I have no access to the Internet today other than on my phone, but Sportsnet is reporting that the Ducks have signed former Flyers defenseman Dan Syvret. He's a smallish offensive-D, had a good juniors career on the Knights with Corey Perry, but he has yet to earn his stripes in a full NHL season. This is a good pickup for Syracuse, a bad pickup if Syvret is expected to vie for the third pairing a la acquiring a third pairing smallish offensive defenseman from Chicago to play with Niedermayer.

I have to admit. This article kinda cracked me up. I admire the kids' dedication, though. (See Negative Nelly's, I found a positive without using my favorite "d" word)

ESPN is reporting that Murray has given Bobby a choice of 2 contracts and he will wait for an offer sheet rather than make another offer.

Former Ducks Assistant Coach may stay on the west coast.

PC announcing Niedermayer's retirement, streaming live on FoxSportsWest.com

Lindsay Kramer has some good stuff on the Ducks press conference in Syracuse to introduce new assistant coach Mike Stapleton. Plenty of tidbits in there (with plenty more to come), including a note that Bob Ferguson will be Assistant GM in Syracuse and doing most of the hands-on work with the franchise instead of David McNab.

Derek Zona wrote a great article ranking the recent Draft success of all 30 NHL teams. He explains his methodology in the article, but it's a snapshot of the 99-05 Draft classes and their subsequent playing time in the NHL. It should be noted that two of the first-rounders in that time period (Jordan Leopold and Ladislav Smid) never dressed for Anaheim. And, if you're wondering, 99-05 covers quite a bit of fluctuation in Ducks management. Alain Chainey was Director of Amateur Scouting during that time, but he worked for Pierre Gauthier, Bryan Murray, Brian Burke and interim GM Al Coates, though Chuck Fletcher supposedly ran the boards for the 2004 Draft.

They're doing some great offseason work over at Copper N Blue. Check out this Scott Reynolds article breaking down draft tendencies post Lockout for every NHL team. The Ducks haven't established a hot spot fishing hole, as their 10 draftees from the OHL is well on par with the league average, but it's interesting to see the Chainey/Burke and Madden/Murray eras represented in chart form. Maybe it can even help us predict who the Rangers and Stars will let slip to us at 12.

Brookbank's been resigned to a great contract. He still has to prove himself and won't be putting the Ducks in any kind of cap trouble with this deal. And Arthur and Daniel thought he should have been making more than a million a year...

Wysh from Puck Daddy does a kind of interview with Bobby Ryan about his favorite music.