Ducks Add Some More Muscle for Playoff Run

The Mighty Ducks toughened themselves up with one last trade before the NHL deadline passed Wednesday, acquiring veteran enforcer Ken Baumgartner from Toronto for a fourth-round pick in the upcoming draft.

“It’s just going to make us a harder team to play against,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “With Baumer coming in, it makes it much harder to push us around.”

A former King and New York Islander, Baumgartner has played for the Maple Leafs the last four seasons. He has 1,703 penalty minutes in nine NHL seasons.

Though he was disappointed to leave his loyal fan following in Toronto, Baumgartner was eager for the chance to play.

“Now that Anaheim has a very competitive, up-and-coming team, the thought now is that you’re moving to the Ducks, not moving to Donald’s team,” he said. “They’ve got a talent base of skilled players who will be there for years to come.

“Toronto is a few points ahead right now, but Anaheim is on a nice roll, five in a row. I read that’s a franchise record, and this is a great time of year to have that kind of confidence.”

Todd Ewen, the Ducks’ lone enforcer, has been carrying the load against other teams’ increasingly physical tactics recently. But Wilson said Ewen is “on the razor’s edge,” because he has drawn two suspensions for accumulating too many game misconducts and will receive an automatic three-game suspension if he gets another. Rookie Jeremy Stevenson, 21, had been his backup.

“I just thought we had to get tougher,” said General Manager Jack Ferreira, who made seven trades in the final two months before the deadline, including the blockbuster for Teemu Selanne. “I knew Stevenson could do the job, but I just wanted a little bit more veteran leadership, someone who’s more of a presence in the league. Both he and Todd play hard and compete. They’re not just about fighting.”

Baumgartner, 30, missed most of last season because of a shoulder injury and became expendable in Toronto with the addition of such physical players as Tie Domi, Nick Kypreos and Wendel Clark. Baumgartner had appeared in only three of the last 10 games. He has five points and 152 penalty minutes in 60 games this season and is signed through the 1996-97 season.

Ferreira picked him up for nothing more than the draft choice he obtained from Winnipeg in the Selanne deal.

San Jose and St. Louis are among the teams that have tried to involve the Ducks in more physical games recently, even drawing Selanne into confrontations, and Ewen said he is “extremely pleased” with the deal.

“This way I don’t have to sit and watch two or three guys coming at me,” Ewen said. “‘Any time you get two guys in the lineup who play the style we do, it helps. He’s a physically tough presence, but he can also play the game. He has pretty good hands. It adds another dimension.”

*

In other deals, the Vancouver Canucks added punch and scoring punch by acquiring enforcer Joe Kocur from the New York Rangers for minor-league goalie Kay Whitmore and by trading right wing Alek Stojanov to Pittsburgh for winger Markus Naslund, who had 19 goals and 53 points in 66 games.

Whitmore, a backup most of his career, gives the Rangers insurance should Mike Richter get hurt again. Richter on Tuesday returned from his second pulled groin muscle of the season. Kocur became expendable when the Rangers got Shane Churla and Marty McSorley from the Kings last week.

The high-scoring Penguins picked up left wing Kevin Miller from the San Jose Sharks for a fifth-round draft pick this year and future considerations. Miller, 30, was second on the Sharks with 22 goals. The Penguins also got offensive-oriented defenseman J.J. Daigneault from St. Louis for a sixth-round pick this year.

The Chicago Blackhawks dealt scoring for toughness by sending defenseman Igor Ulanov, left wing Patrick Poulin and a second-round pick to Tampa Bay for defenseman Enrico Ciccone--one of the NHL’s most-penalized players with 258 penalty minutes--and a second-round pick.

Veteran center Pat Conacher, who began the season with the Kings, was traded for the second time when the Calgary Flames sent him to the New York Islanders with a 1997 second-round pick for center Bob Sweeney.

* Staff writer Helene Elliott contributed to this story.