General

Is it Time to Blow Up the Anaheim Ducks?

Feb 16, 2009, 8:00 PM UTC

When Bob Murray took the reins as GM of the Anaheim Ducks last November from the departing Brian Burke, it must have seemed like he had finally reached the mountaintop. After 17 years of working in a variety of front office jobs with Chicago, Vancouver and Anaheim, Murray finally had a team of his own, one that was just a little more than a year removed from winning its first Stanley Cup.â†µâ†µNow, a little more than three months later, a bitter dose of reality is surely beginning to develop. As of this morning, the Ducks sit in a three-way tie for eighth place in the Western Conference with 61 points. By dint of the tiebreaker, however, the Ducks are actually in eighth, holding down the final playoff spot. What’s worse, only eight points separates Anaheim from Colorado at the bottom of the conference standings, while every team below them has one-to-four games in hand on Anaheim.â†µ

â†µâ†µClearly, with only 24 games remaining on the schedule, the Ducks are in real danger of missing the playoffs. While the now offers nothing but uncertainty and peril for the Ducks, the future seems just as murky. The Ducks have nine players who are scheduled to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season: Brendan Morrison, Todd Marchant, Rob Niedermayer, Sammy Pahlsson, Travis Moen, Scott Niedermayer, Bret Hedican, Steve Montador and Kent Huskins. â†µ

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â†µA quick look at the organizational depth chart over at Hockey's Future doesn't paint a pretty picture either. When it comes to team weaknesses, HF says that Anaheim lacks top flight prospects and is openly questioning whether or not the prospects they do have will be ready to step up as other parts of the roster decide to move on -- like in an offseason where more than a third of the players on the roster are eligible for unrestricted free agency.â†µ

â†µâ†µLooking at the situation realistically, the best the Ducks could possibly hope for would be a fifth place finish that would most likely match them against the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the playoffs. Even if the Ducks could pull off a first-round upset -- Anaheim is 1-2-0 against Chicago this season -- that would toss them into a final four in the West where they would most likely face one of the two Western powerhouses, San Jose or Detroit.â†µ

â†µâ†µLooking at it that way, it’s time for Anaheim to reload, rebuilding around a core of Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan. Luckily for Murray, this is an organization with some assets and some options. Primarily among those assets is defenseman Chris Pronger, whose availability would automatically make him the most sought after asset at the upcoming trade deadline. With a full year remaining on his contract at $6.25 million, Pronger would be the ideal final piece of the puzzle for a team that needs to add some toughness to its lineup for a run at the Stanley Cup -- and that’s the case whether or not Pronger wants to leave. One would think that at a minimum, Pronger could net a young defenseman, a prospect and a draft pick -- an ideal return for an organization that needs to replenish its minor-league assets.â†µ

â†µâ†µNext up: the Ducks need to have a conversation with Scott Niedermayer. Word is that the organization has already told the future Hall of Famer that they won’t be moving him. If that’s the case, it’s a conversation they ought to revisit. Given that he sat out about half of last season, Niedermayer, who is in the last year of his contract with Anaheim, probably has little desire to be a rental player at this point in his career. Then again, if it means having one last legitimate shot at winning a Stanley Cup, perhaps Niedermayer would have to think about it -- especially if the team could package him with his brother Rob, just the sort of veteran forward that teams look for at the trade deadline.â†µ

â†µâ†µWill the Ducks move in this direction? While I and plenty of others think it might be time to break up the team, one could make the argument that the Ducks are simply having a down year and could very easily keep their core intact, while having more than enough cap room to entice Niedermayer to return for one more year along with fellow veterans Pronger and Teemu Selanne and one last shot at a Stanley Cup. The decision comes down to this: Is that roll of the dice worth putting off the rebuilding of the team for one more year? Chicago, San Jose and Detroit aren’t going away, and all look to be as strong or stronger in one year’s time. Taking a realistic look ahead, there is no point in putting off the inevitable any longer.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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