2013 NHL Off-Season Thread

[IceCap]

Hypothetical question Ducks fans. Say Selanne played a final full season with Winnipeg and either played part the next season with the Ducks or signed a one day contract with the Ducks. Either way he retires a Duck. How does that sit with you all?

[Lee.]

DUCKJACKED

[NEW.ERA]

Pierre Page was the Flames assinine Head Coach at that time.

[Kramerica Industries]

Why is Pierre such a cursed name in the recent NHL?

[monkeypower]

Hypothetical question Ducks fans. Say Selanne played a final full season with Winnipeg and either played part the next season with the Ducks or signed a one day contract with the Ducks. Either way he retires a Duck. How does that sit with you all?

I guess it doesn't really matter. I'd like to see him stay a Duck but it's his career.

The Finnish article said that Teemu had three choices in front of him. Teemu didn't specify what those three options are but the newspaper said it was the Ducks, another team or retiring.

He could be going to play in Finland for all we know. Only problem is, is that his old Finnish team is now in the KHL.

[Still MIGHTY]

Hypothetical question Ducks fans. Say Selanne played a final full season with Winnipeg and either played part the next season with the Ducks or signed a one day contract with the Ducks. Either way he retires a Duck. How does that sit with you all?

It doesn't sit well. First, I think those one-day contract deals are stupid on principle.

Second, It's not even close to being the same thing. There's a difference between retiring as a Duck and retiring "as a Duck."

Third, why would he actually want to do it? "Because it'd be cool for Winnipeg" isn't a huge draw, I don't think. He's not going there to chase a Cup, because Teemu already has his Cup (as a Duck). He's not going there for one last shot at a Cup, because well, c'mon, I don't think Winnipeg is shooting for a Cup. If Teemu wants to go out in a place he is beloved and on a team that at least will make the playoffs with a possibility for more, then he'll sign in Anaheim.

Look, I get the "last days of the original Jets" nostalgia for Winnipeggers. But simply "it'd be cool for Winnipeg" isn't a good enough reason for Teemu to finish out with Jets 2.0.

[The_Admiral]

Are we not considering the possibility that Anaheim might not want him back? Wasn't that kind of the impetus of this whole Teemu-being-somewhere-that-isn't-Anaheim talk in the first place?

[ninersdd]

Let's not forget that just getting third in the division means the playoffs, and he could help Winnipeg get there in that division. The top 2 should be locked up by Chicago and St. Louis.

[HedleyLamarr]

I would think Minnesota should do better this year with a regular training camp/preseason and practice schedule than what that lockout mess created last year.

[The_Admiral]

I don't know. Their roster looks worse this year, and they weren't good last year. Also, they're still coached by Mike Yeo, who has proven himself so ineffective and outmatched over two years that when the Wild eked out a win against the Hawks by "being angry," he was briefly and unconvincingly hailed as the second coming of Al Arbour in that particular way that you congratulate a dyspraxic third-grader for getting a Participant ribbon on Field Day.

[CS85]

Has Dark Admiral returned?

[The_Admiral]

Is this a storyline I'm unaware of?

[CS85]

Has Dark Admiral returned?

Is this a storyline I'm unaware of?

IceCap has the narrative, I believe.

[IceCap]

Hypothetical question Ducks fans. Say Selanne played a final full season with Winnipeg and either played part the next season with the Ducks or signed a one day contract with the Ducks. Either way he retires a Duck. How does that sit with you all?

It doesn't sit well. First, I think those one-day contract deals are stupid on principle.

Second, It's not even close to being the same thing. There's a difference between retiring as a Duck and retiring "as a Duck."

Third, why would he actually want to do it? "Because it'd be cool for Winnipeg" isn't a huge draw, I don't think. He's not going there to chase a Cup, because Teemu already has his Cup (as a Duck). He's not going there for one last shot at a Cup, because well, c'mon, I don't think Winnipeg is shooting for a Cup. If Teemu wants to go out in a place he is beloved and on a team that at least will make the playoffs with a possibility for more, then he'll sign in Anaheim.

