Ducks Lose Healy in Phase II Draft : NHL: Goaltender ends up with Rangers by way of Tampa Bay.

Glenn Healy was a Duck for a day.

The day after the selection of the first Mighty Ducks, Healy became the first ex- Mighty Duck.

The Ducks lost their biggest name player--a former King goaltender whose hot streak in the playoffs helped the Islanders upset Pittsburgh--when they left him unprotected Friday in Phase II of the expansion draft, allowing Tampa Bay to claim him. The Lightning quickly traded him to the Rangers.

The Ducks, who took Healy with the third pick Thursday during Phase I, were allowed to protect only one goalie from Friday’s reverse mini-draft in which Ottawa, San Jose and Tampa Bay could select players from the Ducks and Florida Panthers.

The Ducks chose to protect Guy Hebert, who was their first goalie pick at No. 2 although he has never been an NHL starter.

“We have no regrets,” General Manager Jack Ferreira said. “It was definitely Hebert we were going to protect. We took him first. He was definitely our guy.”

At 26, Hebert is four years younger than Healy, who was 22-20-2 this season and is a restricted free agent. The Ducks had the right to retain Healy only by matching his best offer.

“It’s a disappointment we lost him, but we could only protect one guy and we went with the guy who’s younger and a safe bet because he’s under contract,” Ferreira said.

Ferreira said he thought the teams should have been able to protect two goalies, but said the rules were approved before the Ducks joined the league.

The Ducks took Hebert and Healy Nos. 2-3, but they could have easily flip-flopped them--both picks were theirs. They didn’t, electing not to use the team’s first selection on a free agent who could grow prohibitively expensive.

Instead, they went with Hebert, Curtis Joseph’s backup with the St. Louis Blues, who was 8-8-2 this season with a 3.67 goals-against average. He was NHL player of the week once during the season after going 3-0 and notching his first NHL shutout.

“He’s in a very similar type situation to where Healy was a few years ago, a backup waiting for his chance to play well,” Ferreira said. “He has that ability to win a game by himself, like a pitcher who’s got the ability to come up big and throw a one-hitter and stop a losing streak.”

The Ducks still have two goalies in Hebert and Ron Tugnutt, formerly of Edmonton.

Ferreira said he believes Hebert would have been claimed if he had been exposed. And the Ducks hoped Healy might slip through Phase II because Ottawa and San Jose were not in the market for a goalie and Tampa Bay already had a deal with Florida to take Daren Puppa, who was drafted Thursday by the Panthers.

But Tampa Bay General Manager Phil Esposito, who had given Florida a third-round pick in today’s entry draft for drafting and exposing Puppa, made a skillful stroke by taking Healy as well, then trading him to the Rangers for a third-round pick.

In essence, he got Puppa for nothing.

Ranger GM Neil Smith, a friend of Ferreira’s, called him before Phase II to tell him what was about to happen.

“He said, ‘No hard feelings,’ ” Ferreira said. “I said, ‘No hard feelings.’ It’s just business.”

The wheeling-and-dealing put Healy--who is in Ireland on vacation--on four rosters in two days.

“Poor Glenn, he crisscrossed the country in one day and doesn’t even know it,” said his agent, Larry Rauch.

The Rangers will be trying to sign Healy, perhaps with competition from the Islanders, but apparently not from the Ducks.

“Considering the team you’d be going up against, it would be an exercise in futility,” Ferreira said, alluding to the Rangers’ willingness to spend.

With Healy in such demand, the Ducks could have considered protecting him and then signing him for trade bait if he got too expensive for their tastes. But that would have been running the risk of losing Hebert--something Ferreira, a former goalie himself, wasn’t willing to do.

The Ducks lost a second player during Phase II. Dennis Vial, 24, their next-to-last pick among defensemen, was claimed by Ottawa. As they did in Healy’s case, the Ducks took $100,000 in compensation instead of choosing another player.

The Ducks added one player in the supplemental draft Friday, choosing defenseman Pat Thompson, 21, from Brown University.

* DUCK HUNTING

The Mighty Ducks have narrowed their list to four names for their first pick in today’s entry draft. C4

* RITE OF PASSAGE

Top prospects--including European delegations--will be at the draft, a major part of hockey’s tradition. C4