Murray Moves Up With the Ducks

Bryan Murray, the coach who held the Mighty Ducks together despite a disappointing season, was hired as the team’s senior vice president and general manager Thursday.

Murray, who will relinquish his coaching duties, has previously been general manager at Detroit and Florida. He replaces Pierre Gauthier, who was fired after four seasons.

Murray’s chore is considerable, considering the Ducks finished tied for 13th this season, were last in 2000-01, and have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs only twice in their nine-year existence. They have had three general managers and five coaches.

“For the players’ sake, I would like to see a couple changes to show them that we really care, that we really want to win,” Murray said. “It might only be lateral moves, because it is hard to make huge upgrades. We want to show them we believe.”

First off, that means hiring a coach.

Although Murray said that previous NHL head coaching experience would not be a requirement, there is a long list of former head coaches to choose from, among them Ken Hitchcock, who was at Dallas.

Duck assistant Guy Charron, who served as head coach for two-thirds of the 2000-01 season, and Colorado assistant coach Bryan Trottier may also be considered. King assistant Dave Tippett was among the candidates considered for the Duck job last year, when Murray was hired. Murray did rule out his brother, Terry Murray, whom he hired to coach the Florida Panthers.

“I really hope to have someone in place by the draft [June 22-23], hopefully well before the draft,” Murray said.

Finding the right coach isn’t the only difficult task at hand.

Interest in the team has dwindled, attendance having dropped for five consecutive seasons. The Ducks were last in the NHL in attendance this season. The business side of the operation--ticket sales, sponsors, marketing--will be handled by Doug Moss, recently hired as senior vice president of business operations, but Murray has to provide a team people will want to pay to see.

The Ducks had an encouraging finish this season, going 15-13-2 over the last 30 games. Yet they finished 25 points out of a playoff spot.

There is a solid core of players--Paul Kariya, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Keith Carney, Matt Cullen, Mike Leclerc, Oleg Tverdovsky, Jeff Friesen and Keith Carney. Yet, there is a gaping hole on offense.

The Ducks scored two or fewer goals in 58 of 82 games. They lost 21 one-goal games.

“The latter part of the year, I thought the team came together fairly nicely,” Murray said. “We have on defense three, four, five guys who are very adequate, good players. We have five, six, seven forwards.... If there is a free agent there who brings something special to the table, then we will inquire about him.”

The special thing the Ducks need is a scorer. Only the Columbus Blue Jackets scored fewer goals last season, and the team’s power play ranked last in the NHL.

New Jersey’s Bobby Holik, Boston’s Bill Guerin, San Jose’s Teemu Selanne and Chicago’s Tony Amonte are the prominent players who probably will be unrestricted free agents this summer. Murray could also seek a trade, as he did in Florida when he acquired Pavel Bure. The Ducks, however, lack the depth necessary for such a blockbuster deal.

“It might be hard to get the top guys to come because they may think we’re far from being in the playoffs,” Murray said. “Maybe we can convince them to come here and helps us get to the playoffs.

“There is no question we have to address the offense. If we get that kind of player, then we have addressed our power play at the same time. We get that and continue to improve defensively, I think we can play awfully well with any team.”

Paul Pressler, the Disney executive who oversees the Ducks and Angels, said he was impressed with Murray’s record as a general manager. Murray laid the foundation for two Stanley Cup championships in Detroit, bringing in such players as Sergei Fedorov and Nicklas Lidstrom.

He spent seven seasons as the general manager at Florida and assembled a team that reached the Stanley Cup final in 1996, losing to the Colorado Avalanche.

“I think he has a tremendous eye for talent, and demonstrated an ability to develop young players, which is critical for any team in the league,” Pressler said. “Most importantly, he has a passion to win.”

That passion was unrequited here. The Ducks were basically out of the playoff race in November.

“It was tough at the start of the season,” Leclerc said. “There was a little feeling-out process, as any team has with a new coach. He was getting to know the players. We could have went the other way, but he kept us together, kept things a lot looser and took a lot of stress off us.”

The Ducks, though, will have another coaching transition to make. They have had three since December 2000--Craig Hartsburg, Charron and Murray.

“It would have been nice to have [Murray] back as coach, no question about that, because we kind of know what to expect from him,” center Steve Rucchin said. “But I think some of us are used to this. It has happened to us a few times in the last few years. We should be able to assist the new coach because we’re familiar with this situation.”

Besides hiring a new coach, Murray also must sign the team’s restricted free agents, with team captain Kariya topping that list. Kariya made $10 million last season.

Cullen, Rucchin, defenseman Ruslan Salei, defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski and goalie Steve Shields are other key players who are restricted free agents.

“I think Bryan knows what it takes to win in this league,” Rucchin said. “He had hands-on experience with the team and should be a really good judge of what guys here can do and what he needs to bring in.”