Brian Burke Week Part 1: Sleek defends three "bad" moves

Hey, everybody! Welcome to Burke Week, where I'll take a scattered look back on what I take to be Brian Burke's legacy in Anaheim. I do have a lot to say about the guy, and rather than cram it all into one post I thought I'd break it into semi-coherent parts throughout the week.

Part I: Defending three "bad" Burke moves that I don't think were that bad. For better or worse, opposing fans love to criticize Brian Burke's management style, and at times, the desire to call out Burke for a "bad" move ignores a lot of important context. Burke's first few years, of course, are now left alone because the Ducks won a cup, but since then it seems that critics are all-too-ready to point out where Burke has made his supposed mistakes.

There's really two things to keep in mind when discussing some of these debatable moves, though: (1) Thanks to salary cap mechanics, it's always going to be difficult, if not impossible, to keep a championship team together. I hold little expectation that any cup-winning roster could or should be fully retained -- there's always got to be adaptation and prioritization after a team experiences success. (2) Behind every one of these moves is the decision to allow Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne to semi-retire. I'll certainly talk more about this later, but basically if you disagree on giving players that freedom (and would rather Burke forced retirement on them), then probably you won't agree with the validity of these moves, but it is important to understand Burke's underlying motivation.

Lastly, I don't want to overstate things in this post -- I'm not saying that these moves were ideal, by any means. My main point is that they are more tolerable to me than people suggest -- I'm not angry with Burke for making them, at any rate.

1. Waiving Ilya Bryzgalov

Sleek's initial take: It seems absolutely amazing to me that a goaltender with the lowball salary and highball postseason success couldn't be traded in today's league, but I've had low expectations ever since the seemingly poor returns for Tomas Vokoun or Vesa Toskala last summer. As much as it might pain rival fans to admit it, I think the departure of Bryzgalov has very little to do with Scott and Teemu, and really has more to do with Bryzgalov trying to be a #1 and Hiller being promoted to the big leagues.

On paper this sounds horrible, because Breezy was definitely a proven playoff performer, given away to a divisional rival for free. And generally, I’m not in favor of losing assets for nothing. However, you also have to consider the Ducks were locked into J.S. Giguere for four years (including a no-movement clause), and had signed a promising netminder in Jonas Hiller as well. Not only was Breezy prevented from upward movement in the organization, but he was even in the youngster’s way, plus he was due for a raise the next summer. Burke claims that the move was done for Bryzgalov’s benefit, and it’s tough to disbelieve him on that statement, and for sure the goalie-trade market was thin (that’s the inherent irony in goalie salaries: they are no doubt the most important player on the ice, yet there are more than 60 players who could play in the NHL). So Burke ensured that Breezy gets picked up by a bottom team while publicly keeping his word to his netminder – there’s definitely payoff in being a “player first” GM like that, and while there was no trade return, you have to remember that Hiller cost the Ducks nothing either. It seems a relative wash to me, with some good PR on the side.

2. Trading Andy McDonald to St. Louis for Doug Weight

Sleek's initial take: Of course, it's sort of a mistake to look at this just as a McDonald-for-Weight trade, as context is huge for this deal. In return for trading away Andy Mac, the Ducks get Doug Weight, the right to play Scott Niedermayer, the right to keep Mathieu Schneider, and the possibility to sign Teemu Selanne. Even if DeadWeight turns out to be a bust, there's still a lot of trade return there.

Yes, this was salary-necessitated, and yes, I’d rather have Andy Mac than Doug Weight on my team any day. Still, this needs context more than anything. As my quote above suggests, it wasn’t just a one-for-one trade; Andy McDonald was traded for Doug Weight + the tag space to keep Mathieu Schneider + the room to welcome back Scott Niedermayer + the room to later sign Teemu Selanne. The salary side sucked, I guess, but the Ducks by the end of that season had more than $24 million tied into three defensemen plus a goalie – a more expensive team than they could have afforded for a full season. As for success, yeah, there was no Stanley Cup, but in the 48 games after the McDonald/Weight trade (Scotty's return), the Ducks dropped nearly a full goal-against-per-game, and played on a pace that would have won them the President’s Trophy and the Jennings Trophy. Hard to be overly critical of a trade that transformed a .500 team into a top-tier contender.

3. Signing Mathieu Schneider

Sleek's initial take: Brian Burke certainly acted as if Niedermayer's retirement is a sure thing. Think about this: if Scott were to play his contract next year, that would mean that the Ducks' goalie and top four defensemen would cost roughly $26 M next year; that's more than half the salary cap. And then the logical move, oddly enough, would probably be to trade away the newly-signed Schneider.

It’s really tough for me to get angry with Burke for this signing, as it seemed a logical reaction to Scott Niedermayer’s effective retirement. It didn’t pan out, obviously, and did put the Ducks in a heck of a salary cap crunch at the end of last summer, but I think the signing made sense in its context and Schneidermayer certainly knew what a potential salary mess he was getting himself into. What clouds this issue somewhat is the poor start that Schneider has had in Atlanta -- certainly his numbers suggest that he is washed up. However, I'd guess that he's being mis-used on the Thrashers; for the past few seasons Schneider has been an extremely effective weapon in easy minutes, playing behind a Nick Lidstrom or a Chris Pronger. In Anaheim, Schneider certainly had a solid year: At even-strength in the regular season, Schneider was on the ice for 50 GF, 23 GA, a better than 2-to-1 ratio. On the power play, he was on the ice for 34 GF, 5 GA. While certainly the team would have been easier to manage last season without Schneider's salary on the books, Burke saw a gaping hole on his blueline and reacted to it. In retrospect, the signing proved excessive, but at the time when Niedermayer's retirement seemed believable enough, I think Burke got a decent replacement option off the UFA market, and that's not something I'll spend too much time criticizing.

So there you have it, three moves that I don't criticize Burke for (at least, not to the extent that others do). Agree or disagree with my assessments, or do you have another example of your own? Feel free to leave it in the comments. Then stay tuned for Burke Week Part II (possibly tomorrow?), where I'll point out some moves where I am more critical on Burke's decision-making.

Go Ducks.

Anaheim's All-Time Team: Who centers the top line?

Well, before I get started on this All-Time Team challenge, I should first point out that the Chief at A2Y has written up his Rival Rating for the Ducks ("the Fowl"), and brings up a lot of the same reasons that I listed in my pre-sponse post, plus some new ones (the summer snatchings of Fedorov, Schneider, and Bertuzzi). There's actually some glowing references to our cumulative effort here at BoC, so here's to classily hatin' ya, Red Wings.

