Source: Teemu Selanne expected to return to Ducks next week
Teemu Selanne celebrates in the dressing room after their 2007 Stanley Cup victory over Ottawa.
2008-01-24 18:00:56
Is Teemu Selanne coming back to the Anaheim Ducks?
GM Brian Burke would not deny or confirm it, but a source in Anaheim told thehockeynews.com Selanne is expected to return to the team, perhaps as early as early as next week.
Selanne, an unrestricted free agent who has not played since last season when he helped lead Anaheim to the Stanley Cup, resumed skating on his own recently.
If he returns, he will be the second member of the team to come back after taking off part of the year.
Defenseman Scott Niedermayer considered retiring after last season, but had a change of heart and announced his plans to return to the team Dec. 5.
Selanne led Anaheim in scoring last season with 48 goals and 94 points. In 1041 career NHL games with the Ducks, Avalanche, Sharks and Jets, the “Finnish Flash” has racked up 540 goals and 1135 points.
The Ducks have been one of the NHL's hottest teams (12-5-1) since Niedermayer resumed playing Dec. 16 and have moved into fourth place in the Western Conference with 61 points, one point behind the Pacific-leading Dallas Stars.
Patrick (Posted 2008-01-28 08:34:24)
I think that the trading of a star for an array of high draft picks and supplementary players is a far bigger problem. The Islanders traded away far too much last season for a player that played well for 30 seconds and left for Colorado. It makes the Ducks much stronger and as disappointing as that is we didn't hear any of this when Cujo signed with Phoenix.
SCOOP (Posted 2008-01-26 10:47:08)
For those upset that this is somehow unfair, well starting soon (maybe today) other teams will be loading up with UFA top notch players. They'll grab those partial contracts for that late season 'rush'. Anaheim is lucky, they don't have to give up a bunch of prospects for him. Regarding Teemu. A great player and ambassador. The Ducks
thom (Posted 2008-01-26 00:41:58)
the league can stop this very simply: the team is charged the full salary of the player in the last year that they played. that way it's not as if niedermayer is on extended injured reserve. the selanne situation is a little different, similar to forsberg's. i hear yzerman's thinking about a comeback j/k ;)
Kevin Payne (Posted 2008-01-25 14:30:22)
This was never a consipiracy by Burke to beat the cap as some have suggested. It was simply a situation wherein 2 players wanted to retire. Burke saw that the only chance he had to possibly have them change their minds was for them to not make their decision final and to give it time (to rest physically and mentallyl). His strategy worked for Scott and looks like it will work for Teemu. Scott and Teemu took Burke's advise so you can't blame them for the seemingly indecision since they were following their employeer's advise.
Alex (Posted 2008-01-25 12:24:29)
When looking at this situation one has to keep in mind that these two players have had long careers. With the schedule the way it is (82 games), especially the schedule the ducks had (trip to london...road games immediately after), it is only reasonable that these two players would opt to stay away from the game for some time. Maybe the way they choose to go about it could have been different. However, if they would have been upfront about needing some time to re-energized they would have been scrutinized by the rest of the league (lose-lose). Nonetheless, this has set a precidence, and the league should create some restrictions to prevent this from being elongated/recurring. After all, it’s the niedermayer and selanee type players that get the ratings and sell tickets.
J-dizzile (Posted 2008-01-25 12:12:05)
There's nothing unfair about said players returning in the middle of the season. The Ducks, Selanne and Nieds are playing by the rules. However, it is extremely annoying and the rules need to change. This "Roger Clemens" phenomenon has now arrived in the NHL and I for one would love to see it stop. There needs to be a much earlier deadline for free-agents to be signed than Feb. 26. Also, Niedermeyer's hold-out makes me think less about him...defecate or get off the pot, don't play like you are "thinking about retiring" when you knew you were coming back all along. I think Selanne was truly unsure about whether to retire or not...I just hope the NHL moves the free agent signing deadline WAY up in the future to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Herbalizer (Posted 2008-01-25 10:53:35)
Well, there is nothing unfair about Selanne's situation. The guy was a free agent and any team could have tried to sign him. Selanne can chose to accept, or decline any offer for his service. There is absolutely nothing unfair with this.
As for the Niedermayer situation, I agree that it is a bit controversial. Especially since the reason behind Nieds retirement has always been suspicious as he never clearly justify his decision. Not that he had to, but if his reasons were valid, then why did this indecision limbo lasted so long ...There wasn't even hints ...There was a 5 or 6 months fog on his status, then all of a sudden, he was ready to play. For these types of situation, I agree that the league should investigate to find a way to prevent teams from by-passing flawed NHL rules..Again, not saying this is what happened, just saying the situation should be investigated.
Pete (Posted 2008-01-25 10:49:02)
Freakin' Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne! This is so unfair! But only because I have Mathieu Schneider and Todd Bertuzzi in my pool and these two will be taking more ice time away from my guys!! Step in NHL, do something for the sake of my pool!!!!
lay z (Posted 2008-01-25 10:34:56)
I personally think it is totally unfair of you people to say that this is unfair. Think of all the years, the amounts of blood, sweat and tears, the thousands and thousands of hours these guys have trained, the injuries they've had to overcome. If they now want some time to think it over, if it's worth it all to keep playing, for you to start whining that it is unfair, is not cool, at all. Also, there is no guarantee that coming back to the game after over half a year of not playing or practicing with the team, you will automatically be on the same level you were before
Hockey Fan (Posted 2008-01-25 07:20:19)
I agree it´s maybe unfair to other teams and hope not all good players are going to do this when it´s their time to retire. It´s still good to remember that those two players have played already very long careers and maybe reserved their right to do whatever they want. Hope you know what I mean :)
jim (Posted 2008-01-24 22:04:39)
good for them, do not agree that this hurts the game......very rare situation, a much bigger issue is the rental, and return of non-restricted free agents we have seen in recent years.
Sonya (Posted 2008-01-24 21:11:20)
I agree that it's unfair that two good players can rest for the first part of the season and come back when they feel like, because who they are. The league better wake up and not let this continue in the future.
Kevin (Posted 2008-01-24 20:30:24)
The league has to make sure this doesn't start happening every year. They should decide upon a cutoff date after which players cannot rejoin a team unless they were physically unable to beforehand. The Ducks are getting two of their top players back for the stretch run after resting them for good chunks of the season. It's not fair to other teams and players, and it sets a bad precedent.
jeff adams (Posted 2008-01-24 19:08:46)
All summer I was confident that the Burke would be pleased as punch to have his to older stars take the first half of the season of off only to come back to the team at a lower salary and essential be trade deadline additions that did not cost anything in the trade department. After his rant in USAToday last year about the cost a trade deadline rentals you had to know that he would attempt to manuever around the costs associated with February trades.
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