There’s No ‘I’ in Teemu : Selfless Scorer Selanne Is Expected to Take Ducks to Next Level

At the first practice, Teemu Selanne smiled and the Mighty Ducks smiled along with him. He laughed, they laughed. He skated like the wind, they skated like the wind. Or tried to, anyway.

Right from the start, it was clear something would be different about the Ducks.

Selanne would make it so.

After all, that’s why they put on his shoulders the burden of leading the franchise out of its infancy and into maturity. It’s why he was acquired in the Feb. 7 trade with the Winnipeg Jets.

Repeatedly in his first week with the Ducks, Selanne acknowledged the job will be “a challenge.” But he also said it would be “fun” and “a good time,” once he gets to know his teammates.

He has never been one to back away from a task, even one as daunting as turning the Ducks into winners. He learned responsibility at an early age, and although he’s only 25, he seems older, more mature.

Perhaps it’s because he began teaching kindergarten in Finland when he was 15. Or because he began visiting children’s hospitals in his early 20s. Or because he dived headlong into the save-the-Jets campaign when all hope seemed lost in Winnipeg last summer.

“Teemu has an infectious character about him, and it rubs off on guys,” Coach Ron Wilson said. “He has fun and he works hard. That attitude rubs off on the other players. Attitude has something to do with how you do on the ice.

“The message is out that we don’t want to be mediocre and status quo. We want to move forward.”

The Ducks are 1-3 with him in uniform, but Selanne has quickly emerged as their scoring leader. He had 24 goals and 48 assists in 51 games for the Jets. Going into tonight’s game against the Kings, he has four goals and two assists in four games for the Ducks.

“Every day I feel more like a part of this team,” Selanne said. “In a couple of weeks, somebody will say, ‘How do you feel about the trade?’ and I’ll say, ‘What trade?’ ”

He knows he has been enlisted to reinvent a franchise’s image, to create a winner. The Ducks make money hand over fist, selling T-shirts and caps and jackets. Fact is, they are the NHL’s top merchandise seller.

But winning hockey games? The Ducks (19-33-5) usually leave that to somebody else.

“For sure, it’s going to be a big challenge,” Selanne said.

Wilson and General Manager Jack Ferreira huddled in recent weeks, trying to figure out a way to improve the team.

When Paul Kariya returned from the All-Star game in Boston last month, he began raving about Selanne during a meeting with Ferreira.

“The thing that hit me was what a great person he was. Just tremendous off the ice,” Kariya said.

Ferreira built his inaugural team in Anaheim around what he called “character guys,” establishing an us-against-the-world attitude that carried the Ducks to a surprising 33 victories in 1993-94.

If he could pick up a player with that sort of attitude, who also happened to have a 76-goal season on his resume, perhaps he should investigate further. When he did, he pulled the trigger on the biggest deal in the Ducks’ three-year history.

They parted with prospects Chad Kilger and Oleg Tverdovsky, players who might someday be stars. Selanne already was one, on and off the ice.

After his military service ended and he began playing hockey in Finland, Selanne began looking for ways to help others.

“I had to do something other than only play hockey,” Selanne said. “My mother was a teacher, and I worked when I was 15 for $1 an hour during the summer [teaching kindergarten].”

His charity work expanded as he began to emerge as the country’s finest hockey player since Jari Kurri. Soon enough, a TV reporter invited Selanne to go with him to visit a children’s hospital.

“It was hard at first,” Selanne said. “I decided I’m going to help those kids somehow. They are so amazing. They are so sick and they still enjoy life. People our age probably couldn’t do it. Those kids are real fighters.

“I’m writing to one kid now. You know, pen pals. He told his friend all about the people [actors and athletes like Selanne] he met at the hospital and his friend went and told his parents, ‘Oh, I wish I was sick so I could meet Teemu too.’ ”

In Winnipeg, Selanne helped establish Goals for Kids. The Jets gave $500 to charity for each goal Selanne scored. He then matched the contribution. Suffice to say, it was a tremendous fund-raiser.

He also joined the efforts to keep the Jets in Winnipeg because he believed the team belonged in the city. It was a movement destined to fail. Last month, the NHL approved the Jets’ move to Phoenix next season.

“I wanted to do anything I could for this because it was an important thing to do and because I care about Winnipeg,” he told a Winnipeg reporter a week before the trade.

He was revered in Winnipeg, even if the Jets were not.

“Not a phony bone in his body,” former Jet General Manager Mike Smith once said.

First reports from Winnipeg indicated Selanne was angered by the news of the trade. He was said to have torn the nameplate from his locker stall and stormed out of the Jets’ dressing room without talking to teammates or reporters.

Selanne said he was angry only because he believed he had been lied to.

“The new owner of the Jets assured me that I was an important part of the Jets’ team that’s moving to Phoenix next year,” Selanne said. “It seems you just can’t trust anyone in the NHL.”

Richard Burke, co-owner of the Jets, tried to clarify the timeline.

“When I told Teemu we weren’t shopping him, that’s true, we weren’t,” Burke said. “The trade developed after our conversation.”

Selanne went home, stunned. Then the telephone started ringing off the hook. Friends began calling from Finland offering congratulations.

“For sure, it was a shock,” he said. “After a couple of hours, I was really happy.”

So were his new teammates.

“I’m not a 22-year-old kid,” said goaltender Guy Hebert, 29. “The next few years are our big chance to get into the playoffs. The organization sent a message to the league that Anaheim’s making moves and not afraid to take the next step.”

Steve Rucchin, Selanne’s linemate, was playing hockey in obscurity at the University of Western Ontario as recently as two years ago.

“Just to play in the NHL, I never thought that would be possible,” Rucchin said. “To be on the ice with those two [Selanne and Kariya] blows my mind, to be honest with you. . . . I’ve just played with hockey players before.”

Selanne had a strange feeling he might become a Duck. First, there was his quickly formed friendship with Kariya during the All-Star game--his third and Kariya’s first.

Looking back, there were other signs too.

“My ex-team owner from Finland [Harry Harkino] was at the All-Star game and he said, ‘You should go to Anaheim and play for the Mighty Ducks,’ ” Selanne said. “A Finnish TV guy came to the All-Star game. A friend of his had given him a box of socks and said, ‘Give these to Teemu when you see him.’

“It was 10 pairs of Mighty Ducks socks. I can’t believe that. Like this guy knew it was going to happen.”

The Ducks are overjoyed that it did, that Selanne is on their side now. Perhaps now they can get on with the business of winning.

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By the Numbers

A look at what Teemu Selanne brings to the Mighty Ducks’ attack: CAREER

*--*

GP G A Pts 235 151 161 312 BEST SEASON (1992-93) 84 76 56 132 TYPICAL SEASON 60 41 37 78

*--*

THIS SEASON

* Goals: 28 (Tied for 14th overall)

* Assists: 50 (7th)

* Points: 78 (8th)

GP: Games played; G: Goals; A: Assists; Pts.: Points