Saku Koivu to the Ducks

If you were going to sign a free agent for one season, what are some things that you’d look for? How about a guy that had been the captain of his team for almost a decade? How about a guy that was a 3-time Olympian and won a medal each time? Perhaps a guy that took a stick in the eye, suffered a detacted retina, yet returned to have his best season ever. Maybe a guy who is almost a point-per-game player in over 50 playoff games? What about a guy that had shown the courage to battle cancer, only to fight through it and return to the game he loved?

That’s exactly who the Ducks are getting with their acquisition of Saku Koivu. Not only are they getting all of that talent and leadership—but they are adding it with very little risk (1 year, $3.25 million). With the resigning of Todd Marchant yesterday, Ducks GM Bob Murray has a damn fine start to his week. Both Koivu and Marchant are the kind of players that you want in the playoffs—and make the Ducks much stronger up the middle. I know I certainly wouldn’t want to face a team that had Getzlaf-Koivu-Marchant down the middle.

So... can we go out on a limb and say that fellow Finn Teemu Selanne had something to do with this?

The Ducks have one man to thank for this coup of a signing: Teemu Selanne. They’ve played together in just about every international event together for Team Finland for the last decade. While playing on the same line, they’ve been successful against the best the World has to offer. What are the chances that they wanted to spend a year together and see what they could do at the NHL level? One of his first comments after his signing was: “Teemu was a factor in my decision coming to Anaheim.” Great. As if Duck fans needed another reason to love #8.

I’m actually a little surprised that the Ducks were able to pull off this signing though. All reports out of Minnesota said the Wild were going after Koivu extremely hard. Not only would he fit perfectly with the Wild, but I’m sure they would have liked to pair him with his brother Mikko. Unfortunately for Minnesota, that looks like its going to have to wait at least a year.

I’m still unsure why Bob Gainey and the Montreal Canadiens didn’t’ push a little harder to resign their captain. I understand that the GM wants to change the culture around the Habs, but Koivu is the kind of guy that you want the rest of the team to emulate. But this isn’t the only questionable move they’ve made in free agency. Thus far, the Canadiens have watched their rock of a defenseman, Mike Komisarek leave to the hated Maple Leafs. They watched their All-Star game hero Alexei Kovalev leave to join the Ottawa Seantors, even though he publically stated that he wanted to stay with the Habs. If you’re going to resign a guy for the fans, a man that inspired a rally outside the Bell Centre would be a good start.

While watching Komisarek, Kovalev and now Koivu leave Montreal, they’ve replaced them with Michael Cammallari and Brian Gionta up front. Apparently, Webster and Gary Coleman were already taken. Wait, would it be a conflict of interests to sign Gary Bettman? I believe he meets their height requirement.

Either way, I’m not sure where the Canadien’s leadership is going to come from next season. For a single season and $3.25 million, how were they unable to match the Ducks offer? It’s not like this was some problem in the locker room or a one-dimensional player—this was their leader on and off the ice.

As for the Ducks, they’ll have one season for Selanne, Koivu and Scott Neidermayer to see if they can repeat the 2007 season. Once the Vancouver Olympics are over, chances are Neidermayer will hang ‘em up; once Koivu’s one year contract is up, he might want to play with his brother; one more year for Teemu and he might decide to focus on his car collection.

This is their shot—at least their going for it while the window is open.

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