Right Back Where We Started From
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 7:00 AM PST
in Coach Bombay's Corner
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I said this at the beginning of the season, but now I'm serious: the Ducks should trade Teemu Selanne to the Winnipeg Jets. I won't ask you to hear me out (as all of you have fast forwarded to the comments to complain), but I'll keep typing as though you're reading.
In short, Teemu deserves better. He didn't come to training camp to go through this. Hell, Cam Fowler didn't come to training camp to go through this. And while Selanne may have an equal chance of missing the postseason with either the Ducks or the Jets, I can't imagine he could regret playing one more season in front of the good people of Winnipeg-- win or lose. Another discouraging season in Anaheim? I think he could do without that.
And make no mistake, this isn't trading him back to the Jets organization that betrayed him (i.e. the Coyotes). This is much purer than that. This is sending him home to his first love, the fans that witnessed 76 goals and the second coming of the Finnish Flash.
You could complain about what the Ducks would get (probably not much without the increasingly valuable Anaheim picks coming into play), or the value of making such a purely sentimental trade. But I would argue that Selanne avoided quite a few logical complaints in deciding to come back at age 41 following another knee surgery (not to mention each year before that). He never asked for anything more than the promise that this organization was not rebuilding. But as this squad turns in more and more beer league efforts, with no major changes to the team or higher-ups, the Ducks are getting dangerously close to breaking that promise. Maybe it's time they matched Selanne for sentimentality and offered him the best bang for his buck in his last NHL campagin.
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I was discussing this with a pal at the bar last night, and the team I came up with was Pittsburgh.
And I don’t even want any trade return. Let’s do it for Teemu only.
www.battleofcali.com
I think there’s no guarantees dealing him to a Cup contender. Teemu remembers Colorado, and I don’t think he presumes there’s a ticket back to the winner’s circle with any team. But ending his career where he started it would be an amazing gift— win or lose. The Ducks are just offering him more of the same this season.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 1:07 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
I don’t even know if it’s about a cup contender. Let’s trade him to a team where he isn’t forced to be the lone offensive player on way too many nights.
www.battleofcali.com
by Earl Sleek on Nov 24, 2011 8:23 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Any place is better than here; I was just thinking of another place he would get a tearful farewell. Actually, Ducks fans might be too pissed to muster up tears at the end of this season. That won’t happen in Winnipeg; they’re so overjoyed to have a team again.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 9:14 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
I think it’s imlortant for the franchise that Selanne stick around. This is a team that completely neglected its most influential player and allowed the fans to run him out of town. I think the Ducks need Selanne to stay in order to enhance their legitimacy. If we trade him, I think it will spark a fire storm such as we’ve never seen. One that could ultimately lead to the complete undoing of the franchise. I think it will only entrench the idea that this is a place that players need to be coereced into staying at.
Don’t get me wrong, if Teemu WANTS a trade the Ducks should 100% accommodate him and send him wherever he wants. He has EARNEF that right. However, I think if the ducks pursue a deal, by asking him first, it just makes us the team that great players visit.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 8:54 AM PST via mobile reply actions
Not sure what sort of reputation we’re trying to preserve with this year’s results.
Now we’re just a team that turn great players into awful ones.
www.battleofcali.com
I think every franchise has embarrassing seasons, but their players tough it out. Selanne has had pretty much every success there is to have in a career. We didn’t make him a bad player. He’s still playing great. As I said on a previous thread, this isn’t a Bourque situation; he has won the Cup.
