Karpa Agrees to One-Year Contract

The three-week contract stalemate with defenseman David Karpa ended Friday when he agreed to terms on a one-year deal.

“I’d say they won this battle,” said Karpa, a restricted free agent who agreed to the team’s original offer of $425,000 with some added incentive clauses. “I’ve been thinking about it the last month and I don’t think they were going to budge from where they were.

“I guess it was a learning process. The bottom line is God gave me the ability to play hockey and that’s what I’m going to do. Sometimes life isn’t fair. That’s the way it is. I want to go in and have a good year this year and then start the [contract] process again. I’m excited to be back.”

Karpa, who had 19 points and 270 penalty minutes last season while earning about $160,000, gives the Ducks a physical presence on defense they had been lacking. He won’t join the team until next week because immigration paperwork will prevent him from traveling to Canada for the final two exhibition games.

“We know we’re a better team with him,” General Manager Jack Ferreira said. “There’s a spot for him. We just have to get him ready to play, work him hard next week.”

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The Ducks complete their exhibition season with a two-game trip to play Edmonton tonight and Vancouver on Monday. Paul Kariya is making the trip but probably won’t play. He’s still planning to play in the season-opener a week from today at Toronto.

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Goaltender Mike O’Neill, defenseman Oleg Mikulchik, center Joe Day and defenseman Alain Deeks have been left unprotected for Monday’s waiver draft. Ferreira wasn’t sure whether the Ducks are likely to pick up any players. “We’ll see,” he said.