No real reason for the Bertuzzi picture, I suppose, other than it's an image I hadn't used yet and now seemingly my window for paparatuzzi is suddenly over. Still, this mc79 post is gold; see ya in hell, Bert.

-----------------------------------
A sidenote about this BoC challenge (see Rudy's All-Time Kings and Chen's All-Time Sharks): We're not huge planners or schemers here at BoC, and it's very rare that a themed-set-of-posts idea moves from the "we should all do this" phase to reality, so this is pretty cool. Even so, in the summer Sleek tradition, I'm going to not quite follow instructions.

That is to say, instead of me just telling you my all-time team, I'm going to open one slot up for debate. Because really, that's what this Anaheim exercise boils down to. Top line wingers isn't much of a debate (see chart to the right), and in terms of top defensemen and a #1 goalie, the Ducks are at their peak right now -- they've never previously had the talents of a Niedermayer, Pronger, or Giguere.

But who is the #1 center for the Anaheim Sometimes-Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (what else would you call this mythical all-time team?)? That and a few more items I think are worth separate posts before I fully endorse a Sleek roster, so here goes. Before I list out the candidates, though, I guess I should lay out some ground rules, or at least what I think are some considerations for "All-Timey-ness":

1. Think about the player at their Anaheim peak -- things not to consider: Adam Oates as a Boston Bruin, Andy McDonald's career without Teemu Selanne, or Ryan Getzlaf's future potential. This all should be based on games already played in an Anaheim uniform.

2. That said, longevity and consistency are pretty useful -- players should provide some identity as an Anaheim fan favorite.

3. Just to confuse things a bit more, also consider how well the top-line center would fit with wingers Kariya and Selanne; as we don't want our team outscored by the Sharks' imaginary squad.

So here's five candidate centers, in somewhat chronological order. Be warned, I suspect I only have room for four of these guys on my final roster, so in addition to telling me who should center the top line, I'm also looking for who should be cut from the team entirely. If you're feeling generous, you can even rank all five.

Steve Rucchin
Seasons: 10 (1994-95 to 2003-04)
Reg: 79 gp, 19-48-67, +26 (1996-97)
Post: 21 gp, 7-3-10, -2 (2003)

Roochie is the guy who represents steadiness and longevity on this list. Counting against him, though, he may be the least talented individual of the bunch. Still, I could be happy with Rucchin on the top line; for years Ducks fans heard about how some new person was finally going to take the top-line center position from Rucchin (who was a bit slow to keep up with Kariya and Selanne), but every time Rucchin held his spot. Rucchin did lead the 2003 Ducks in playoff goals.

Adam Oates
Seasons: 1 (2002-03)
Reg: 67 gp, 9-36-45, -1
Post: 21 gp, 4-9-13, +2

Old man Oates only came to Anaheim for one season towards the end of his career, and was a top-line mainstay between Kariya and Sykora during the 2003 cup run, where he co-led the team in scoring. Oates was a wizard with the puck, floating aerial passes that make goal-scorers salivate. He was stunningly quick at times, also, to the point where "Old Man Oates" became a tongue-in-cheek nickname. Oates never played with Selanne, so we can only conjecture there, but I suspect his puck-dishing would blend in well with the Finn's finish. As a bonus, Oates probably beats out this group in the category of "player I most enjoyed watching play".

Sergei Fedorov
Seasons: 2 (2003-04 and five games of 2005)
Reg: 80 gp, 31-34-65, -5 (2003-04)

Fedorov isn't a guy who Ducks fans are particularly enamored with, but there's little question to his talent. Also, I'd argue that Sergei represents Anaheim's first ever summer blockbuster signing -- a superstar in their prime choosing to come to SoCal. Sergei never played with Kariya and only got five post-lockout games with Selanne, but he did become the first player not named Kariya or Selanne to lead the Ducks in scoring since the inaugural season. Fedorov's quick, puck-smart, and a vicious backchecker; despite never seeing an Anaheim postseason, could he be the best fit on the top line?

Andy McDonald
Seasons: 7 (2000-01 to 2007-08)
Reg: 82 gp, 34-51-85, +24 (2005-06)
Post: 21 gp, 10-4-14, +6 (2007)

Andy Mac played seven seasons for Anaheim, but really only two are worth talking about: the two post-lockout seasons he spent with Selanne on his wing. Aside from those two years, McDonald's career has been fairly pedestrian. Still, as this is an exercise about peaks and playing with superstar wingers, Andy Mac could be a front-runner. His 85-point season is the top performance for any of the Anaheim centers, and he did lead the 2007 squad in playoff goals. Andy Mac's downfall has been consistency, or at least the ability to produce without superstar wingers, but should that affect his place on Anaheim's All-Time Team?

Ryan Getzlaf
Seasons: 3 (2005-06 to 2007-08)
Reg: 77 gp, 24-58-82, +32 (2007-08)
Post: 21 gp, 7-10-17, +1 (2007)

Getzlaf almost by default should take this position in the next couple of years, but is he all-time-top-line-ready now? Getzlaf earned the 1st line center role in his third year this past season, and was stellar, leading the team in scoring while facing opponents' top defenders. Other than the power play, Getzlaf hasn't shared that much ice time with Selanne in his Anaheim tenure, though, as he's fulfilling an on-ice marriage with Corey Perry. Perry, by the way, is not making my all-time squad, if that matters in the Getzlaf ranking.


Who shall center the #1 line?

So there you have it. Five centers who have spent at least one season in Anaheim and are competing for a coveted Kariya-Selanne center position for these Anaheim Sometimes-Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Who gets the #1 spot? Who gets cut from the team completely? I'll take your rankings and justifications in the comments.

Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday—Teemu and the Twin Assisters

St. Louis Blues (28-23-9, t-11th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (34-23-7, 3rd in west)

Today is my last day of work for my current (soon to be former) employer, and as such, I'm quite unmotivated to write anything meaningful today. It should be an interesting game tonight for two reasons:

• No Weight + No Marchant + No Carter = Opportunity. The Ducks have recalled a guy I've never heard of, Andrew Ebbett, to help fill the new void at center. Now I'm a guy who pays very very poor attention to the minor leagues, so it's quite possible I should know something about Ebbett, but I generally never hear of anybody until they set foot on NHL ice. It's always pretty exciting to see a prospect-kid for the first time, though. It's like a wrapped present from your grandmother; it's probable that once you unwrap it you'll be disappointed, but who knows? Your grandmother's crazy enough that there could be a serviceable player in there.



