Kunitz Proves Worth

There was a time when the Mighty Ducks didn’t want Chris Kunitz.

At least they didn’t want him with the parent club. As training camp broke before the Oct. 5 regular-season opener, Kunitz was on an airplane out of Orange County, but not with the Ducks on the way to Chicago.

The Ducks had tried to send him to their minor-league affiliate in Portland, Maine, but the 26-year-old Kunitz had to pass waivers and Atlanta snatched him. After two games with the Thrashers, Kunitz found himself again unwanted.

Atlanta also hoped to send him to the minors. Enter the Ducks, who reclaimed him as he made another trip through the waiver wire.

“If you ask the player if he had a very good training camp, he’ll say no he didn’t,” Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said. “And he didn’t earn the opportunity to be with our club. The fortunate thing for us was when he got claimed by Atlanta, he didn’t break out there.”

The Ducks are glad he ended up in Anaheim. After being assigned to Portland a second time in November, Kunitz has been a fixture in the lineup and could wind up with a 20-goal season.

Kunitz got his 17th and 18th goals Saturday in a 4-2 victory over the Kings.

“I think you always have to show a new coach, somebody that doesn’t know you, how you can play the game and what you can do,” he said. “I think maybe I didn’t do all that stuff. I got a second chance. Now I came back and have been showing him ever since.”

A motivating factor could be the stage of Kunitz’s career. The left wing went undrafted after playing four years at Ferris State in Michigan.

For post-college players, such as Kunitz, their “boat is going to go by once or twice, where a junior player might get more of an extended look,” Carlyle said. “He accepted that responsibility, and he deserves all the credit for it.”

Kunitz has primarily played on the top line with center Andy McDonald and right wing Teemu Selanne.

“A lot of times, I really believe you’re as good as the coach wants you to be,” Selanne said. “If you don’t get a chance, I don’t care who you are. It’s going to be a bumpy road.”

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TONIGHT

at Vancouver, 7, Channel 56

Site -- General Motors Place.

Radio -- 1090.

Records -- Ducks 41-24-12, Canucks 41-30-7.

Record vs. Canucks -- 2-1-0.

Update -- The Ducks can clinch a postseason berth with a victory in regulation, but they’ll be facing a team fighting for its playoff life. Vancouver, which got a 3-2 overtime victory Saturday over Calgary, is two points behind San Jose and Edmonton, although the Canucks still have two games against the Sharks. Defenseman Ed Jovanovski gave Vancouver an emotional lift with the game-winning goal after missing 38 games because of a torn abdominal muscle.