I just think it would be great if the franchise stuck by Selanne and focused on keeping him. I was criticized for saying Murray wasn’t doing enough to put a good team around Selanne and now we see this might not be a good team. I want to see Murray do something about that before we give up on Teemu’s season as a Duck. He should retire here.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 10:36 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
Im with Daniel. Teemu stays. If Teemu has a problem with anyone on the team then trade them. Teemu has earned that right. He is the face of the Ducks. Not Perry, not Getzy, not Ryan, and not Hiller. Trading Teemu would be a fucking disaster with the fans. Sure we might look like the good guys to the rest of the league, but fuck that. Fuck the rest of the league. Teemu chose to come back, and I thank him for that. He has been one of the few bright spots this year. You trade him and I have nothing to watch and no reason to go to a game. I am sure there are many more Duck fans that feel the same way.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 1:36 PM PST up reply actions
I should add
We fucked up the Kariya deal. Lets not fuck this one up too.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 1:37 PM PST up reply actions
There’s something to Arthur’s comment about seeing him as a Jet, although I think only Arthur and the denizens of winnipeg see Selanne as primarily a jet. Teemu loves us too. The last thing we want is to get in a PR battle over whether Selanne is most defined as a Duck or a jet.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 2:42 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I mean, there’s certainly a good argument to be made that he’s more a Jet. He scored those 76 in Winnipeg, he became a star there. You have to think if ownership hadn’t gone a little crazy things might have gone differently. I think if we trade him back it opens the door to a discussion Ducks fans may not want to have.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 4:04 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
He was a star here, he won the Cup here, and he met a guy he will forever be associated with (Paul Kariya) here. He was in the Peg for 4 years. He has been a Duck for 12. So I don’t really see the Winnipeg angle. Sure he did score 76 in his rookie year and that is pretty special, but he has scored 410 goals in a Ducks jersey.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 7:12 PM PST up reply actions
Image has little to do with numbers. It’s all about appearance. Read what I said to Sleek below. There’s a chance it could create a flood of memories that, in the end, become the thing that are remembered most.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 10:51 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
We’re fucking it up as we speak.
www.battleofcali.com
by Earl Sleek on Nov 24, 2011 8:25 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I don’t think so. He’s still playing well. Forsberg’s Avalanche legacy wasn’t tainted by all that nonsense at the end of his career, because he never had to choose between a different city. Selanne on the other hand, could be considered “saved” by a trade to Winnipeg. Sending him “home” implies he’s not home here. I think that’s a special can of worms.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 10:47 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
agree. wholeheartedly.
Plus the assumption is that he would want to leave…i dont really buy that argument
by BennyLightning on Nov 24, 2011 6:35 PM PST up reply actions
I was thinking if he wants to go the team must accommodate that. Anyone that thought that was lame is lame. I was thinking the Dead Wings, it would be fun to see Lidstrom and Selanne hoist the Cup one last time. But I think with Selanne’s family situation he might want to go to [perish the thought] the Sharks or Kings or maybe even Vancouver. Just some thoughts, but Selanne shouldn’t have to suffer through this. We owe it to him to let him go both fans and franchise…then retire his number when he’s really done.
I agree. With everything he has given to this organization, he doesn’t deserve to play with other guys that play flat and disinterested every game. I look at it more of a Sundin situation more than anything (even though Sundin never won a Cup).
"That might've been a little push, but that was a major flop. That would make Vlade Divac very proud." - Jerry Reynolds
I’d cry real tears if we sent him to Detroit. Honestly, I might become a Kings fan. Selanne to Detroit is a complete lack of respect for the fans.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 2:33 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Well if it’s up to where Teemu goes that keeps you rather than the way they are playing I say whatever. Detroit, Pittsburgh who cares? The Ducks suck right now and that’s why he’d be going. So he cares where? In all honesty it’s up to him…
It’s not even about going to Detroit, it would be going to ANY team.
I’ve been a fan of the Ducks since their inception, I quite literally grew up with this team, from age 6 to now. I’ve been through this bullshit before.
We’re going to suck, and we’re going to suck hard for the next couple of seasons before some miracle turns this god awful situation around. Sure I’d love for something to click and magically change everything but in all honesty I really just don’t see it happening.
But just like when I was a kid and had to put up with all of those terrible, just terrible years after we traded Teemu (I still remember to this day coming home from school and my friend’s mom telling me the news) I’ll put up with the Ducks.
