There’s all this talk about trading now for an immediate result. But what’s lacking in that choice of opinion happens to be the long development to create such a great foundation to get to a championship level, let alone a playoff level. There are too many holes to fill to acquire a championship level as many have noted, but it seems a bit ignorant and selfish to simply say, "Let’s trade our prospects to win one right away."

To get to the Championship level in 2006/07, the Ducks went through three GM’s and three head coaches. But one of those coaches went to become the Ducks’ GM. That same GM resigned to go back to Canada, a trend setter I see. Anyhow, here’s the lineup we had for the championship season:

So before Burke inherited the team, of the top 9 forwards, only two were not part of the line up for the championship season were Teemu and Moen. The 2005/06 season had Lupul already part of the group and therefore the forwards were stacked! The goalies were already set as well. Defense is where Burke made his mark by signing Scotty and acquiring Beauch in a trade. Beauch was still a young prospect when we traded for him. (The team did have Salei and Vishnevski in 2005/06 season.) Pronger came along, but he came at an expensive price: Lupul, our number 1 prospect, D Smid, a 2007 first and second rounder, as well as another conditional first round pick if the Ducks reach the Stanley Cup finals in the next three years.

Making the trade was easy when you consider the following factors: 1) The team will have Scotty, Beauch and Prongs for a few years. You can easily build around that. 2) Look at your top 8 forwards at the time! Lupul can be expendable. Although, I didn’t see the Oil making an outrageous offer to Penner. 3) You also have Bobby Ryan waiting in the wings. 4) You had young defensive prospects still trying to learn the system. I believe the Ducks were one of a few teams that can absorb the huge loss of players and prospects (draft picks included).

Take a notice of how many of players before Burke got here were home grown or were traded for because they were young with potential.

Now let’s look at this year’s roster, 2012-12 season:

The only place that doesn’t have holes are in defense and net minding. In fact, we have two prospect defensemen knocking on that NHL door and another goalie willing to get that chance! What we don’t have is a proven forwards group with prospects willing to get their chance. Perry and Getz took three years to hit the NHL. For our young group, if we look at the three year plan, those players are RW Palmieri, C Holland, and D Vatanen.

Now let’s look at our prospects. The NHL ETA is just my opinion, so take it for a grain of salt.

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As stated above, it takes time for our prospects to develop a la Getz and Perry. But it also took a lot of time to gather the mass of talent pre-lockout because the Ducks were working with a budget as well. There is one huge difference between then and now is that we don’t have a lot of undrafted Free Agent college players to make the NHL scene with us.

We are not as talented as we may think when compared to the 2005/06 team. With impending FA’s Getz and Perry combined with Teemu’s possible retirement, we may not be able to absorb losing those three players along with the prospects that we will be trading away. Those prospects would be Palmieri, Vatanen, and Etem. There could be a possibility to include Lindholm to that list as well. Outside of those four, no other prospects scream blue chip aside from G John Gibson. Holland hasn’t received any great reviews as a can’t miss prospect, but he’s playing a two way game.

Our defense will need replenishing sooner than later as we may not re-sign Lydman and we don’t know if Souray’s body can hold up all three years. On top of all that, we’re a budget team.

Not too many people realize what good fortune Burke fell into when he accepted the Ducks offer to be their GM. Scotty ($6.7 mil) was available, but we traded away Fedorov and his contract ($6 mil). Ozolinsh’ contract($2.75 mil) was also dealt away in 2005. Beauchmin was a great find and his price was $500 K. Burke created financial space for the Ducks and very responsible during 2005. What he isn’t responsible with is drafting. Even though the Ducks lost two first rounders and a second round pick in the Pronger deal, Burke was able to take Shane O’Brien and make him into a first round pick to which was traded into a first and second round pick. Aside from Bobby Ryan, Gardiner, Schultz and McMillian, there isn’t much to talk about during Burke’s tenure. Heck, Burke let Bryz go through the waiver wire instead of acquiring draft picks for him.