Look, I get the "last days of the original Jets" nostalgia for Winnipeggers. But simply "it'd be cool for Winnipeg" isn't a good enough reason for Teemu to finish out with Jets 2.0.

Nostalgia's what you're basing your position on too though. Nostalgia for Selanne's career with the Ducks. Winnipegers have nostalgia too, for his shorter tenure with the Jets, and surely you can see where they're coming from, that they're not just "delusional." There's a real sense of passion there. Just as there is on your side of things. I'm not trying to downplay Selanne's tenure with Anaheim, rather I'm saying that the Winnipeg faithful's nostalgia for Selanne is just as valid given what he did there, and how closely it tied in with the Jets 1.0 moving. You yourself defended the memory of the 1996-2002 Ducks by saying they were your bad team, that they still had meaning for you. As bitter-sweet as the Selanne saga was for Winnipeg in the end, it was still important, for them.

That Selanne didn't spend his entire NHL career with the Ducks makes the idea that he might go someone besides Anaheim (Winnipeg or some place else) a possibility. This isn't Emmitt Smith sullying a legacy by playing one final season in Arizona, is what I'm saying.

Has Dark Admiral returned?

Is this a storyline I'm unaware of?

IceCap has the narrative, I believe.

Do I?

Anyway I'd say no.

[Kramerica Industries]

People actually remember Emmitt Smith playing with the Cardinals?

Jeez. I know I had just personally erased that from my memory.

[CS85]

Has Dark Admiral returned?

Is this a storyline I'm unaware of?

IceCap has the narrative, I believe.

Do I?

Anyway I'd say no.

Dark Admiral = joke faux comic book arc where Admiral takes off on a new character angle; his powers now focused more on pure spite, snide, and bitter humor rather than the cutting wit and burgeoning genius stylings that the gentle townsfolk have come to love.

The change in costume to include more black and red reflects this, as will the trademarked admiral logo.

[IceCap]

Also more internal naration where he constantly reflects on "his city" and the seedy criminal underbelly.

[Funky Bunky]

DUCKJACKED

CHICKEN FAJITA PITA

[Funky Bunky]

I'm hoping Selanne retires. He was pretty bad last year, with 8 points (7g, 1a) in the last 32 games or so. You could see that his hands had finally started to go, and he was making quite a few turnovers. The Ducks have more 2nd line options now, and there's no reason for him to take ice time away from guys like Palmieri or Silfverberg, who are likely better than him right now.

I also don't want to see Teemu become a shell of his former self, which would be real sad.

[Still MIGHTY]

Are we not considering the possibility that Anaheim might not want him back? Wasn't that kind of the impetus of this whole Teemu-being-somewhere-that-isn't-Anaheim talk in the first place?

What? No.

Ducks GM Bob Murray on August 2: "We'll make it work, whatever I have to do... I don't care when he tells me. We'll find a way. We've got lots of cap space, we have enough contracts." The Ducks will never not want Teemu back.

The only reason this garbage has even come up the last few years is because people connect obvious dots in their idle time. Teemu's options (which are practically the same as any free agent at any point in their career and have been his options every one of these last few years) is to stay with his current team, go to another team, or retire. You could say that about any player. And despite "go to another team" always being the least likely of the three options, people are bored and like to day dream. And with Winnipeg's return to the NHL two years ago, there has been an exponential increase in bored day-dreamers proposing Teemu come to their team because he played for the old version of their team one time.

I don't even know why I'm arguing this, because after hearing every single thing Teemu and the Ducks have said every year over the last 6 or 7 years of this, there is absolutely nothing that leads me to believe that he would go to another team. Teemu is either retiring or staying with the Ducks. I think that's the long and short of this whole story.

All that being said, and add in a bit of what Funky Bunky said, one way or another, this is probably going to be Teemu's last ride. Either he retires now or this next season is definitely his last.