• Teemu gets to face off against his two favorite assist-men. Selanne's career in Anaheim has been built with the cooperation of two speedy little guys -- Paul Kariya (pre-lockout) and Andy McDonald (post-lockout), and for the first time, Selanne gets to play against them both tonight. I don't know how much head-to-head time I'd expect in tonight's matchup, but I always am intrigued when longtime linemates get put on opposite ends of the ice. Will they hit each other? Will they mistakenly pass to each other? Are they concentrating on outperforming each other, or are they making dinner plans for later?

Poll: Which little speedster did Selanne have better chemistry with?
Anyways, I'll be up in the nosebleeds tonight listening for boos so I can tell which speedy midget is Kariya. Section 407, Row L, green shirt.

Prediction: Ducks 4, Blues 1. Goals by Selanne (assists: Kariya, McDonald), Huskins, Pahlsson, and the mystery callup called Ebbett.

Go Ducks.

BoC Gameday—Ducks invest in the greybeard market

Anaheim Ducks (15-15-5, 8th in west) at San Jose Sharks (18-10-4, t-2nd in west)

OK, OK, so Andy McDonald gets traded to the St. Louis Blues for Doug "don't call me Douglas" Weight and some change. First off, this was fairly expected; I had Andy Mac as my third-most likely player to be Niedermoved.

From my perspective, the reaction to the trade return has been pretty mixed. I know one Ducks fan who claims he's swearing off the team for trading away his favorite player, especially right after he set the franchise ironman streak. To him, trading an All-Star center for a former star is a ripoff. Also I got a call from my Kings buddy, who couldn't believe Burke was able to get a land a guy like Weight while keeping Sneaky Schneider.

Of course, it's sort of a mistake to look at this just as a McDonald-for-Weight trade, as context is huge for this deal. In return for trading away Andy Mac, the Ducks get Doug Weight, the right to play Scott Niedermayer, the right to keep Mathieu Schneider, and the possibility to sign Teemu Selanne. Even if DeadWeight turns out to be a bust, there's still a lot of trade return there.

Niedermayer and McDonald pose with the Cup.
One thing this trade does not do for the Ducks, if my math is right, is enable them to extend Corey Perry's contract before next summer. The Ducks needed some $900 k of tag space to fit Scott into the lineup and unloaded McDonald's $3.33 M; that only allows for a $2.4 M or so in leeway, not enough to pay a guy who's top-10 in the league in goals. I don't know if waiting for the summer for a Perry extension is that bad--he'd be plenty expensive to re-sign right now with his current numbers anyway.

I'll do a proper Andy Mac send-off-post in the near-future; for now, here's the resulting lineup:
C.Kunitz - R.Getzlaf - C.Perry
T.Bertuzzi - D.Weight - B.Ryan
T.Moen - S.Pahlsson - R.Niedermayer
B.May - T.Marchant - G.Parros

S.Niedermayer - F.Beauchemin
C.Pronger - S.O'Donnell
M.Schneider - S.Hnidy

J.Giguere
J.Hiller
I'll tell you what--that blueline is stunning, though it's certainly still penetrable. I had to laugh once at the plight of Doug Weight in his debut; you get traded to a cup champ only to look around and see Bertuzzi, Ryan, Schneider, and Hnidy as your linemates, and realize that you are the most defensively-responsible player on the ice.

Still, I think adding Niedermayer and Weight instantly brings two things to this team. For one, neither of them is a thug or a fighter, which is a pretty needed counterbalance for a Ducks lineup that has plenty of hot heads already. Secondly, though, is puck delivery; both are guys gifted at giving linemates opportunities to score.

The Ducks have mostly managed to stay afloat in the standings, not so much through their own success, but because the west remained so congested; only Detroit for a while was pulling away. Recently, the gap has widened a bit, though, and the Ducks could really use a good stretch of games to get back into the hunt.

It's time for the Ducks to find another set of legs.
Prediction: Ducks 4, Sharks 2. Goals by Kunitz, O'Donnell, Pahlsson, and clean-cut Parros.

Go Ducks.

[Update from PJ] I ran the stats on all of the Sharks-Kings-Ducks matchups so far this season yesterday on Sharkspage. Here are the latest intra-state numbers through Sunday:

CALIFORNIA CUP STANDINGS:
- Anaheim Ducks 6-1-1, 8GP
- Los Angeles Kings 4-4-1, 9GP
- San Jose Sharks 2-2-3, 7GP

GOALS:
- Cammalleri, D. Brown, Getzlaf 5
- Thornton, Perry, Kunitz 4
- Mitchell, Kopitar 3

POINTS:
- Cammalleri 10
- D. Brown, Kopitar 8
- Frolov, Getzlaf, Perry 7
- J. Thornton, Kunitz, McDonald 6
- Beauchemin, Visnovsky, Preissing 5
- Roenick, Pronger, Armstrong, O'Sullivan 4

WINS:
- J.S. Giguere 5
- E. Nabokov 2
- J. LaBarbera 2
- Aubin, Bernier, Hiller 1

HITS:
- Dustin Brown 31
- Ryan Getzlaf 19
- Patrick O'Sullivan 17
- John Zeiler 16
- J. Johnson, K. McLaren 15
- T. Mitchell, T. Moen, C. Kunitz 14
- M. Grier, C. Perry 13

FIGHTING MAJORS:
- Parros, S. Thornton, Handzus, Pronger 1

BEST FRONT OFFICE MANEUVERING:
- Brian Burke (+Weight, +Niedermayer, -McDonald, -Bryzgalov)
- Doug Wilson (+Ozolinsh, +Setoguchi)
- Dean Lombardi (+Klemm, +no re-entry waiver for LaBarbera, -Cloutier)

The Weight For Scott is Over? Andy Mac to Blues

(See what I did there? The "Weight?" GET IT???)

I guess Earl is gone for the weekend, so I thought I'd go ahead and put this up for you guys to talk about: Andy McDonald has supposedly been traded to the Blues for Doug Weight.

This frees up room for Scott Niedermayer to come back, as Weight's contract is up after this year. Andy never could really get it going this season without Teemu Selanne; he had 16 points in 33 games this year. Doug Weight gives the Ducks another big, slow, plodding forward, which I guess they're hoping they can form into some sort of super-forward. Whatever, neither guy is as important as the person they're making room for.