I just can’t imagine that a guy who could have gone ANYWHERE and still chose (for whatever reason) to come here, despite us missing the playoffs two years ago and BARELY making the playoffs last year, would ask for a trade elsewhere. He’s not an idiot, he had to have known, although I don’t think anyone could have forseen us doing this bad, as this is simply pathetic.
"this is simply pathetic"
Exactly. He didn’t come back to play with guys who don’t want to play. He could have played for a shitty team anywhere. He said this team sometimes looks like a beer league team wearing NHL uniforms. Imagine how degrading this experience is for him. It’s just sad.
If he’a going to have a swan song, it can’t be this. I wish it could be a Cup, but there’s no guarantees just because you trade him to a good team. The only guarantee is letting him say goodbye to the fans that welcomed him to the league.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 7:18 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
True.
But when it all comes down to it, Teemu’s heart has always been in Anaheim, and it would be silly to refute that, wouldn’t he rather say goodbye to the fans that have always loved him in the building that he has so many memories in rather than the ones that welcomed him back in what must seem like an eternity ago.
Teemu has said in interviews that Winnepeg tried to lure him, but he told them no chance (according to the ESPN article I read some time ago during the offseason), I just really can’t see him changing his mind on that, even with such a terrible year.
He would be going to the same team he entered the league with, but by name and by name only. Different ownership, different management, different team mates, different coaching staff, even a different arena. Sure there may be a few fans there who remember seeing him play for a few years, but why would he leave an organization that he claims to love so much just to go to some great unknown in a climate (weather-wise) that he certainly doesn’t enjoy simply for the entertainment of a few thousand people who watched him play for 4 seasons compared to the ones that have watched him for 12 and saw him accomplish so much!
Sure he never scored 76 goals in a season for us, but if we’re honest what he accomplished here is so much greater.
I had this same exact thought last night
But the dude is just too classy to want to leave. Still, you can’t help but feel bad for the guy
I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell
If the Ducks win the next two games I will still have some hope. If they do not, then it’s time for me to chill about the season and just let it play out how it plays out. If they can win the next two games I will still have faith as I believe that they are streaky/dependent on confidence enough that they can get on a run to get right back in it. In addition, I do not believe it will take 96 points this year in the West to make the playoffs. I think it will be around 90 or 92. My reasoning for this is that the “bad” teams in the West are not as bad anymore. All teams will be dropping points which they would not have dropped in previous years. As a result, I believe that teams will be in playoff contention for a lot longer. We need to win these two games to get something going. Let’s go Ducks. Otherwise, don’t win the next two and we can all marvel at every Selanne goal from now on.
I’m sorry, but I completely disagree. Teemu has become the sole reason for me even bothering to watch Ducks games this year. I’m sure many fans share my sentiment. I think it’s disgraceful for the Ducks to perform the way they are in what should be Teemu’s swan song of a season, but the change needs to come with the management, not by doing something as radical as trading Teemu, Think of it this way: is trading a legend from one crappy team to another equally crappy team any better?
It’s better for him. He loved playing for those fans. He’s repeatedly expressed how happy he is for them to have their team back. In terms of PR, nothing could be better for that franchise. And it guarantees Teemu happy memories, at least in community events, in his last season. That’s more than trying to strategically deal him to a cup contender would do for him.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 1:04 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
Who gives a shit what other teams think of us? The label us as Dirty Ducks, goons, or what have you. Im tired of “what do others think of us.” Fuck em. I only care what Ducks fans think of our team.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 3:51 PM PST up reply actions
I think we suck.
www.battleofcali.com
by Earl Sleek on Nov 24, 2011 8:26 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Noted
But Arthur thinks it would be great PR. Yeah maybe for the Jets but the Ducks wouldn’t get shit out of it.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 11:47 PM PST up reply actions
I should add
That when someone talks about a young Teemu Selanne, especially using the nickname Finnish Flash, I see him in a Jets uniform. Had it not been for their ownership and financial situation, he probably would have made his career there. He re-signed with them hoping to make his career there. He loves those fans, and they loved him. It’s a wonderfully sentimental happy ending for him to properly say goodbye to them rather than suffer through a few more months of OC Register post game interviews on why the team is slumping.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 1:13 PM PST via iPhone app reply actions
100% disagree...