Since money definitely is an issue here, let’s look at our fiscal trend:

Wow! Did Burke up the spending in 2007. That was the year that he signed Big Bert, Schnieder and Weight. Although, the Schnieder signing was due to Scotty being indecisive during the off-season. The spike in 2009 might be off because they, USA Today, are counting Vis’ full $7 million salary when Vis only played 16 games for us. This offseason, we will lose Vis’ $5 million as well as Ellis’ $1.5 million. So I suppose there is some money to spend on another FA. But who’s out there?

Next year, Getz and Perry’s contracts are up. How much more are they going to expect as in a raise? An extra $2 million on top of their current salary? So that is an additional $4 million to 2013 budget. That’s a FA or two there for that money. It may seem easy to say to trade a prospect with a cheap contract for a quality first line winger or a quality second line center, but how much do you think it may cost to afford one? The money isn’t yours and so you don’t have a sense of responsibility to budget, but expect a team to put out the best players out there. We are not the Flyers. Last year, the Kings’ salary was $64.4 million. That is $7 million more than our salary and at the Salary Cap.

This team does have a lot of holes, but too much to overcome if we’re trying to trade away our youth, talent-wise and fiscally. We have no idea if we’re on the right path yet with BB at the helm, but at least our defense and goal tending is secure, on paper. And some of our prospects are on the verge of making the NHL within a year or two with Palmieri, Etem, Vatanen, Holland, and Lindholm. There’s also an off chance you might see Rakell and Friberg make that jump in two years. DSP is already NHL ready and needs a spot on the Ducks’ roster.

In trading away the future now, we stunt the organization’s growth. Since 2005, we’ve only had Bobby Ryan, Brendan Mikkelson and McMillian make the roster. In four years of drafting, we’ve had five players make the NHL : Ryan, Mikkelson, McMillan, Gardiner and Tangradi. Schultz is set to make the NHL. Mikkelson, McMillan, and Tangradi are players that are still trying to establish themselves on the NHL level.

Now let’s look at the past four years of drafting under Murray.

From 2009 class, Palmieri and Clark have actually seen NHL time. Bobkov is still developing as most netminders need time to develop. Holland and Vatanen are scratching at the door to reach the NHL level. 2010 has already had one mainstay from that year, Fowler. DSP made the team last year, but injuries plagued him. Etem had just finished scoring over 100 point in the minors. Wagner and Lind are slowly developing in the NCAA. In those two years of drafting alone, four players have seen the NHL level. And the scary part is there will be more from those two years!

The 2011 class looks like a class drafted for the future as they will take their time with them to develop. The Tre Konor kids have loads of potential where one person has Rakell and Karlsson listed as two of the Ducks’ top five prospects. Friberg acts like a Martin St. Louis in stature and scoring! Welinski is getting notoriety by being included for Team USA world juniors. And that leads up to Gibson, who’s development has been amazing at juniors and WJC’s.

Last year’s draft has two draftees already scratching at the NHL post with reports from scouts, fans, and our GM. Lindholm may make the team this year as opposed to next year as per Murray. And Andersen happens to be one of the best goalies from over the pond. The Carolina Hurricanes tried to sign him, but it just didn’t’ work out and Andersen went back into the draft. He could have been a red flag as he wouldn’t sign for the ‘Canes, but the team was able to sign Andersen. Kudos to the GM? Kerdiles looks like a power forward in the making as he joins both Welinski and Gibson for Team USA.

Drafting is just as important as acquiring FA’s and trading for personnel. And drafting is the most important aspect to most teams who don’t have deep pockets because it is where a team can develop a great foundation. That’s how the Ducks were able to win a championship. Previous GM’s helped in creating a championship where the players that were involved started all the way back to 2000. It took about seven years with a lockout to come out with a championship. That lockout helped Teemu’s knees. The team hasn’t had much to develop during the Burke years and it’s hurting us now. If our cupboards were full and continuous, then yes we could have made trades or seen more youngings enter our system. Yet not enough of that has transpired.

Thus, I will abstain from the thought of trading our future away right now. I want some of the young prospects get some burn at the NHL level, especially now that we’re rolling four lines. Spread the youth among the veterans for protection and hopefully to inspire the veterans. The Ducks are brimming with talent and are also dealing with an unknown future. I’d rather be prepared with our prospects developing as it is the safer route for now.