So, Ducks fans, any memories of Andy McDonald that you want to talk about? I always kinda liked him because he went from being undrafted to being a star. Who's going center the 2nd line now?

Update: Confirmed by TSN, whose title was "Ducks Put on Weight." I like my title more.

Ducks Gameday—Ironman Streaks on both sides of the puck

Vancouver Canucks (16-11-3, 4th in west) at Anaheim Ducks (15-13-4, t-5th in west)

Sorry if I got your hopes up, but word is there will be only one Niedermayer playing tonight, and his name is Rob. Also, nobody's been moved yet to create tag space for Scott (Varius has done the math here), so there's still a trade a-coming, and I'll add an update if anything happens today.

At any rate, the bigger stories are probably on the other end of the ice, as both Roberto Luongo and Brendan Morrison are unavailable tonight. Luongo shut out the Ducks in Vancouver two weeks ago, and a rib injury will keep him day-to-day. As for Morrison, he snaps what was the reigning NHL ironman streak at 542 consecutive games.

Somewhat ironically, tonight diminutive center Andy McDonald will take sole possession of the Anaheim franchise ironman streak. Currently he is tied with the 275-consecutive-game streak that Sammy Pahlsson had set before missing the first five games this year (hernia surgery).

I don't really want to knock BevMo or Andy Mac, but really, if these are the guys who are going to be setting the consecutive game records these days, we should probably stop calling it an "ironman" streak. More realistically, it's a "won't go into the corners" man streak. Still, congrats to both of them for their achievements; it is nice to know that little guys can survive and thrive in a big-bodied sport.

As for the game, you might think that I'd be excited that Luongo's unavailable, and I guess I am. Still, the Ducks have seemingly always had trouble with 2nd-string goalies, whereas they've had pretty good success against Bobby Lou of late; I don't this game's going to be easy, even with the dropoff in netminding. Still, we might get to see a rarity: the Ducks might get to score first, something they haven't done in ten straight games.

Prediction: Let's say Ducks 3, Canucks 2. Goals by Getzlaf, Pahlsson, and a (farewell?) goal by Schneidermayer.

p.s. I have been remiss on my congratulations to James Mirtle, Tom Benjamin, Tyler Dellow, and others for their mentions in the HNIC feature on hockey bloggers a few weeks ago (follow that last link to see the video). It was awesome to see Ron MacLean paging through the blog-link sidebar at Canucks Corner, talking up some of the blogs he reads, and skipping right past BoC. Way to keep it on the level, Ron; we're not legitimizing anybody in the blog business.

p.p.s. I have been also advised that a BoC reader has two lower bowl (Row R) tickets available for this game, and is looking to get face value on the tickets. He's got a Paypal set up and e-mailable tickets, so if you're interested, shoot me an e-mail and I'll get you hooked up. Probably a limited time offer. (The tickets have been bought).

Oh yeah, and Go Ducks.

Ducks Gameday—Who would you move to make Niederroom?

Anaheim Ducks (14-12-4, t-6th in west) at Nashville Predators (13-11-2, 11th in west)

The second guest-art installment
in the spade-in-victorhell series.
I don't have much to say about last night's game against Chicago, except (a) the Ducks won despite being outshot 42 - 22, and (b) Andy McDonald and Todd Bertuzzi went back to being invisible again. I regularly told my roommate, "Man, I can't believe we're winning this game," but whatever--I'm happy enough with the two points that I won't raise a stink. I'm guessing the same strategy won't work nearly as well in Nashville, though.

NIEDERWATCH: Here's my un-scientific listing of who's most likely to be moved to make tag room for Scotty, a list that shuffles quite regularly and isn't based on much more than my mood. I've included each player's next-year-cap figure, per NHLSCAP.com.

1. Matthieu Schneider ($5.625 M): I think logically, Schneider's paid way too much for a third-highest-paid defenseman. Even with goals in each of his last two games, I think the only reason that Schneidermayer would stay is if Burke is dead-set on icing the best blueline in NHL history, or if he's determined that Scott won't play next year and wants to pro-actively address that. As a bonus, moving Schneider might make enough tag room to sign Corey Perry to an early extension (provided Perry is willing to stay in the $4 M range).

2. Todd Marchant ($2.518 M): Even though the Ducks are forward-thin and Marchant has proved his value and versatility (especially in the last playoffs), it is a lot of salary for a guy to anchor a fourth line. Moving Marchant might involve moving a draft pick as well, though we'll see how cagey Burke can be. I'd certainly miss "Stone Hands" Marchant, as he has the highest PS2-to-Actual talent ratio on the team, but I feel that a kid like Petteri Wirtanen could play the fourth-line center role responsibly enough in limited minutes.

3. Andy McDonald ($3.333 M): Andy Mac has certainly had it rough this young season, though the dropoff in linemate talent is astronomical between Teemu Selanne last year and Mark Mowers earlier this year. Still, I don't know if to my eyes he's lost any speed or ability; he just seems to be more effective when opponents have to focus on his wingers more. Burke had better be more in tune with Teemu's mindset than I am; if Selanne is coming back, then Andy Mac drops to the bottom of this list; he was our best forward in the cup finals.

4. Francois Beauchemin ($1.650 M): Frenchie is another enigma of sorts; his goals-against rates were much better back when Scotty was covering his back. He is certainly underpaid for the amount of minutes that he plays, and thus should be fairly easy to move (in fact, I would expect some return in a Frenchie trade). Still, we shouldn't forget Frenchie's impact on the '06 playoffs; his fist-fight with Iginla and shoulder-hit on Brunette were enormous factors in advancing past Calgary and Colorado.

5. Sean O'Donnell ($1.250 M): Probably O'Donnell should be higher on this list, but I'll tell you: I think O.D. has been a tremendous team-first guy on this roster. I mean, the guy was an unrestricted free agent defenseman in a zany marketplace who had just won the Stanley Cup, and he signed back on the team for a PAY CUT. That is pretty huge in my books, and I hope that fact isn't lost on Burke. You know exactly what you are going to get on the ice with O.D.--the safest play he's capable of--but there's always a role for that kind of guy.

