Prospective Look at Anaheim

The Ducks season was not quite the success the defending champions would have preferred. To be the defending champs and then go through the 82-game schedule again, including a pair of games overseas, it is expected that fatigue could play a part to the season. The stories of non-retirement from both Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne may have played a better part to the season, adding some fresher legs midway through the year, but that all proved to be fruitless with their first round series loss to the Dallas Stars. Now, the team has the better part of the summer to rest up and take another run at it all next season.

Not before GM Brian Burke does some tinkering, however. The team has 17 major role players coming back next season, but the budget won't be able to handle them all and then add a couple key free agents on top of the stack.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Ryan Getzlaf	Chris Pronger	Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Chris Kunitz	Mathieu Schneider
Todd Bertuzzi	Scott Niedermayer
Todd Marchant	Francois Beauchemin
Rob Niedermayer	Marc-Andre Bergeron
Samuel Pahlsson	Kent Huskins
Travis Moen	Sean O'Donnell
George Parros
Brad May

The Ducks have the oldest core of the reviewed teams thus far, at an average age of 31.4, and all that experience is going to cost them. The running total is hovering around $50.4 million for those 17 players above. That's the salary cap for this past season.

Both Teemu Selanne and Corey Perry become free agents come July 1st and if they are both to come back, there will have to be a lot of space made for these two. Selanne will need to decide whether or not he'll truly want to retire, which he has stated he'll do within the next nine weeks. His return would likely cost the Ducks $3 million or more for the entire year. Perry, on the other hand, is a restricted free agent, who will likely be the target for an offer sheet or two. This would again play against the Ducks and their budget. Perry's numbers for his age could likely land him a contract worth $2.5 to $4 million per year... and if Edmonton goes for him, he could make $6 million (snicker!).

The Ducks are likely going to set Doug Weight and Joe DiPenta loose as unrestricted free agents, as losses will set in due to those nasty budget issues. One of the more likely scenarios on the trade side will see Mathieu Schneider, Marc-Andre Bergeron and/or Francois Beauchemin on the block come Draft Day. The team could likely drum up a good draft pick or two for any of these defenders.

Bobby Ryan will likely get moved into more of a full-time role with Anaheim, but his contract will be worth near $2 million, since he's a number two overall pick in 2005. Ryan Carter has also signed on for the next three seasons, but his limited amount of time with the big club kept him from the list.

With some movement in the past couple seasons, the Ducks have moved their 22nd overall pick that they earned in the season to Edmonton in the Chris Pronger deal, but they actually gained the Oilers' 12th overall pick because of the loss of Dustin Penner to the offer sheet. With the 12th overall pick, they are in good shape to pick up a young defenseman to fill a gap in the next season or two that a loss of Schneider, Bergeron or Beauchemin may leave behind. They could also find themselves in the running for one of the better forwards in the Draft, that they could use if Perry and/or Selanne don't return. The International Scouting Service has Zach Boychuk listed as the 12th best player in the Draft, who could be a good centre for the Ducks down the road.

It'll be more about out than in for Anaheim this summer, but if there's a guy to do it, it would be Brian Burke. With salary escalation, he'll have to do some creative work to make his Ducks fit the bill underneath the cap ceiling.