40-Year Old Selanne Returning To Ducks For Another Season

Not yet ready to follow the lead of Scott Niedermayer and call it a career, Teemu Selanne has decided to return for his 12th season with the Anaheim Ducks and 18th overall in the NHL. An official announcement was made by the Ducks on Monday that Selanne put pen to paper on a new one year contract. The 40-year old Finnish Flash will earn a base salary of $3.25 million with the possibility of making another $1.25 million in bonuses for a total cap hit of $4.5 million, according to CapGeek. He also has a no-movement clause.

“After thinking about it for the last few months, I’ve decided to return to play for the Ducks,” Selanne said in a statement. “I’m excited about the summer additions the team has made. I know this team can win.”

While Selanne is up there in age, and a mixture of injuries and retirement contemplation have forced him to miss plenty of games over the past three seasons, it’s very hard to argue that his productivity is not worth the Ducks bringing him back into the fold. In 54 games last season, he buried 27 goals and added 21 helpers for 48 points – 27 of which were on the power play.

At this point in his career, Selanne is on a year-by-year basis in determining whether he will play. There was a belief that Selanne might be in line for a two-year deal with the Ducks. But he signed on for one and will likely contemplate his future once again next summer.

“Every year I think it might be my last year,” Selanne said in a conference call from Finland on Monday. “That’s how I really get motivated to get better and better. It helps me to have the attitude of, ‘This is it, and I’m going to leave everything there.’ It’s worked pretty well for me, so I think I’ll be the same way this coming year.”

Selanne’s decision was also influenced by the re-signing of fellow-Fin, Saku Koivu.

“Saku’s signing affected me for sure,” Selanne said. “We were talking earlier and I said, ‘If I decide to come back, I hope it’s a team we have a chance to win with.’ I really believe Saku is a big part of that. We’re both happy with what our team has done.”

Koivu signed in Anaheim last summer as an unrestricted free agent after spending the previous 13 years of his career with the Montreal Canadiens. The former-Habs captain contributed 19 goals and 33 assists for 52 points in 71 games for the Ducks last season. He inked a new two-year pact with Anaheim on July 1 that will pay the 35-year old $2.5 million per season.

Selanne’s next goal is to try and lure unrestricted free agent Paul Kariya back to Anaheim. The two longtime friends have been teammates in the past – both in Anaheim and with the Colorado Avalanche. And Selanne has made some recruitment calls to both Kariya and General Manager Bob Murray about getting the 35-year old left wing back to the team that originally drafted him as a fourth overall pick in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft.

“I’ve talked to Paul a couple times and I know he would be very excited to come back and play with us,” Selanne said. “I’ve talked with Bob a little bit about it too. That’s their call and I don’t know much more than that. Paul has done so much for Ducks hockey in the past, and I know he loves the area and he can still play at the highest level. Hopefully they can find something that makes both sides happy. All the years I played with Paul were so much fun that it would be nice to have it happen again. It’s their decision to find something that works for both. Of course I’m supporting that idea.”



A move back to Anaheim would make a lot of sense for Kariya. Although his days as a 50-goal scorer are long gone, the offense that could be produced on a line alongside Selanne and Koivu would be just as crucial to the success of the Ducks as that of the Corey Perry-Ryan Getzlaf-Bobby Ryan line. Additionally, the Ducks still have over $10 million in available salary cap space with only the re-signing of Ryan, a RFA, and possibly the addition of another defensive body left to worry about.

Randy Youngman of The Orange County Register points out that there may still be some animosity toward Kariya from Anaheim fans that still feel spurned from his post-2003 exit to Colorado with Kariya. Youngman recalls that then-GM Bryan Murray felt misled by Kariya, who was not tendered a qualifying offer with the intention of being signed to a contract for less than $10 million and thus became a free agent.

But one would have to imagine that Ducks fans are over that by now, especially when they'll be able to witness the reunion of what was such a lethal scoring combination during Kariya and Selanne's original run together in Anaheim. Playing with familiar faces in his old stomping ground for a team with financial flexibility should be more than enough to entice Kariya into a return.