Teemu made it clear during the offseason that if he comes back, he’s coming back to the Ducks. Teemu’s not a stupid guy, he knew what he was getting in to, he HAD to have known we would be lucky to make the playoffs. I think he came back for a farewell year with his frends and fans in Anaheim, as well as the chance to play in front of his hometown in Helsinki.
That being said, I would be….well I don’t even know if there’s a correct word for it but “shocked, betrayed, and livid” come to mind if we ever traded him.
I also think many Ducks fans (if not a majority of them) agree with me that the only reason to watch this team right now is because Teemu is on it. Lose Teemu, and I guarantee you that the Honda Center is at least half empty every goddamn night, I will refuse to give my money to this team should that ever happen, and I know many will do this as well.
Bad attendance won’t be because we lost Teemu. It’ll be because we lost almost every game we could.
www.battleofcali.com
by Earl Sleek on Nov 24, 2011 8:28 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I understand Arthur's argument
But I think that Selanne should finish the season with the Ducks, for many of the same reasons that Daniel has already outlined. It would be different if Winnipeg was a Cup contender (which they aren’t), and Selanne didn’t have one yet. I wouldn’t mind the Jets signing Selanne to a one-day contract (so he could retire a Jet), though. And if he wants to be inducted into the HHOF as a Jet, that’s understandable, too.
On the other hand, I would LOVE to see Jarome Iginla traded to Pittsburgh or Detroit. Somebody please give that man a Cup.
Contributor - Anaheim Calling
Why not here? He’d snake that locker room UP!
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 5:16 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
It would be awesome if Iggy was a Duck
But the object is for him to win a Cup:)
Contributor - Anaheim Calling
by light_the_lamp on Nov 24, 2011 5:24 PM PST up reply actions
I think Bobby Ryan a first round pick and maybe a prospect could get it done. If the deal happens early enough in the season, you never know…
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 7:13 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Not our lottery pick. That is over paying. Then again Murray is making the deal.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 7:36 PM PST up reply actions
Agreed — that pick is looking like the most valuable asset in Murray’s pocketbook.
www.battleofcali.com
If wake this trade tomorrow, maybe it’s not a lottery pick. That’s a gamble for sure, but a fun one. Its the type of bold move Murray needs to make today’s the season. Besides, he’s traded every other pick from the next draft, right?
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 10:54 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
But Madden has been doing a great job in scouting talent since he got here. Sure it is a gamble but if we do have a lottery pick, I cant wait to see what we would get.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 11:46 PM PST up reply actions
With a lottery pick, we’d end up with a consensus top 5 guy. I mean, Fowler fell into our laps. We’ve had luck at the draft before, I’m just saying I think that pick would be much lower and less necessary if we made a move to save Teemu’s season.
by Daniel AC on Nov 25, 2011 6:45 AM PST via mobile up reply actions
A one day contract doesn’t really give him much time to go into the community and thank the fans, or for the fans to cheer him. A one day contract works if it’s the same organization, and he’s just making peace with the suits, but these aren’t the same Jets. If he’s going to go home to Winnipeg, he has to actually play for the fans (and the children of the fans) that watched him as a rookie
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 7:12 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
News flash those Jets that he played for? They are the same desert dogs that put a whipping on us last night. The moved out of town. I have always hated that Winnipeg named the ATL team the Jets. Now if PHX folded last year and moved up there I would have been all for it but its not the same Jets. Just ask Doan.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 7:26 PM PST up reply actions
Huh?
I’m not even sure if half of your replies are directed at me. I didn’t understand the last one.
As I said in the post itself, this is better than sending him back to the old organization, because the old organization betrayed him when they signed and traded him. This is JUST sending him back to the fans, who he loved and who loved him. I’m really not sure what you’re saying in your comment or if it’s even directed at me.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 7:56 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
u guys are literally the worst! Now I can’t stop thinking about Iggy as a Duck. Also if I can’t go to the Ducks final game and cry like a girl at Teemu’s speach then I’m not sure I want to be a Ducks fan anymore.
