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Sharks Attack, Mighty Ducks Quack - Mar. 23, 2001 – Vol. 54, Issue. 28 - Dan Wood
While the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and San Jose Sharks are separated by more than 350 miles of California coastline, that distance is nothing compared to the gulf between the teams on the ice these days.
The blockbuster March 5 trade, in which San Jose pried four-time NHL all-star right winger Teemu Selanne from Anaheim in exchange for left winger Jeff Friesen, goaltender Steve Shields and future considerations, perfectly illustrates the divergent states of the two franchises. (See pgs. 13,19 for more on trade.)
The Sharks, who have made steady progress in both the standings and public perception over the past five years, are clearly building toward their goal of bringing the Stanley Cup to San Jose. Landing Selanne, one of the game’s purest snipers, only adds to an emerging talent base that has kept the Sharks at or near the top of the Pacific Division all season.
“If you keep getting better, sooner or later, you’ll be the best,” reasoned San Jose GM Dean Lombardi.
Lombardi credits Sharks’ majority owner George Gund with taking “a huge step” in adding Selanne’s contract, which is worth $9.5 million next season before he stands to become an unrestricted free agent. The Ducks, meanwhile, made the curious choice to also send $2.5 million San Jose’s way, to help the Sharks pay Selanne next season. Granted, Selanne, 30, has struggled to score at his accustomed pace-the three-time 50-goal scorer had 26 in 61 games, tied for 36th in the league-but there are few who doubt he is still capable of filling nets.
It’s increasingly difficult to get a handle on exactly what is going on in Anaheim, especially given GM Pierre Gauthier’s pattern of saying one thing, then doing exactly the opposite. In mid-November, Gauthier declared he would neither fire coach Craig Hartsburg nor trade either Selanne or his fellow superstar, left winger Paul Kariya.
Hartsburg went to the unemployment line barely a month later and, less than three months after that, Selanne was gone.
“Obviously, as the season evolved, a lot of things changed,” said Gauthier, whose club fell into the Western Conference basement Jan. 27, where they’ll likely remain. “There had been a lot of (trade) rumors about Teemu. It got to the point where I was getting a lot of calls (from other GMs). At one point, it became my duty to listen.
“The objective of this trade is for the Mighty Ducks to improve, immediately and in the future. I think the team needed a change. We have to look forward, not at what performers have done in the past.”
Selanne, who had three 100-point seasons in Anaheim after a 1996 trade from Winnipeg, remained loyal to the Ducks until the bitter end. Despite a heartfelt desire to remain in Anaheim, Selanne shifted gears quickly upon being sent to San Jose.
“You’re always a little nervous when you get traded,” Selanne said. “You’re scared to ask where. When I heard, it was like, ‘Thank God.’ I’m very excited to go there. They have a good team. Especially at this point in my career, I really want to play with a team that wants to win and is going to have success. I know this is going to be good for me.”
It also figures to be good for the Sharks, even though they faced an initial wait of approximately two weeks to get Selanne in the lineup because of arthroscopic surgery to repair loose cartilage in his left knee.
The Ducks, too, faced a medical issue: Ligament damage in Shields’ left shoulder that also required arthroscopic surgery and is likely to delay his Anaheim debut until next season.
The Ducks are counting on the combination of Shields, 28, and 23-year-old Jean-Sebastien Giguere to solidify their goaltending and Friesen to help make up for the loss of Selanne. After all, since acquiring Selanne, Anaheim has reached the playoffs only twice in five years and won just one series.
Still, the Selanne-Kariya tandem was perhaps the NHL’s most electrifying.
“Teemu is a great friend and has been a great teammate for a lot of years,” Kariya said. “I’m obviously very disappointed to see him go. It was a surprise, because I didn’t think anything was going to happen, to be honest. It’s tough to lose a player of Teemu’s caliber and a person of Teemu’s caliber…You’re not going to get that caliber of player in return, but hopefully it works out in the end.
“In situations like this, I just have to play the game on the ice and let Pierre do his job off the ice. I’m trusting that he has the best interests of our team in mind. That’s all I can do.”
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