Selanne considers future

Even Teemu Selanne cannot fathom the kind of success he has had the last two years since returning to the Ducks.

Success, however, won’t enter into his decision as to how much longer he will play. As he has done since the 2004-05 lockout, Selanne says he will wait until after the season before considering whether he’ll return for a 15th year in the NHL.

“I have to be honest with myself,” Selanne said before Game 4 of the Ducks’ first-round series Tuesday. “I have to have the same motivation that I’ve had in the last two summers in terms of the work ethic and getting in shape and doing everything that you can to play at the top level.

“If I even have a little feeling that I’m not ready to push it like that, then I’m not going to do it. I don’t have to do it. I have to want to do it.”

After major knee surgery during the lockout, Selanne resurrected his career in 2005-06 by leading the Ducks in scoring with 40 goals and 90 points. This season, at 36, he topped both totals with 48 goals and 94 points -- his best in eight years.

Those numbers are a bargain for the Ducks, who are paying him a base salary of $3.75 million this season. Because he is over 35, Selanne’s contract contains performance bonuses that can earn him an additional $2.25 million based on the team’s playoff success.

Selanne, who has 540 career goals, says he now wants to negotiate only one-year contracts.

“I’ve really found that that’s the best motivation for me,” he said. “At this point in my career, I couldn’t even imagine even thinking about a three- or four-year deal. Honestly, I feel pain thinking about that.”

When asked if he would retire if the Ducks won the Cup, Selanne said with a smile, “Oh, no, I’m not ready to answer that one.”

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Sean O’Donnell was the first captain of the Minnesota Wild in the 2000-01 season. Now six years later, the Ducks defenseman said he was glad to see the Wild’s success.

“You just knew right from [General Manager] Doug Risebrough to [Coach] Jacques Lemaire to the equipment guys that it’d be a solid franchise,” O’Donnell said. “They’ve drafted well and they’ve got some good young players in the system.”

O’Donnell, who was plucked from the Kings in the expansion draft, played only 63 games with the Wild before being traded to New Jersey for defenseman Willie Mitchell. He recalled that he told Risebrough he didn’t want to be part of a five-year plan.

“I said to him I have no doubt that in five, six, seven years, you guys are going to be a contending team for a long time,” O’Donnell said. “And I think they are. I wouldn’t be surprised if they challenge for the division for the next five to seven years.

“Personally, I just felt I was at a time, at 29 or 30 years old, where I didn’t want to wait five, six, seven years. I was hoping to go somewhere and have some success right away.”

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The Ducks recalled forwards Drew Miller and Joe Motzko from Portland, Maine, to add depth to their roster. Both were available after Portland defeated Hartford in its regular-season finale on Sunday.... Left wing George Parros and center Mark Hartigan were healthy scratches.

eric.stephens@latimes.com