(via baronvg on YouTube)

When we were presented with this project I was a bit worried that I hadn't been around long enough to appreciate the early years of Teemu Selanne. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to capture the greatness of this elite athlete on the verge of a monumental occasion in his ever inspiring career.

And then I began to write about him and it became clear; his legacy and his career, even in the short time I've been a hockey fan, would do all the talking for me. I'm simply the messenger. The great part of this portion of Selanne's career is that it is not only a chapter in it's own right, but it's an exciting one all on its own.

Selanne revamped his career in Anaheim thanks to knee surgery, an NHL Lockout, and he did it all without Paul Kariya by his side. Only Selanne could make slops into a feast. After the difficult and disappointing seasons in San Jose and Colorado, Selanne made the decision to return to Finland to have knee surgery to repair the nagging injury. The rehabilitation period would be long and tiresome, but it also came at the perfect time. The NHL, too, was resting and rehabilitating during a lengthy lockout that saw the cancellation of the 2004-05 season. Selanne nurtured his knee, signed with Anaheim once again, and in August of 2005 he came home to his happy place.

It's in Anaheim where Selanne not only thrived, but achieved the ultimate dream. Winning the Stanley Cup in 2007 will be, for many players from that team, the highlight of their career. For Selanne it will be as well, but the achievements he's accomplished since then are incredible.

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There are 187,888 lakes in Finland. And when Teemu Selanne was traded to the San Jose Sharks on March 5, 2001, I'm sure that many Mighty Ducks fans would have taken the first opportunity to jump into one.

86% of Finland is covered in forest. And when Teemu was traded to the Sharks, it seemed as though he had entered a giant wilderness. And the players that we acquired in return - Jeff Friesen and Steve Shields, along with a second round draft pick (later used to draft defenseman Mark Popovic) - were definitely not worth the trade. We knew that Teemu wanted a Cup - he deserved one - but we didn't know when (or if) he would return.

But how did Teemu fare in San Jose? Teemu only played 12 games with San Jose during the 2000-01 season (remember, he was traded in March), but was still a point per game player, scoring 7 goals and 6 assists for a total of 13 points. Teemu played in all six of the Sharks playoff games, registering two assists, but the Sharks were eliminated in the quarterfinals by the St. Louis Blues (captained by future Duck Chris Pronger). In his first full season with the club, he played all 82 games, scoring 29 goals and adding 25 assists for a total of 54 points. The Sharks made an even deeper playoff run, reaching the semifinals before being eliminated by the Colorado Avalanche. Teemu played in 12 games and tallied 8 points. His final season with the Sharks, the 2002-03 season, was his best statistically - he played all 82 games and scored 64 points. Despite this, Teemu's play slumped early in the season, and his eventual heroics were not enough to propel the Sharks into a playoff berth.

Yet, his last season with the Sharks was memorable for a controversy surrounding Teemu and then-New Jersey Devil Scott Gomez. Gomez didn't get along with Devils coach Pat Burns, and a multi-player trade involving Teemu was on the horizon. But at the last minute, Teemu refused to be sent to New Jersey. Ironically, had he allowed the trade to go through, he would have won the Cup in New Jersey that season alongside future Duck Scott Niedermayer. And - don't forget - he would have had to beat us to get that Cup. There is no way to know this for sure, of course, but had Teemu been traded to New Jersey, a part of me thinks that he would have never returned to Anaheim.

But - we haven't returned to Anaheim yet. And after his second full season with the Sharks, Teemu signed with the Colorado Avalanche as a free agent on July 3, 2003. At this point, Teemu was already an NHL veteran, and he signed the contract on his 33rd birthday. In Colorado, he was reunited with Paul Kariya, who left Anaheim after the 2003 season. Selanne and Kariya were expected to recapture the chemistry that they had on the Mighty Ducks teams of the late 90s, but the 2003-04 season was arguably Teemu's worst professional season ever. He played in 78 games, but only tallied 32 points. The 2004-05 lockout allowed Teemu to rest and recuperate. Even though he signed a contract with his former club Jokerit, he had major knee surgery and did not play any games that season.

The lockout eventually ended, and Teemu signed a contract with the Mighty Ducks on August 22, 2005. Finally, he left the wilderness.

[Ed. Note: On Saturday, Teemu Selanne will be making his triumphant return to Winnipeg since being traded during the 1995-1996 season. As a tribute to Teemu, Anaheim Calling will be spending the days leading up to his homecoming in the 'Peg taking a look back at what got him to this point in his career. Already covered: Teemu and the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, his years with the Jets, and the trade that brought him to Anaheim. Now the lore of the original Wonder Twins.]

If Arthur still wrote here, he'd probably be the person who would write this post. With his style of writing, he could convince a Tea Party convention that he was standing next to John Hancock when the Constitution was signed. I mention that, because I think that's what it was like to watch Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne play together. There was something uncanny about it. They were called the dynamic duo, but It's not really a fitting name. There wasn't a Batman/Robin relationship. It was more equal than that. I suppose you could say they were the Twins before the Twins were. They played a beautiful game. It was more like poetry really.

Kariya and Selanne were two of the best Ducks to ever play together, despite their relatively limited team success. The Ducks were notorious for being a one-line-team from mid 1996-mid 2000. You know why? Simply because they were. Not only were they a one-line-team, that one line lacked a true number one center. Kariya and Selanne were Jarome Iginla, before Jarome Iginla.