6. Some combination of Travis Moen ($913 K), Shane Hnidy ($718 K), Kent Huskins ($625 K), Brad May ($600 K), or George Parros ($550 K): I think dollarwise, this means Moen plus another guy. Moen (or as I call him, "the Omen") has had rough counting numbers but is still contributing defensively on the Pahlsson line. Plus he was HUGE in the playoffs, t-2nd on the team in goals and t-1st on the team in game-winners. Hnidy has been better of late, though his first instinct always seems to be to grab a guy with his free hand. The other three have all been improvements on last year's versions. There seems to be some possibility here (all these guys seem replaceable enough), but I don't think it's going to happen--it adds to the trade complexity and starts removing too many parts of an already-thin roster.

7. Todd Bertuzzi ($4.000 M): I talk trash on Bertuzzi more than most Duck fans, but given Bert's salary, I don't think there's many GMs that will easily take the guy--he'll probably cost the EDM first-rounder to move, I'd guess. But I'm not sure I'm entirely pessimistic about keeping Bertuzzi. Sure he's a floater who needs limited puck exposure, but as we saw with Penner last year, there's a way that Bertuzzi can be played effectively--essentially he'll be as good as his linemates can make him. Bert will probably look really bad on a bad team but may look really good on a good one, and if this team does take a step forward, I'm willing to stay on the Bertuzzi bet a little while longer.

So that's my list, based on zero inside sources and just my gut feel. Two things to note: (a) Burke has made his trade-timeframe public, and will not be bargaining from a position of strength. As we've seen in the case of Ilya Bryzgalov, it doesn't seem to be the case that rival GMs are in any hurry to do Burke any favors. (b) Going for Burke, though, is the fact that there isn't any real need to get any return for whichever player gets moved. Scotty (with the possibility of some Teemu) is plenty of return already. It wouldn't even be that bad if a player got on the waiver train to Phoenix.

So, just for fun, if you were Burke, which player would you look to unload? Unleash your fantasy GM skills in the comments.

Prediction: I'm not that optimistic; I'm guessing Nashville carries a lot of the play today. Still, Ducks 3, Preds 2. Goals by Platt, Pahlsson, and Pronger.

Go Ducks.

Earl answers his mail: Forward Lines, a year-to-year comparison

Sleek,

The Ducks play so far has me frustrated. And you seem like the guy to help explain the frustration. I'm curious about ES TOI this year versus last year for the Duck's containment line. As yourself, I'm a huge fan of Pahlsson, but it seems like that line is getting more ES TOI this year. Could just be my imagination.

However, if it's true, then it might explain some of the drop off in scoring. And also point to a coaching phylosophy that needs to change. The Ducks need to dictate play, rather than react (by over-using the containment line).
Keep up the great work on the blog.

Jeremy

I'm a sucker for flattery, and yeah, I do have been keeping some spreadsheets for this sort of question, so without further ado, let's take a look at the forward lines for Anaheim, this year compared to last year. In a lazy move, I'm just using screen captures of Excel tables; hopefully they are all legible.

For the Ducks, it really makes sense to compare forwards by their on-ice responsibility, because I think context matters a great deal in Carlyle's strategy. The Ducks play a top scoring line against the opposition's top defenders, a stopper line against the opposition's top scorers, and a sheltered line that for the most part doesn't carry either responsibility. The tables below are meant to reflect that, and show each line's even-strength minutes per game, even-strength points per 60 minutes, and even-strength goal-differential per 60 minutes. I'll try to indicate numbers that stand out to me after each table.

The Top Line:
With the departure of Teemu Selanne, the top line minutes this year have gone to the kids--Getzlaf and Perry. In terms of even-strength TOI, it seems the top line is playing more than it did last year. The thing about this year's top line is that while their point production seems adequate when compared against last year, this year's version bleeds goals-against at a higher level than Selanne's line ever did. It's a fair concern, as it does put a lot of the burden of outscoring onto the other lines.

The Stopper Line:
Unlike the other lines in this analysis, the stopper line continues this year without any change in personnel. In terms of Jeremy's question, we can note that the even-strength minutes-per-game have increased, and also noticeable is that the stopper line is scoring at a lower rate than they were last year. Even so, the rate at which the line gets outscored (quite a reasonable outcome considering the difficulty of minutes) hasn't changed a whole lot--the stopper line is still contributing like they did last year, though with a lower offensive output.

The Shelter Line:
This is where things get a little shady, as this "second line" personnel has been fairly shifty this year, and even Dustin Penner last year wasn't a full-time member of the Getzlaf line. Still, this gives a sense of who's getting the easier minutes on the team and what's being done with them. A big reason for last year's success can be pinned on the fact that Getzlaf and Perry were able to dominate these minutes, something that McDonald and Bertuzzi, in particular, seem unable to do. These players, too, seem to have picked up some minutes-per-game, something we've seen on every line thus far.

A quick look at special teams:
Here are each year's top minute-men on the power play and on the penalty kill. The power play scoring rates are obviously lower this year than last year, and a lot of that can be pinned on the 2nd unit's personnel--giving Mark Mowers and Rob Niedermayer power play time isn't in any winning coach's strategy book. Going by minutes, it seems that the Ducks have less power play time per game than last year, which probably correlates to the additional even-strength ice time we've seen on every line.

As for the penalty kill, the top pairing of Pahlsson and Rob Niedermayer seem to be as effective as last year, but the secondary unit of Marchant and Moen has seen a steep drop-off in goal prevention.

Conclusions:

I think this analysis has been useful in seeing which minutes, in particular, seem to be preventing the Ducks from experiencing success similar to last year's. The problems that I can see are that the shelter line isn't finding a way to outscore soft competition, the top line is allowing more goals-against, and the stopper line could score some more goals. However, on an overall level I can't say that overplaying the Pahlsson line looks to be the Ducks' problem--that line, at least, has differential rates similar enough to last year.

Really, though, the Ducks' problem isn't really one that's explained through the forward minutes, I think. Certainly there are effects that come from personnel changes, but I think what's causing the dropoff more is the lack of a second Norris defenseman; last year these lines either had the benefit of usually a Pronger or a Niedermayer on their blueline, but nowadays Pronger minutes can only be distributed so far (usually in a defensive setting, as nobody else is really trustworthy).

The Ducks' movie theme thus far.
I have no idea what sort of team the Ducks would become if or when Scott Niedermayer rejoins the team, but I gotta think that a lot of these issues could be compensated by a blueline that's better at retrieving the puck and creating offense through transition. In that regard, TSN's Bob McKenzie has fantastic news for Ducks fans; Scott may be returning to the roster very soon.

