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Ducks Rumors, Salary Cap, and Summer Doldrums

This is truly the worst time to be an NHL fan - the end of July. The Stanley Cup is over, as are the annual awards and the entry draft. Free agency which begins so frenetically on July 1st has slowed down to a trickle. The only thing on Versus is the Tour de France and unless you are a baseball fan, there isn’t much to read in the sports section. So now that 2008-2009 schedule has been released, there is nothing to do but count the days and hope they pass quickly before training camp starts in September, which is feeling much, much farther away at this point.

Even the rumors are fewer, although it seems to be annual game about where Teemu Selanne will play the following year. Selanne signs one year contracts so he can control his own destiny. It doesn’t matter how many times he has stated that he will only play in Anaheim if he plays at all. The Canadian hopefuls still yearn for him to grace his presence on one of their teams, the Canadiens being the most popular choice due to fellow Finn, Saku Koivu.

Although Selanne stated he would make a play or retire decision prior to July 1, once again he is enjoying a relaxing summer in Finland and seems in no hurry to decide anything except which golf course to play on each day. GM Brian Burke made it clear that he would not hold a spot for him on the team. In spite of Burke’s continued signing activities that leave no room for any more until space is cleared in the salary cap, Selanne is incommunicado about his plans. Thus, the rumors that he will sign with another team seem to have more validity, because where on earth is Burke going to magically pull out any more money? The place it would have to come from is nowhere you want to witness.

Which of course, leads to the salary cap. The cap has grown rapidly and so have the Ducks’ salaries. Although it has been good to know that Scott Niedermayer will finish out his contract, there are now three $6 million defensemen on the Ducks. Mathieu Schneider is the odd duck, so to speak. Yet in spite of trade rumors, Schneider is still wearing a Duck uniform next year. He can’t be bought out like Todd Bertuzzi, as it is past the deadline for that, although he could still be put on waivers. Burke already let Ilya Bryzgalov go for nothing, and it seems unlikely that Burke would not exhaust every possible opportunity before relying on that technique to bring the team below the cap limits.

There are still people left to be re-signed on the Ducks, including Drew Miller, whose brother Ryan just got a nice five-year contract from the Buffalo Sabres. Joe DiPenta, who had been odd man out last year once Niedermayer returned, has signed with Frolunda in Sweden and should finally see more deserved ice time. He will be a dependable addition to any team, and his work ethic will be missed on the Ducks. With all the other defensive signings, there just wasn’t any room for DiPenta.

It seems likely that signings will be at a minimum until the salary cap issue is resolved. In the meantime, the most exciting news appears to be auditions for the Power Players. Truly, the summer doldrums are here.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 11:22 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.