Ducks Sign Eminger

Playing a little catch-up this morning. The Ducks added some blueline help on Friday, by signing 25-year old defender, Steve Eminger, to a 2-year deal. The deal is reportedly worth $1.125 million against the cap for each season, making it a grand total of $2.25 million over the two seasons.

In 2009, Eminger split time between Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Florida, playing in 71 games, scoring 5 goals and adding 21 assists. He ranked 65th among NHL defensemen in pool scoring, so he should be considered a pool-worthy defenseman.

Eminger is a former first rounder, taken 12th in 2002, but has failed to really live up to those standards as a top-end defenseman in the league. In Anaheim, he'll join a group of blueliners that should lessen the load on him and he may be able to bring his game up a notch or two.

The Ducks have done a pretty good job this off-season managing their cap space, as they now have 22 players on their team roster at a very reasonable hit of approximately $52.6 million, which also includes Eminger's new deal. Of course, the trading away of Chris Pronger did a huge favour for the Ducks in that regard.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Ryan Getzlaf	Scott Niedermayer	Jonas Hiller
Corey Perry	Steve Eminger	J-S Giguere
Bobby Ryan	James Wisniewski
Teemu Selanne	Ryan Whitney
Joffrey Lupul	Nick Boynton
Saku Koivu	Luca Sbisa
Andrew Ebbett
Erik Christensen
Todd Marchant
Evgeni Artyukhin
George Parros
Petteri Nokelainen
Ryan Carter
Mike Brown

It's hard to argue with the Ducks team you see above, especially with some top level forwards in Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Bobby Ryan and company. The top six defenders have a lot to prove, but they have all the talent to do that and a little bit more. In goal, the Ducks have a pair of capable goalies, so it will be interesting to see if one really outshines the other in training camp. This team has a good shot at contending for the Pacific Division title and should be a good source of some fantasy players as well.