Ducks GM wants to know by weekend if Selanne, Niedermayer will retire

Dan Wood of the Orange County Register reports that Anaheim Ducks GM Brian Burke will ask unrestricted free agent forward Teemu Selanne and defenseman Scott Niedermayer if they plan on returning to the NHL, and the Ducks, next season.

“Obviously, at some point I have to ask Scotty if he plans to come to camp or not,” Burke said Tuesday. “I have to ask them both that. I probably will pretty quickly, probably by this weekend.”

Burke believes that both players will retire.

“My guess would be that they’re probably not. If that were their intent, I think I would have heard by now.”

While both Selanne and Niedermayer were important players on last season’s Ducks team that won the Stanley Cup, Burke says that the club has prepared well for their potential departures.

“The fact of the matter is we are faced with the potential retirement of two players that I think are going to stroll into the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Burke said. “That could be a devastating loss in most situations, but I think we’ve covered ourselves adequately.”

The Ducks signed UFA defenseman Mathieu Schneider as a replacement for Niedermayer, while UFA forward Todd Bertuzzi was brought in to replace Selanne.

There is one problem with those two signings, though: the Ducks are now almost out of salary cap room. Niedermayer has a $6.75 million cap hit for the next two years. Since Selanne is an UFA, the Ducks do not have any salary committed to him. He won’t come cheap if the Ducks want him back.

So, if Selanne and Niedermayer decide to continue their NHL careers, the Ducks will have to find a way to clear some cap space. Wood suggests that the Ducks would have to make at least one trade to free up the necessary cap space, and that any move would, more than likely, involve a defenseman.