December 17 at WPG
Teemu said he has it marked on his calendar. I imagine the fans in Winnipeg will go bonkers for him. If that franchise has any sense, they’ll play a reel of his years with the team on the jumbotron. I challenge any of you to watch the way he is received that night then come back on here and say Teemu doesn’t deserve that every night for the rest of his final season.
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 7:21 PM PST via iPhone app reply actions
But if he wanted to go to the Peg for his final year, he would have. They gave him an offer. He turned it down. PK never had a chance to have his final game as a Duck. Teemu should get that chance. He along with PK put this franchise on the map.
by Newport Rebel on Nov 24, 2011 7:31 PM PST up reply actions
Just watch the way he is received that night. Then tell me, with a straight face, that “no, he doesn’t deserve THAT for his last season in the NHL, he deserves this shitty Ducks season where the players, the fans and management are all unhappy”
I can’t believe you and ASale are arguing that he signed here, so he should live with it. He made his shitty-third-worst-team-in-the-league-bed, now lie in it. That’s how you want to treat him in his last year? “Ha Ha, you chose wrong. Now you’re stuck with us.” I know misery loves company, but I didn’t think anyone would make the argument that we’re miserable, so Teemu has to be miserable, too—" he had his chance to get out and he blew it.". Yeesh
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 24, 2011 8:02 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
I think the argument is more in line with the idea that Teemu chose us over Winnipeg, and that he loves the city, but doesn’t want to actually play there. I suppose you can argue if he had known that the Ducks would be this bad, he wouldn’t have come back.
Ultimately, I really do think it’s his decision. If he asks for it, the Ducks have to find a way to do it. But, they certainly shouldn’t go to him and ask if he wants to be traded.
by Daniel AC on Nov 24, 2011 11:01 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
He chose a team with talent in a place he likes playing. Anyone would choose a talented former playoff team. But THIS team versus THAT team, the expectations of THESE fans versus THOSE fans— why would you even discuss what the choice was at the beginning o the season? We’re talking about Teemu’s last season, and I can’t imagine any Ducks fan making a valid argument that he somehow deserves this or shouldn’t be delivered from this
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 25, 2011 3:31 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
I Teemu was adult enough to choose Colorado over Anaheim before the lockout, he’s adult enough to ask for this trade. Until then the best argument to be made against “delivering” him from this situation is that he hasn’t asked to be delivered. There is an argument to be made that maybe, maybe, no matter how bad this is he prefers playing here to playing in Winnipeg.
by Daniel AC on Nov 25, 2011 3:37 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
Teemu’s too classy to ask for a trade. Referees don’t let champions suffer brain damage because they’re too stubborn to stay down. Sometimes you gotta call the fight. If they propose it to him, I doubt he scoffs at it, especially if this season keeps going down the toilet
by Arthur from Anaheim Calling on Nov 25, 2011 4:24 PM PST via iPhone app up reply actions
Maybe, but youcant ignore the fact that he might want to stay simply for your convenience. There is a chance that he has accepted this and is willing to see it through. I haven’t seen anything to justify that, but in the offseason I didn’t see anything that should have convinced him this team was anything than a chance at a playoff spot and he still scored to sign here. There’s a chance the guy has some thought process that we simplistic understand.
by Daniel AC on Nov 25, 2011 11:11 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I never implied that
I said he knew what he was signing up for. If he wants to be traded, then by all means trade him and make him happy, I have no problem with that, he’s done so much for us it would be the least we could do for him. Sure I would probably go into some great depression but if you love something let it go?
In my previous post I said I’d feel shocked, betrayed, etc. but all those hostile feelings would be directed towards the management not Teemu. Granted in that post I wasn’t taking into consideration that he would request the trade, something I probably should have regarded considering the discussion and that’s my fault. If he wants it, then sure, but unless he were to ask for the trade, I’m still 100% against it.
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