers last year as an 18 year old and looks to have a bright future. Lupul has played 5 NHL seasons and at the age of 25 already has three 20 goal seasons under his belt. He’ll help provide some secondary scoring.

Murray then hit the UFA market to further boost his team’s stock. First he added Center Saku Koivu as an UFA from Montreal and finally uniting him with fellow Finnish National player Selanne. Koivu will likely slide in between Selanne and Lupul to provide a solid second scoring line after the Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry line. Then Murray further solidified his blue line by adding veteran Nick Boynton. Boynton will join Niedermayer, Whitney, Wiesnewski and Sbisa on what looks to be a very solid and mobile defense corps.

When Murray inherited this program, the Ducks didn’t have a lot of cap space, were in the process of barely qualifying for the post-season and were in dire need of secondary scoring. They were also facing the loss of a key defenseman in Beauchemin. Murray took what looked like a bad situation and really turned it around. He should be commended for the changes he has made. The Ducks have 23 roster players accounted for and still have over $5 million in cap space this year. They have 5 solid defensemen, two good scoring lines and enough quality forwards (Christensen, Todd Marchant, Mike Brown and Nokelainen to name a few) to construct a checking 3rd line and a tough 4^th line. Plus he has significant contracts (Nieds, Koivu and Selanne) coming off the books next season so he can be active in the market next year as well. The Ducks future is looking even better.