Impact: Despite Murray’s troubles as GM in Florida, he has shown nothing but good work here in Anaheim so far in his short term as GM. His experience coaching last year allowed him to witness first hand the weaknesses of the Ducks and I think that has helped him this off-season. Gauthier’s moves were questionable at times and he failed to ice a well-rounded team. This move has definitely been nothing but good for the Ducks as they have had one of their most successful off-seasons ever.
Promoted Mike Babcock from Cincy Ducks to Anaheim head coach position.
Impact: Babcock led the Baby Ducks to a moderately successful season. They made the AHL playoffs, though barely. He seems to be well liked by players and is focusing on improving our offense while still keeping the defense strong. He knows most of the players from Cincy, but you have to wonder how much thought was given towards coaches from outside the organization.
Exclusive affiliation with Cincy
Impact: Should be better for the Ducks, able to get players over from Europe and on North American ice. The Ducks rising stars won’t be competing for ice-time with Detroit’s players. Definitely a benefit.
Traded Steve Shields to Boston
Impact: Cut free some tied up salary, opened the door for some younger players to step in. Shields didn’t seem to happy playing backup to Giguere and also didn’t play well when called upon. Unfortunately, we only got a 3rd round pick for him, but this off-season was full of available goalies like Dafoe.
Traded Oleg Tverdovsky, Jeff Friesen and Maxim Balmochnykh for Petr Sykora, Mike Commodore, J.F. Damphousse and Igor Pohanka
Impact: Friesen was obviously unhappy, and there were some rumors of Tverdovsky being unhappy with the Ducks as well. Murray was quoted as saying that Balmochnykh was considered “retired”, so no loss there. Sykora helps the right side, he was dealt because he went into a slump after Jason Arnott was sent to the Stars and there were questions of his mental strength throughout his poor playoffs. Hopefully, playing with his best friend, Pavel Trnka will give him a positive attitude once again. Commodore gives us another good young defenseman on the blueline, he was dealt simply because there wasn’t room for him on the Devils roster, but he should develop into a solid defensive defenseman.
The Ducks were unsure if they could get Gerber signed. Either way he provides depth in the net. Damphousse was sent here because he didn’t perform up to expectations with the Devils, but some may say he was thrown to the wolves. He should rebound. Pohanka is a solid offensive prospect but is still a few years away.
Timo Parssinen and A-J Niemi leave the organization to return to Europe
Impact: Perhaps the only negative point this off-season so far, Niemi and Parssinen were both upset with playing time and their place in the organization. Despite a strong camp in 2001, Parssinen was sent back to Cincy after starting the season with the Ducks. He seemed lost on the North American ice surface, but played well with the baby Ducks. Niemi seemed to have struggles with his consistency and like Parssinen, he made the team out of camp but was sent down to Cincy. Both were reportedly upset with not being given more of a chance to succeed.
Sign Prospects Mark Popovic, Alexei Smirnov, Stanislav Chistov, Cory Pecker, Jonathan Hedstrom, Kurt Sauer, Travis Brigley, Martin Gerber, Tony Martensson, Jan Tabecek
Impact: Very important, the signings of Chistov, Smirnov, Pecker, Popovic and Gerber make training camp much more interesting. Also having these players signed indicates that they will play for Cincy if they do not make the team, which is great for their development.
Sign Todd Rierden, Jason Krog, Rob Valicevic, Chris O’Sullivan
Impact: Gives the Ducks some depth at all positions as well as filling up the Cincy roster. All four of these players have NHL experience and can fill-in if need be.
To sum it up, the Ducks had a strong off-season, quite possibly the best combination of signings, trades and moves that the team has seen in its ten years existence. Negative points were few and far between and there is a positive feeling about the up-coming season.
