Demise of Deal Leaves Ducks With Big Hole

Someday, the Mighty Ducks might be glad they didn’t trade Corey Perry and a first-round draft pick to the Edmonton Oilers for Mike Comrie and a third-round pick.

Someday, they might admire Oiler General Manager Kevin Lowe’s radical idea of asking Comrie to pay $2.535 million to get out of Edmonton.

Someday, they might put together a solid stretch and resemble the team that won the Western Conference title last season. No telling which event will occur first.

For now, they’re no closer to solving their scoring problems than they were two weeks or so ago.

After Duck General Manager Bryan Murray refused to sweeten his offer and give up a player from his roster, the Oilers traded Comrie’s rights to the Flyers on Tuesday for minor-league defenseman Jeff Woywitka, a first-round pick in 2004 and a third-round pick in 2005. No cash was involved, Lowe said while he watched the Oilers lose to the Kings, 4-2, at Staples Center, but he felt he got enough that he didn’t have to get the money that was one reason Comrie isn’t in Anaheim today.

“[Perry] is probably going to be a hell of a player, but he’s a few years away,” Lowe said. “Philadelphia was offering us a kid who’s a little more advanced in his age [20], and we put a great premium on taking care of our defense needs down the road. And we got the extra draft pick.”

And so ends a saga that took some unusual twists before leaving the Ducks at a dead end.

The Oilers got rid of a headache in Comrie, an unsigned restricted free agent. They got a potential stud in Woywitka, the 27th overall pick in 2001, and an always-valuable first-round pick. The East-leading Flyers got Comrie and must sign him, but they have the luxury of waiting for him to get into shape and give them a lift in the second half of the season.

The Ducks get to start over again.

“Many trades you think you have in place disappear for one reason or another, so it’s not like I haven’t had something like this happen before,” Murray said. “But never quite like this.”

Lowe said he was clear during his talks with Murray that the Oilers would have to have a final conversation with the Comrie camp before a deal could be completed.

“We felt that what the Ducks were offering was not enough,” Lowe said. “We needed something more. The deal had been there for a few weeks and in the meantime our team went [down]. What they offered wasn’t going to help us now. I had a sense Bryan was getting ready to move on ...

“The only thing that was less than perfect was my strategy. I thought it was the best way to achieve what we needed. It wasn’t meant to slight them because I have the utmost respect for my fellow general managers and for Bryan, who has been at this for so many years.”

He also said he didn’t use the Ducks’ offer as a springboard to get more from someone else. “I was prepared to do a deal,” Lowe said.

But he did ask to alter the deal Tuesday, a twist that bothered Murray.

“It’s not the way I operate,” Murray said. “Usually when I finish a call with a GM and agree we have a deal, a conference call [with NHL administrators] is done by one of my assistants to finish it up. In this case Kevin told me several times we had a deal.”

They didn’t. They never held that conference call, a procedure adopted after Quebec’s Marcel Aubut traded Eric Lindros to the Flyers and the Rangers on the same day in 1992 and a dispute arose over who faxed whom first.

Lowe had talked to the Flyers about Woywitka before he talked to the Ducks, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But in stipulating that Comrie would have to pay for his release -- and later asking for an additional player -- it seems Lowe had little intention of trading Comrie to West rival Anaheim.

If it looks like a ploy to use the Ducks’ offer as leverage for something better, and quacks like a ploy to get something better ...

“I can’t believe that would be the case,” Murray said. “When the deal became public it became a measuring stick for other GMs to make a proposal they might not have made earlier on. I think the deal we offered was at least comparable to the Flyers’ deal. The first-round pick will be considerably higher. The way [the Flyers] are playing it looks like they’ll pick 28, 29, 30. The way we’re playing, we won’t be up there at all.”

The way they’re playing -- they’ve scored two goals or fewer in 18 of 31 games -- is the reason Comrie became the Holy Grail. There are few scorers available besides Washington’s Jaromir Jagr, who carries a budget-busting $11 million salary.

“My scouts, to a man, are all very happy we didn’t make the trade,” Murray said. “They think Corey Perry is a terrific prospect and I do too. And having that first-round pick, they like that.

“My concern at this moment is to make this team better as quickly as I can.... I’m not angry. I’m a little disappointed and frustrated.”