MIGHTY DUCKS : There’s a Familiar Look as Training Camp Opens

What the Mighty Ducks needed to get this summer was a big, skilled forward, another Brendan Shanahan, Coach Ron Wilson said in May after his team finished last in the Western Conference.

The free agent the Ducks really were interested in, General Manager Jack Ferreira said later, was Joel Otto, a big, veteran center who can shut down the opposition and score.

What the Ducks will have when players begin practice today at the Disney ICE facility in Anaheim is essentially the same team they had in May--minus third-leading scorer Stephan Lebeau, who signed to play in Switzerland, plus first-round draft pick Chad Kilger, a promising 18-year-old center.

So are they sticking to their corporate commitment to the bottom line, or are they sticking to their commitment to grow with young talent?

Shanahan was traded from St. Louis to Hartford for defenseman Chris Pronger, and there is almost no chance the Ducks will give up such high-profile young players as defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky and forward Paul Kariya.

As for Otto, Ferreira at least gets credit for inquiring. Asked if he would consider the Ducks, Otto sent a polite “No thanks” and signed a three-year deal with Philadelphia worth $1.8 million a year.

Would the Ducks--whose habit of raising ticket prices is increasing the pressure to make the playoffs--have spent that much?

“Yeah, sure, we would have matched anything,” Ferreira said. “It’s easy for me to say that now.”

Ferreira says he also tried to talk to Pittsburgh General Manager Craig Patrick before Luc Robitaille was dealt to the New York Rangers.

“Craig told me he didn’t like our players,” Ferreira said. “It wasn’t like we didn’t try.

“I think you have to understand how many players we added last year, and it wasn’t like we sat on our hands all summer. Because of the way we played toward the end of the year, I could see the improvement.”

The Ducks led the NHL in games played by rookies last season with 238, and took some lumps. A flurry of trades in March and April stabilized the defense with the arrival of Milos Holan, David Karpa and Jason York. Forward Mike Sillinger boosted the offense, and the team was 10-12-3 down the stretch.

“You can say it would have been nice if we’d gone out after a high-profile free agent,” said Wilson, whose job got harder when Colorado joined the Western Conference after moving from Quebec. Thirteen teams, instead of 12, now seek eight playoff spots.

“[But] I’m not disappointed, because of what we were showing toward the end of last year. We have to get our young players to continue to show improvement, and our veterans who had what you might call off seasons have to bounce back and play better than they did. If they do that, we can follow our plan.”

Mighty Duck Notes

Training camp sessions will be open to the public Monday through Friday this week only. Practices will be held from about 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.