Ducks Score Big on Off-Season Goals

There was a time when the only thing less likely than a successful Mighty Duck postseason was a successful Mighty Duck off-season.

Now that you’ve had three months to digest the concept of the Ducks as Stanley Cup finalists, take a bite of this: The Ducks kept rolling on through the summer. A franchise that wobbled around, directionless, for so many years now has a course. Bryan Murray got it right. Again.

The Ducks recovered from the defection of Paul Kariya by signing Sergei Fedorov and Vaclav Prospal. Then they averted a potential training-camp mess when they signed playoff star Jean-Sebastien Giguere to a four-year contract Wednesday.

Just like that, today’s camp opening became a more pleasant experience. As repetitive questions go, “Can you get back to the Stanley Cup finals?” sure beats “Where’s your goalie?”

Petr Sykora is expected to be signed soon, and there’s a chance the Ducks might even bring back Adam Oates.

We’re so used to getting bombarded by bad news that we should pause to acknowledge a moment when things worked the way they are supposed to.

The player didn’t try to squeeze everything but the Matterhorn out of the Disney folks, and ownership paid fair value for a guy with only one great season -- even if that season resulted in a Conn Smythe Trophy.

Not that there weren’t some rocky moments. Earlier in the week it appeared the Ducks would have to start camp without their top star, as the two sides were a reported $3 million apart.

“I was a little bit worried about the teammates,” Giguere said. “I was worried about the organization. But mostly I was worried about the fans and my family. I didn’t want to disappoint anybody.”

Giguere spent a lot of time talking about his obligations to the fans during his conference call with reporters Wednesday. Because he didn’t subject those fans to the grind of a holdout we’ll take him at his word, the same way it was safe to believe Gary Payton and Karl Malone when they said winning a championship with the Lakers was their prime motivation when they turned down more money from other teams.

The Lakers’ signing of two Hall of Famers at bargain rates holds up as the biggest off-season transaction in sports this year. General Manager Mitch Kupchak must have done something right, even if all he did was return the agents’ calls promptly. But because he was dealing with motivated players and salary-cap limitations, there wasn’t much wheeling and dealing.

The Ducks’ Murray was a little more crafty. After the subtle touches he applied last summer (Oates and Coach Mike Babcock), Murray painted with bold colors this year.

What makes Murray’s moves more impressive is that he made them with the looming backdrop of a labor squabble and potential league shutdown next year. And if the labor negotiations and new collective bargaining agreement result in a salary cap, the Ducks will be well positioned because Fedorov’s contract ($40 million over five years) is front-loaded. He’ll get $10 million next season and then it declines, giving the Ducks more flexibility in future years.

Give Giguere and his agent, Robert Sauve, credit for recognizing the current economic climate. With Stanley Cup TV ratings starting to dip below Arena Football League games and Canadian teams worrying if they can scrape up enough loonies to stay north of the border, it’s not a good moment to try to reset the league’s salary structure.

“The times are changing in the NHL a little bit,” Giguere said. “Negotiating a contract is getting harder and harder every year.”

Giguere said the pending start of training camp provided the impetus for both sides to get a deal done.

“Training camp is so important in hockey,” Giguere said. “For me it was very important to start.”

It’s another sign that Giguere takes his role as a leader seriously. He earned the attention of the dressing room with his play last spring; now he’s accepting the responsibility. You can’t lead by making cell-phone calls from an exercise bike while the rest of the team is skating.

And Fedorov’s arrival is a sign that the Ducks can be taken seriously.

“It shows other players in the league are starting to respect the Ducks,” Giguere said. “It gives us much more respect around the league. The fans are feeling that way, hopefully, too.”

He was talking about the fans again, because they were really the story of the day.

It was up to the organization to win them back. After such blind support in the franchise’s infancy, years of rising ticket prices and dwindling results left the Arrowhead Pond a sad, empty place. Last spring it was the place to be, as the Ducks kept playing long after the Kings -- and even the Lakers -- were done.

With the building juiced every game night the Ducks went 9-1 at home during the playoffs.

Murray is showing that all of those cheers weren’t wasted. The Ducks didn’t stuff that playoff revenue back into their pockets.

The Ducks aren’t the automatic favorites to go back to the Stanley Cup finals. The Colorado Avalanche is loaded, with Kariya and Teemu Selanne. The Detroit Red Wings are still the Red Wings.

But the Ducks belong on the same page -- and the same ice -- as those teams. Now, they’re one of the haves.

It’s safe to believe in this team ... even if it’s still hard to believe this is happening.

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Giguere’s Career Numbers

*--* Regular Season SEASON TEAM GMS MIN W L T GA SO GAA 1996-97 HARTFORD 8 394 1 4 0 24 0 3.65 1998-99 CALGARY 15 860 6 7 1 46 0 3.21 1999-00 CALGARY 7 330 1 3 1 15 0 2.73 2000-01 MIGHTY DUCKS 34 2,031 11 17 5 87 4 2.57 2001-02 MIGHTY DUCKS 53 3,126 20 25 6 111 4 2.13 2002-03 MIGHTY DUCKS 65 3,775 34 22 6 145 8 2.30 Totals 182 10,516 73 78 19 428 16 2.44 Playoffs 2002-03 MIGHTY DUCKS 21 1,407 15 6 0 38 5 1.62

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2002-03 highlights:

* Set club records in victories and shutouts.

* Had a regular-season consecutive scoreless minutes streak of 237:07, the third longest in modern NHL history and the NHL’s longest since 1950.

* Won Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP by posting a 1.62 goals-against average in the playoffs, leading the Ducks to the Stanley Cup finals.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com.