As Kariya Stalemate Continues, Ducks Looking to Avoid Another : Hockey: With its top pick in 1993 draft still unsigned, team facing prospect that its first selection today could seek even more money.

So the Mighty Ducks have the No. 2 pick in the NHL draft today.

All that means is they have the right to call out the name of some youngster, hand him a Mighty Duck cap and a Mighty Duck jersey with his name on it, pose for pictures and smile.

Just the way they did with Paul Kariya.

Drafting someone doesn’t make him a Duck. He can’t score any goals for them until he signs a contract.

It has been a year since the Ducks picked Kariya, the slight but extremely skilled playmaker who went on to star for Canada in the Olympics and the World Championships.

He was proclaimed the cornerstone of the organization, and hailed as the perfect Disney hockey player.

Yet since the Ducks began negotiating last spring with Kariya’s agent, Don Baizley, the sides have made little progress and are believed to remain millions of dollars apart.

Teams have begun to approach the Ducks about trading Kariya, and the Ducks are beginning to listen.

“I guess you’ve got to look at all the options,” Ferreira said. “It’s something you don’t want to do.”

The problem isn’t the size of the Ducks’ pocketbook--27 sellouts at The Pond of Anaheim and phenomenal sales of team merchandise contributed to a first-year profit that club president Tony Tavares says will exceed expectations.

The problem is the size of the opening of the Ducks’ pocketbook. Tavares and Ferreira say they object in principle to high rookie salaries for unproven players. They blame “mistakes” by Ottawa and Hartford in signing Alexandre Daigle and Chris Pronger to huge contracts for the problem, making the point that those players did not perform at that high a level this season.

The Kariya situation finally should begin to clarify itself this summer.

Tavares said the Ducks soon will improve their offer to Kariya substantially, based on his performance at the World Championships. And it has been part of Ferreira’s strategy since the end of the season to feel out negotiations with their potential No. 2 pick before signing Kariya, since No. 2 will automatically ask for more than last year’s No. 4.

Baizley has begun to downplay the possibility of Kariya going to Europe, but the International Hockey League and even junior hockey are being mentioned as options. Ferreira and Baizley are awaiting rules interpretations from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman as to when Kariya would become a free agent if he returned to the junior level, and whether the Ducks would have the right to match any offer.

“We both decided we want to know exactly what our options are so we see who has the leverage,” Ferreira said.

So if the Ducks put a jersey on the second pick today, does that mean he’ll be a Duck this fall? Or just another member of the Ducks’ All-Unsigned team?

Tavares says “signability will be an issue” when the Ducks decide whom to draft today.

“You can figure we don’t want to go through another year like we have trying to get Kariya signed,” Tavares said.

Ferreira says he will take the best player available.

And if the best player available wants more cash than the Ducks say is available?

“You just enter another stalemate,” Ferreira said.