MVN - Most Valuable Network

Ducks Sign Morrison, Leneveu

The Ducks have announced a couple of signings, one minor, one major. Yesterday the Ducks signed goaltender David LeNeveu to a one year contract. LeNeveu, 25, adds depth to the goaltending roster and has played in 21 NHL games while he was with Phoenix.

The Ducks have also agreed to a one year contract worth $2.75 million with center Brendan Morrison. Morrison, 32, had knee surgery on April 7 to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. While he is still rehabbing his knee, it is expected that he will be ready to go when training camp begins in September. Morrison is the second line center that the Ducks have been missing and should help with the offense that went missing last season as well.

Morrison was apparently pursued by nine teams and the Vancouver Canucks were also interested in keeping him. Morrison turned down an earlier offer by the Canucks, who seemed to be more intent on pursuing Mats Sundin. Canucks fans are bemoaning the dismantling of their team and wonder if they are trying to get into a race for worst team with the Los Angeles Kings so that they win the Tavares draft pick next year.

Ducks fans are happy about the signing and the one year deal does not affect the future salary cap. However, with the signing of Morrison, this year’s cap number is getting dangerously close to the limit. Rumors have it that a trade is pending and there appears to have been quite a bit of interest in defenseman Mathieu Schneider. Moving Schneider’s $5.75 million contract would help ease the salary cap issues for this year. Todd Marchant, due to make over $2 million this year, is also part of the rumors swirling for being moved elsewhere.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 8:18 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.