Ducks’ Struggles This Season Should Keep Front Office Busy

One season ended with the Mighty Ducks’ 5-3 loss Sunday against the St. Louis Blues at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Another more important one begins today.

By now, Duck management should have a pretty good idea what needs to be done to avoid another season as embarrassing as the one just completed.

There’s little sense rehashing what went wrong. Coach Pierre Page did that back on March 11 when he hesitated precisely 37 seconds after being asked about the Ducks’ vision for the future.

Page’s silence spoke eloquently to the Ducks’ failure to adequately bolster their overachieving 1996-97 team, which reached the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Lumping the blame for the worst season in franchise history on Chicago Blackhawk Gary Suter’s cross check of Paul Kariya on Feb. 1 is simply wrong, as Page said all those weeks ago.

The failures of this season can be traced to several mistakes. The vengeful firing of Ron Wilson by team president Tony Tavares on May 20, 1997, was only the beginning.

General Manager Jack Ferreira failed in the free-agent market. He and others in the organization overrated several holdovers from 1996-97, as well as newcomers Espen Knutsen and Tomas Sandstrom.

Ferreira and Tavares said they will be aggressive in the free-agent market this summer. But that’s nothing new.

“We have signed some free agents in the past,” Tavares said. “They didn’t work out.”

Off-season changes probably will not be limited to players either. Asked if he could give Ferreira and Page a vote of confidence, Tavares said: “No one is going to get a vote of confidence right now, including me.”

Ferreira was not available for comment after the game. Page said after Saturday’s 4-1 victory over the Kings that he doesn’t worry about job security.

“I wouldn’t be sitting people out,” Page said. “I wouldn’t be playing [rookie goalie Tom] Askey. I don’t worry about job security. I always try to do what’s right.”

Page’s status is believed to be more secure than Ferreira’s.

Page, a general manager with the Quebec Nordiques in the early 1990s, could replace Ferreira. Assistant coaches Don Hay or Walt Kyle could then replace Page as coach.

No matter who is the general manager, he will be busy when free agency beings July 1. Tavares and Page each spoke in vague terms about what’s needed. But Kariya and Teemu Selanne want defensive depth.

“It’s clear we’ve got to get some help,” Kariya said. “There are going to be a lot of free agents. Defensively, we need some experience back there. We need leadership.”

Kariya, who missed the season’s final 28 games because of post-concussion syndrome stemming from Suter’s hit, also wants a policeman to be added to the roster.

“We need some toughness,” Kariya said. “A guy like that would deter some of the violence. That’s been a problem here for several years. We haven’t had that element since the first year when we had the goon squad [Todd Ewen and Stu Grimson].”

Selanne wants more scoring depth.

“I’d rather see us have 10 guys who can score 30 goals than one guy who can score 80 goals,” Selanne said.

Selanne was a solo act for most of the season, scoring a remarkable 52 of the Ducks’ 205 goals to become only the fourth player in NHL history to score more than 25% of his team’s goals.

Brett Hull (twice), Peter Bondra and Maurice Richard are the others.

It was another sign of Selanne’s value to the Ducks, making him a contender for league most-valuable-player honors. But it also underscores the Ducks’ lack of depth.

Kariya, who played only 22 games, and Steve Rucchin were the Ducks’ next-leading scorers behind Selanne. Travis Green had 19 goals, but only five in 22 games after the Ducks acquired him in a trade with the New York Islanders.

“We need more depth, for sure,” said Selanne, who tied Washington’s Bondra for the league lead this season. “We need more depth in the defense. We need more depth offensively too. There are a lot of players available to help. I’d like to see some defensemen who can handle the puck. I think we still need some playmaking too.”

Page took time to praise Selanne, sidelined by a groin injury for the final four games. But he also acknowledged the need for a more veteran supporting cast to ease Selanne’s burden.

“This year was a big year for Teemu,” Page said. “I give a lot of credit to Paul too. But we’ve got to remind ourselves we have to be a team too. A team can’t be one or two guys. I want to be able to talk about everyone else on the team, not just one or two guys.”

Page dismissed the notion that this will be a summer of rebuilding. He prefers the term, “renovation.”

“We don’t have to rebuild the core,” he said. “We have the core [Kariya and Selanne].”

The Ducks also got a good look at several impressive youngsters down the stretch, including centers Matt Cullen and Josef Marha and winger Frank Banham.

But no one seems ready to anoint them as “the answer.”

“I think some of the younger players stepped up, but it’s one thing to play with nothing on the line and another thing to play when the games are meaningful,” Kariya said.

Added Tavares: “It’s unrealistic to think the kids are going to play as well over a full season. We’ve got to add the component parts and I’m not willing to say the kids can do it yet.”