If that happens, I'll gladly re-run these numbers after several games to see what effect another Norris defender has on the forward minutes. I'm not sure it can get back to last year's numbers, but I'll be happy for any improvement to what's become a rather mediocre team. In the meantime, I'll probably throw another post up pretty soon to show the defenseman minutes, where the Ducks' year-to-year dropoff will probably be more apparent.

Thanks for the question, Jeremy. As always, Go Ducks.

Sammy Pahlsson, you're my hero!

It’s no big secret that since well before this blog began, Sammy Pahlsson has been my favorite player. He was the first player featured in Meet Your Mighty Ducks, Part 1 (whatever happened to that series?), he was my dream centerman in If I were an NHL Player, he is the subject of my famous man-crush poem, and I’ve picked him to score a goal in every gameday prediction. But a strange thing has happened—slowly but surely Sammy has turned from a personal cult hero into a recognized playoff hero.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. To get a better sense of the scope of this heroism, I’ve taken the liberty of splitting the season into four different segments, with a fifth segment representing the playoffs. Each segment represents 20 or 21 games, and I’ve included winning percentage and power play results in the table.

Segment No.	Record	Win Pct.	PPG for	PPG against
1: 1 – 20	13-2-5	.775	23/113	13/102
2: 21 – 41	15-5-1	.738	24/98	19/111
3: 42 – 61	7-9-4	.450	18/97	18/101
4: 62 – 82	13-4-4	.714	24/92	11/94
5: 83 – 103	16-4-1	.786	16/105	16/121

In all segments except #3 the Ducks were a dominant team, and in segments 1 and 4 a lot of credit goes to special teams domination. In the playoffs, however, you can see that power-play scoring was a wash—it didn’t carry the team to playoff success. Instead, segment 5 was about winning through even-strength play.

Now when it comes to 5-on-5 hockey, Randy Carlyle was fairly strict in his mostly-three-line approach. Each line served a specific purpose, and each line generally saw the same type of opposition. For purposes of this exercise I am really going to look at the three centermen, but they really are just to demonstrate the results for each forward line.

• Andy McDonald (C. Kunitz, T. Selanne)—Andy Mac was the #1 offensive line for the Ducks, and was fairly assured to see the best defenders from the opposing team. As such, Andy’s defensive responsibilities weren’t too strenuous—he generally was in a position to outscore his opponents.


• Ryan Getzlaf (D. Penner, C. Perry)—Getzlaf centered the second scoring line, a pretty favorable spot to be in—secondary defenders had to put up with the size and skill of the kid line. Considering his soft minutes, he too was in a position to outscore his opponents.


• Sammy Pahlsson (T. Moen, R. Niedermayer)—Pahlsson had the defensive role against the opposition’s best scoring line. He played the team’s murderer’s minutes—the icetime in which the Ducks could expect to be outscored. His job was to limit the bleeding, and contribute when he could.

These centers make for nice study subjects also in that none of them missed a game all year. In fact, that is true for 8 of the Ducks’ top 9 forwards—if you’re looking for a theory why the Ducks won, there’s a start. Anyway, here’s their 5-on-5 results in each of the five segments—goals for and against while these centers were on the ice.
5-on-5 GF and GA Totals
20-game segments

(Click image to enlarge)
I guess the first takeaway is that there’s plenty of ways to win. In Segments #1 and #4, the Ducks won a lot on Getzlaf’s results as well as a strong power play. In #2, the McDonald line really powers things. In #3 (the injury segment), we can see crummy results across the board. But really, look at the green bars: it’s really amazing how Pahlsson explodes come playoff time.

Here’s how his season rates and postseason rates compare, looking at goals for and against per 60 minutes. Bear in mind that the results in the regular season column earned Pahlsson a nomination for the Selke trophy.

	Reg. Season	Playoffs	Difference
EV minutes/gm	12:43	14:09	1:26
EV PLUS/hr	+2.01	+3.43	+1.42
EV MINUS/hr	-2.24	-1.62	+0.62
EV DIF/hr	-0.23	+1.82	+2.05
PK minutes/gm	4:29	5:06	0:37
PK PLUS/hr	+0.00	+0.56	+0.56
PK MINUS/hr	-6.21	-3.92	+2.29
PK DIF/hr	-6.21	-3.36	+2.85

In the playoffs, Pahlsson’s line was on the ice for more 5-on-5 goals-for than McDonald’s line or Getzlaf’s line, all while shadowing Gaborik / Sedin / Zetterberg / Alfredsson. Sammy’s line was also on the ice for 8 of Anaheim’s 16 game-winning goals, including 7 of its last 10. Now I’ve stated before that I’m not overly concerned about whether or not Sammy ended up winning a Selke or Smythe trophy, but I do think it should be recognized how strong his postseason contribution was—it blows away his supposedly-strong regular season.

And that really is really what made this cup win so especially sweet for me—not only does my franchise’s dream come unbelievably true, but as a bonus my longtime favorite, once-cult hero plays like a fucking superstar to make it happen.

And it's not just this past postseason, either. He's played a big part in the '03 SCF run, the '06 WCF run, and now the '07 Cup win. Only he and Rob Niedermayer played in all 58 of those playoff games, and only Sammy played in all 246 regular season games between them too. And picked up a Swedish Elite Gold, a World Championship Gold, and an Olympic Gold along the way.

C'mon, Ducks fans, say it with me. Sammy is god.

The view from my playoff seat

(Author's warning: I absolutely suck at photography, and where I sit, pretty much everything gets shot through a pane of glass. It is pretty evident that my autofocus camera decides that it would rather focus on the glass than the people behind it, but I really do not have the know-how or the sobriety to fix it; my solution is really just to point-and-shoot some more. I apologize these pics aren't better, but you should see the ones that did not make the cut!)

(Alternatively, you might just say that this is my perspective as I got progressively drunker throughout the game.)

Here's a real rarity, both Rob Niedermayer and Sammy Pahlsson sitting side by side in the box, begging the question, "Oh crap, who's going to kill this penalty?"

This was early in the first period, and the lady sitting next to me (between myself and the box) really thought I was nuts, between the "Go get 'em Sammy!" yells and me trying repeatedly to get a half-decent photo (turns out the best I could get was a quarter-decent shot).

After they served their time and I put the camera back in my pocket she sighs in the way only an O.C. woman can, and mutters, "You act like you've never been here before."

