Deadlines and Resignings: What is next for the Ducks
Brian Burke is taking a different approach to dealing with Scott and Teemu this year: get on board or get out. Last year’s decision to allow two of his stars to sit on their laurels while contemplating retirement was a bold and contraversial move (which I think everyone hopes does not set any of kind of precedence). All things currently point to his decision not having much pay off. Sure, they got some salary savings and the team faired better in the second half of the year, but they never really got it together and I think their first round knock-out was not just because Dallas was in top fighting form–they never really found their groove.
Burke gave his two vacillating stars until the Draft (June 20-21) to make up their minds. This applies more for Niedermayer, who still has one year left on his contract, than Selanne, who will be a free agent, but whichever way it goes, Burke has sent a strong message, to which I feel confident in saying it is about time.
In addition to dealing with on-the-verge-of-retirement superstars, Burke has the task of resigning Corey Perry and several other soon-to-be-free-or-restricted-agents: Hiller, Weight, DiPenta, Sutherby, among others. Burke has repeatedly said he is going to sign Perry, but I wonder how much he is going to rely on the cap increase for that signing and if another team will squeeze an RFA offer in–Burke would be liable to explode if that happened again and, honestly, I would probably pay money to see that, though I would rather just see Corey Perry signed.
It will be interesting to see the rest of the moves made. I have heard a lot of people say good things about Hiller and his 10-7-1 record is not too shabby, but personally I thought he was a lot shakier than I would like and there are rumors that he will be going back across the pond. He performed excellent in the pre-season and had some good outings during the regular season, but I am not yet convinced he is the best backup choice.
I will be genuinely shocked if Weight returns. He never found his groove and many Ducks fans feel pretty jaded about loosing Andy Mac for basically some cap room. This decision was lamented even more when Selanne returned and out-skated everyone on his line(s).
Lastly, for a moment of personal soapboxing, I think DiPenta has gotten the raw deal. While not a superstar player, I feel he has been a solid 6th defender and a man that the Ducks have been able to count on and he has not gotten enough respect–from the coaching staff or from the fans. Maybe everyone else knows something I do not know, but I hope the Ducks either commit to him as a member of their team or move him somewhere where he can contribute every game.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment