Castoff Campbell Scoring in St. Louis

Paul Kariya’s return figures to boost the Ducks’ paltry offense. But while the Ducks are wondering why they couldn’t score more than 2.18 goals a game without him, they have to stomach seeing a former Duck prospect among the NHL’s top 10 goal-scorers.

The Ducks didn’t re-sign center Jim Campbell after last season. Now he’s the leading goal-scorer for the St. Louis Blues, with six goals in 11 games. What’s more, Campbell is tied for first in the league with three game-winning goals.

Campbell, 23, isn’t likely to keep outscoring Brett Hull for long. But he’s showing his value in St. Louis after scoring two goals in 16 games for the Ducks after he was acquired from Montreal for defenseman Robert Dirk last season.

“I want to show them [the Ducks] I can play,” Campbell told The Associated Press. “I hope they’re looking at me and saying ‘I wish we’d have kept him.’ ”

Now the Ducks look as if they could use him: They’ve scored only 24 goals all season. Teemu Selanne leads the team with six, and only five other players have more than one.

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The Ducks have expressed interest in holdout center Bryan Smolinski, 24, a restricted free agent who scored 64 points last season with Pittsburgh and played for Coach Ron Wilson on the U.S. World Cup team. Smolinski has signed a 25-game contract with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League.

Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira doubts his proposals will be good enough. “We’re down the list,” he said.