The Ducks paraded around a couple of has-beens in their attempt to solidify that line. Oddly enough, they never tried to get a has-been center, just has-been wingers, most notably Tomas Sandstrom and Jari Kurri. Both players were in the twilight of their respective careers and sometimes had trouble keeping up with the faster, younger, Kariya and Selanne. That's what it was like for the Kariya and Selanne show. They were great, but the team wasn't. It was the best show on ice for half a decade, but only resulted in 2 playoff appearances, and one playoff series victory.

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[Ed. Note: On Saturday, Teemu Selanne will be making his triumphant return to Winnipeg since being traded during the 1995-1996 season. As a tribute to Teemu, Anaheim Calling will be spending the days leading up to his homecoming in the 'Peg taking a look back at what got him to this point in his career. Already covered: Teemu and the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, and his first years with the Jets. Now the trade that brought him to Anaheim.]

On February 7, 1996 I was about two and a half weeks away from turning ten years old and I remember my mom telling me that my favorite hockey team had just gotten a new player. All she could tell me about him was that he was "some guy from Finland." I highly doubt I knew what that meant and I'm sure that I didn't know what it would come to mean to me.

Teemu quickly became my favorite player. Paul Kariya's 1997 holdout pushed me over the edge, and it's been Teemu ever since. But like I said, I was just a kid; a new hockey fan, learning the game, so I don't have much in the way of memories to go on about the immediate aftermath of the greatest trade in franchise history. Luckily, my first click of research for this post turned up this glorious news segment from TSN.

Teemu Selanne Trade From Winnipeg Jets To Anaheim Reactions (via JHendrix70)

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[Ed. Note: On Saturday, Teemu Selanne will be making his triumphant return to Winnipeg since being traded during the 1995-1996 season. As a tribute to Teemu, Anaheim Calling will be spending the days leading up to his homecoming in the 'Peg taking a look back at what got him to this point in his career. First up was Teemu and the 1988 NHL Entry Draft. Now he's ready to suit 'em up for the Jets.]

You've probably heard this before, but Teemu had a pretty good rookie year with the Jets in 1992-1993. And by pretty good, I mean the dude still holds the rookie records for goals and points he established that season. While he would never recapture the epic performance from that first season, Teemu's four years with Winnipeg established the breathtaking speed and skill that helped create the Finnish Flash moniker.

While Selanne experienced a lot of great moments as a Jet, you may be surprised to learn that it was in his first year that he first crossed paths with the man that would eventually coach Teemu to his only Stanley Cup (so far). Then-defenseman Randy Carlyle welcomed Selanne to the pros by promptly refusing to give up his number 8 jersey to Teemu. Selanne eventually decided to wear 13, and to-date, they are the only two jersey numbers Teemu has ever worn. For Ducks fans, this meeting between Selanne and Carlyle early in his career (and Carlyle's refusal to accede to the young Selanne) is oddly fitting. In some ways, it's unfortunate that Carlyle won't be the last man to coach Selanne in the NHL, but he did lead him to the promised land. That Carlyle would have denied Selanne this honor early in his career and then eventually coach him for several years is just another bookmark in the legend of Teemu Selanne.

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via files.euro-liga.cz

On Saturday, Teemu Selanne will be making his triumphant return to Winnipeg since being traded during the 1995-1996 season. As a tribute to Teemu, Anaheim Calling will be spending the days leading up to his homecoming in the 'Peg taking a look back at what got him to this point in his career. First up is Teemu and the 1988 NHL Entry Draft.

It's easy to look back and ask yourself: how was Teemu Selanne not drafted higher than 10th in the 1988 draft? Perhaps it was because the NHL didn't value Selanne's time in Finnish junior hockey with Jokerit as much the number one draft pick's time in the WHL with the Prince Albert Raiders. In 33 games played, young Teemu scored 43 goals and had 26 assists. In comparison, the number one pick had 70 games played, 43 goals and 80 assists. Who was the number one pick that year?

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ARTHUR:
Anaheim calling to the hockey world...

After four seasons, the Mighty Ducks' first head coach, Ron Wilson, led the franchise to its Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, a campaign that ended in a contentious second round sweep by the Detroit Red Wings and, surprisingly, an announcement that the team would not be renewing Wilson's contract.  The ins and outs of that decision and the details of how early that decision was made lead many, including Wilson himself, to say the coach was fired.  But honestly, that's a Duck Tales post all its own.  The important thing to take away is that one year after they parted ways, the Mighty Ducks were in complete disarray, and Ron Wilson was leading the Washington Capitals to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In August, the Ducks named Pierre Pagé as Wilson's replacement.  Pagé was a seven-year bench chief (227-258-69) whose most notable achievement at the time was executing the Eric Lindros trade as the GM of the Quebec Nordiques.  Before that, he had served as the head coach for the Minnesota Northstars under then-GM Jack Ferreira, who just so happened to be looking for a new coach for the Ducks when Pagé could not see eye to eye with the Flames on a contract renewal.  Ferreira had this to say as far as why his longtime friend was a more than adequate replacement for Wilson:

"If Pierre had been available when we began this franchise, he would have been our coach." -

LA Times 8/10/97

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