My only reply? "Well, I never bring my camera here; usually it's just drinking and yelling." It's too difficult to quickly explain and justify a man-crush to a woman that disgusted.

Teemu Selanne in the second period, after his unsportsmanlike penalty. For some reason, I get to see Selanne in the box a lot, and most of the time it is stuff like diving or even his illegal stick. I always try to yell some words of encouragement in there, because really, who likes a depressed Finn?

Selanne is probably the only player who does any sort of acknowledgement to the crowd, though it sometimes isn't more than a quirky eyebrow raise, as if to say, "Who knew that they would call THAT in this day and age?" I always try to control my eyebrows so they don't send the message, "I knew."

Chris Pronger in the box. I never got a really great shot of him (a common theme here), but I was pretty excited to have him there. Despite sitting in these seats six times this year, Pronger had never ever EVER come to visit. It was kind of depressing, really, because I saw him take plenty of penalties on TV.

Is it me, Chris? Is a trade demand imminent?

OK, by now you can see that I am extremely untalented, but to prove it here's Andy McDonald parading around at warp speed as the first star of the game, not in the least bit considerate of us new photo-bloggers who can't seem to focus on anything but the glass in front of them. It occurred to me on my way home that tonight was the second time I had ever thrown a hat on the ice at an NHL contest, and both times it followed a McDonald goal against Vancouver (though this was the first time I actually threw it for an actual hat trick).

Flash back to preseason 2005, immediately following the lockout. In lockout-starved eagerness, I snagged Row B tickets to one of the first preseason games the Ducks played, against the Canucks. Recall, if you will, the format of those first preseason games: no matter the outcome of the game, they would still stage a shootout afterwards (even in non-tie situations). Well, we had lost the game 3-1, and were on our way to also losing that shootout, but Andy Mac managed to score one against Dan Cloutier, and just out of post-lockout excitement (and disbelief that we could lose a game and a shootout), I threw my hat on the ice.

Did I mention that I was drinking that night also?

Any way, there were still four or five shooters left, and the refs noted that there was a hat there sitting awkwardly by the penalty boxes. But they kind of looked at each other and shrugged; after all, it wasn't in the way of anything. All they needed for a shootout was the center stripe. So it sat there, uncomfortably, until the shootout had ended.

I was kind of proud of myself, though. I rationalized, hey, that's the first hat that's been thrown in a year-and-a-half. Welcome back, NHL.

(Think you are better than me at photographing from your playoff seat? Prove it! E-mail your best shots to japers.rink.photos@gmail.com)

Ducks Gameday—Ex-Captain comes home

Nashville Predators (17-6-3, 3rd in west) at Anaheim Ducks (20-3-6, 1st in west)

This also could be called the Battle of November, as the Ducks and Preds earned more standings points in the month of November than any other team in the league. They were also the two best teams in terms of goal-differential per game for that month.

Ducks November: 10-2-3, 23 points, 3.67 GF/gm, 2.47 GA/gm
Preds November: 10-2-1, 21 points, 3.69 GF/gm, 2.38 GA/gm

But aside from the prestige and the numbers, Nashville brings with it one commodity well-known to Anaheim fans, former captain Paul Kariya.

Now I’m not going to bad-mouth Kariya for the way he left us in 2003, but I do think it is interesting how similar Kariya-and-Selanne from the old days resembles McDonald-and-Selanne from today. Really, McDonald is a Kariya-clone, both playing a small-man’s game, both skating like hellfire, both wearing a visor, and even the numbers 9 and 19 at times are tough to distinguish.


Only Teemu Knows the Difference
You know, I’ve personally never booed PK, even after he left. Frankly, he put up with so much ridicule being the brave face of the Mighty Ducks during the height of their hilarity that I couldn’t bring myself to boo the guy. No matter how PK up and left Anaheim, you gotta respect the legitimacy and attitude he brought while he was here. That’s why he is #2 on my Memorial Day Top 10 Mighty Ducks list.

Hey, but that’s just my opinion; boo away, Anaheim.

As a last side note: it is entirely possible that the Ducks will be facing their former call-up Michael Leighton in this game, as Vokoun is injured and Mason has played the last five for the Preds. If so, let’s hope Leighton remembers who is paying half his goddamn salary.

Prediction: Ducks 5, Predators 2. "Kariya-clone" McDonald with a pair, along with Selanne, Pahlsson, and Perry.

All-Star Ballots: Do NOT vote for these guys

(Author’s note: the top graphic in the photo is one of my favorite Photoshops from Hodge at Waiting for Stanley, a true graphics guru.)

Now’s about the time when a lot of bloggers get political, and tell you why their team's guy(s) should be getting your All-star vote. Well, I’m here to tell you the opposite. Stop voting for Ducks.

Now I don’t know if there’s much I can do about the Niederpronger “Twins”, as really, they are celebrities in this league and whether I like it or not, they will be on the western team. But Giguere? McDonald? Selanne? These guys are more on the fringe, so perhaps I can actually dissuade some votes. Don’t vote for them, especially you rare-breed Duck fans.

“But Sleek, why are you against Anaheim representation at the All-Star Game?”

a) It’s pointless. At this point the Ducks have bigger aspirations than participating or winning in an All-Star game. At this point, I would think a few days off would be more beneficial than a silly promo game.

b) Other than the d-men and possibly Giguere, they don’t deserve it. Currently Selanne is sitting 42nd in overall scoring and McDonald 108th. Even Giguere, after his bad outing, dropped to 8th in GAA and 10th in sv%, meaning that there are 6 or 7 better statistical goalies to select in the west.

c) Most importantly, both Selanne and Giguere are headed for unrestricted free agency after this year. What good is it for the Ducks to have these guys chosen as all-stars in a salary-cap environment? Really, it’s just another excuse to drive up the offseason signing price. The problem in this league with “feathers in your cap” is later, you have to pay for them.

In fact, the real theme of this post is to talk about individual success vs. team success. While individual success is nice (say, a scoring title or an all-start bid), a franchise will have to pay a player for these individual accomplishments, whether they bring a team to the playoffs or not.

That’s why I’m so excited about Anaheim’s W-L record thus far, because it is being done without scoring leaders. Despite being the 4th best offense in the league (and best in the west), there is no point-a-game player on the team. Selanne’s 42nd-best 17 points leads the team.

Compare this to other teams: Carolina has five players outscoring Selanne, Buffalo and the Rangers each have four, and Atlanta, San Jose, Toronto, and Washington each have three. What does this mean? Well, when it comes time to re-sign these rosters, which will be the cheapest?

