Finnaly hopefully Selanne’s career isn’t over. He’s had a he’ll of a run since when he started. He deserves it all too he seems like a super good guy. I’ve been to 2 blues vs ducks games here in stl and he spent around 5 minutes throwing pucks over the glass to fans!! These things don’t go unnoticed its great when players do that.

Now they are healthy. Jason Blake is back. They acquired Niklas Hagman. Those may not seem like significant players or moves, but when it comes to creating depth on a roster, which was always the Ducks achilles heel, it really does add up, it’s very important. So Blake is healthy, Hagman is a legitimate NHL player, Palmieri is starting to look like he can be an impact player, Smith-Pelly is starting to create. Now you’ve got something. You’ve finally got depth, you’ve got offense and puck control and possession that’s actually coming from other sources besides the top line and Selanne.

I think it’s very important for the Ducks to not trade Getzlaf, Perry, or Ryan, and if they can’t find a better 2nd line center, they definitely need to bring Koivu back. I would bring him back anyway, he’s a very good complimentary player, would make a hell of a third-line center which would be his ideal placement, but he does a hell of a job filling in on the 2nd line actually when you consider his cap hit.

I would bring him back, for sure, same with Blake, Hagman too if it’s cheap. I would basically keep the gang together, then add as much on top of it as I could, whether a 2nd line C, a top four two-way defenseman, or both, and then the final touch is calling up Etem and Palmieri, now you have three or four lines with talent on them. You have a very unique team with a lot of young legs and firepower.

That’s what I would do. People suggesting the Ducks should trade Getzlaf are crazy. I’ve criticized him, I understand he’s taken the year off in some ways and that’s infuriating for Ducks fans, but if you trade him, your best center is Saku Koivu. It’s franchise suicide to trade your only top-six center. He’s a top-line center in his sleep, he’s as talented as anyone save for the Crosby’s and Malkin’s, this is someone you never trade. If you have to trade any forward it’s between Ryan and Perry, probably Ryan, but I wouldn’t go moving him either. He’s a fantastic player. I’m not sure Ducks fans realize what they have in those three forwards, or how truly rare forwards of that quality are. You trade him, you will never find someone as good. These guys are rare, hard to draft, even harder to trade for or sign in free agency if you lose one. The Ducks are always bottom five-ten in scoring in the NHL, they don’t need to be trading one of their top forwards, even if they have some good young forwards coming. The goal is to improve, to add Palmieri and Etem on top of what you already have, so you go from 25th in offense to 5th or whatever it may be. Adding Palmieri but subtracting Ryan just leaves you back where you started, at 25th, probably much worse because Palmieri is not Ryan or close at this point. Neither is Etem.

So like I said, I would not subtract any key pieces, the Ducks are actually getting close to being a very good team if they just stand pat, add these young talents to the team, and maybe just round out the team a bit with another good defenseman or center. It would be a big mistake at this point to blow it up when the Ducks are looking for next year about as good as I’ve seen them on paper maybe since winning their Cup.