I was poking around the LA Times website when I just happened to look at the Ducks page. Surprisingly the Kunitz signing was not the most recent article. This one was. The day Brian Burke brought in Mathieu Schneider, I had a glimmer of hope that Scott Niedermayer would return. I think the reason that Scott Niedermayer wanted to retire after this season was that he was worked very hard under Randy Carlyle. He had a puck shot at him, he apparently played with a broken bone in his foot, he missed time around the All Star game. The man played half the game, every night and had people looking to nail him. While he was good at avoiding that, you know sometimes they connected.

My guess, he comes back for at least one more year. Not because he needs to win anything else, but just because he can. He can play with his brother, he can play a lot less and he can still be the man. It will be an insane blue line, with Sean O’Donnell finding himself on the third pairing with either Kent Huskins of Joe DiPenta. Maybe even trade bait for a decent forward, to add some depth.

The bad thing about this, I think it will force Teemu Selanne to retire. Unless he plays for hockey sticks and “Pannukakku” made by Chris Pronger’s mom, the team can’t really afford him. So start trading away some assets Burke, Bryz needs to go. Isn’t his contract up anyway?

That is my opinion, I think we see #27 back in the new threads. Plus, I don’t want to see Chris Pronger with a “C” on his jersey. I think he is a great hockey player, but not so sure he deserves to be the captain…