I got nothing against scoring leaders per se, but we should keep in mind the ever-looming salary cap. Franchises with league leaders on their rosters will have more difficulty keeping the team intact, as all-stars negotiating contracts get to use other all-stars as comparables. What teams stand a better chance of keeping their rosters together? Well, look to Anaheim—those that can score goals without putting any of their players in the scoring race. Long term, it’s a cheaper way of producing a winner.

Side note: To date, the eastern conference has scored 840 goals, compared to the western conference’s 718. That’s a huge disparity, and to tell you the truth, I think eastern teams are generally going to have to pay bigger premiums later for their higher-scoring superstars than the lower-scoring superstars in the west. It’s a weird disparity, but as a guy concerned about future salaries, I’d rather be on the lower-end side of that scale.

One last paradox of success is the NHL trophy race, as tracked by Mirtle. Looking at his votes, does Pittsburgh really want Malkin winning the Calder trophy? What will that cost them later? Or does Atlanta really want a Hart trophy for Hossa? What will that cost them later? Is it worth it for a team to have a trophy winner any more, especially if that person will be coming up for contract negotiation in the near future?

It’s a weird environment to think about how a player performs today will affect what you pay him tomorrow, but that is in fact the reality of our new league. Especially teams that are smaller-market should be paying attention to Anaheim’s current team model: how to win games without making any of your soon-to-be-free-agents into superstars.

Thank god Niedermayer and Pronger have their salaries locked in long-term, or I’d really have to start an anti-Norris Trophy campaign.

p.s. Jeez I'm getting preachy lately, aren't I?

New Ducks blogger, and oh yeah, drafting is for suckers!

Duck fan Finny has started a new blog, Girl with a Puck, which already looks awesome. She’s already got me beat, in that she’s actually attended Duck practices, and has put together a compelling argument about why newcomer Ryan Shannon should make the club over enigmatic returnee Stan Chistov. Go check it out!

I’m not that worried about being replaced in the Califhockeysphere so much as I’m worried that she will put a restraining order on me once I start stalking her. What can I say? I’m a sucker for females who know what a forecheck is.

Ryan Shannon, by the way, appears to be a smaller version of Andy McDonald (if you can believe it) and has had a tremendous preseason, mostly playing on a line with Todd Marchant and Dustin Penner. Finny also correctly notes that when Selanne left last game to get his face stitched up, it was Shannon who picked up the top-line ice time. A strong vote of confidence from Coach Carlyle, no doubt.

Q. What do the following players all have in common, aside from a strong likelihood of being in the Ducks’ opening day roster? (Preseason stats included)

Andy McDonald, 4 GP, 4-4-8
Chris Kunitz, 4 GP, 2-0-2
Dustin Penner, 5 GP, 2-6-8
Ryan Shannon, 4 GP, 1-5-6

A. Surprisingly enough, none of these four forwards were ever NHL-drafted, but signed with Anaheim as undrafted free agents. This preseason, these four have combined for 9 goals and 15 assists in a combined 17 man-games played.

Anybody remember the last time a preseason cup favorite used 4 undrafted players among its top nine forwards?

(NOTE: Crap. Kings have made a big trade with the Hurricanes. More to come on that.)

Correlated Ice Times: Who Drives the Boat?

Statistically speaking, one of the difficulties in measuring individual hockey performance is that there are lots of interrelated factors occurring at the same time. An individual’s +/- rating, for example, depends a lot on who he is playing with and who he is playing against (especially both of the goaltenders).

Sure, on every goal scored the NHL gives data about who was on the ice at discreet moments in a hockey game, but there is little context to hold these events up against. It would be kind of like judging an MLB batter just based on his hits without having data on any of his unsuccessful at-bats; it’s just not a complete story.

Enter JavaGeek, the king of number crunching, who has concocted a method of extracting such shift data from what really are some pretty challenging sources (I highly recommend reading his Intro to Shift Analysis to better appreciate some of the hurdles). Essentially, JG is able to fill in a missing piece of the puzzle, what percentage of situational ice time an individual shares with a specific teammate. And at my enthusiastic insistence, he was kind enough to run these ice-time scripts for my beloved Ducks.

As an intro to how this concept plays out, let’s consider how Andy McDonald and Teemu Selanne played only at even strength:

When playing together:

	T. Selanne	A. McDonald
Pct. of E.S. TOI	77%	77%
Pct. of E.S. ‘Plus’ events	80%	93%
Pct. of E.S. ‘Minus’ events	78%	83%

When playing apart:

	T. Selanne	A. McDonald
Pct. of E.S. TOI	23%	23%
Pct. of E.S. ‘Plus’ events	20%	7%
Pct. of E.S. ‘Minus’ events	22%	17%

So based on these numbers, the idea is that Selanne continued to score without McDonald better than McDonald could without Selanne. In other words, McDonald’s ability to generate ‘pluses’ appears to be awfully Teemu-dependent; Selanne looks to be driving the metaphorical boat when it comes to even-strength scoring. (Of course, had the Finnish Flash concentrated more on driving actual boats than metaphorical ones, perhaps his boat would still be above water.)

This system of shift analysis still has some work ahead of it, for sure (opposition is still a factor to consider), but I got money on JG being the guy to get there first. I’ll have more on the Duck-specific correlation numbers on a later post, but I did want to demonstrate the concept a bit first before delving into some more of the 05-06 results.

McDonald buys a farm

Well, one of the questions I had going into this offseason was 'What does a guy like Andy McDonald get on the RFA market?' This is a guy who in his first 194 games of his career had totals of 27 - 53 - 80. This year he adds 34 - 51 - 85, good for 20th in the league. (Only 2 playoff goals, though! O'Donnellish!)

Well, he signed today for a Sedin-like number of $3.3 M over the next three years.

YEEEE HAWWWW!!!

We can work with that contract, I think, if Andy's willing to put up the numbers. For one, our entire top line is probably owed some money for their work last season, where they played for a combined $2.1 M (!), so we'll consider some of that 'backpay'. Secondly, the team can save some additional money by having McDonald sleep in one of Pronger's shoes. McDonald, incidentally, was originally acquired as some sort of Kariya-cloning experiment in the mid-90s.

In other news, the Kings picked up Dan Cloutier to help share blame with Mathieu Garon. Randy Carlyle has already started drawing up a center-ice shooting drill.