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Originally Posted by BtownJay
Sadly for you, there are VERY few rumors out there about the Duckies. Other than the current count down until Bryzgalov (sp?) is traded. But the Ducks are really stuck right now until Teemu and Neidermeyer decide what they want to do. And hopefully they do that prior to the July 1st free agency period. The last thing the Ducks want is to lose out on good UFA's and then find out they much replace the two of them.
The Oilers are working hard to get Redden at this point... when talks with the Flyers about getting Pitkanen died down they turned their attention on him. But we don't know yet if Redden will waive his no trade clause.
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Ultimately the Redden situation is going to be decided by Redden, because it will come down to him accepting a trade whichever teams end up the highest bidder. And if he is like most players, I dont foresee him accepting a trade to Edmonton, who is CLEARLY about to enter a period of reconstruction (Lupul didnt come out the way they expected when they got him from us, Sykora was a disappointment and they off Smyth, so basically they have JACK SQUAT past Hemsky......poor Hemsky). I have a feeling that if Scotty retires and the ducks come calling, Redden wouldnt turn down a chance to come to the team that stole the cup out from under him so easily, especially if he has Pronger and Beauchemin back there to make his job easier.
Me personally though? If we can draft a few promising young D men or trade Bryz off for a quality young dude (lets say maybe they find a way to bring Popovic or Sauer back).....I say put the mantle on Beauchemin's shoulder and ride out a D core with Jackman, Dipenta, Huskins, and Odonnel behind him. Im not a very big Odonnel fan, but he is a hard worker and if we lose Scotty we are going to need his leadership experitise, making him unmoveable. The only problem in that situation is our depth, so we would need to bring in young guys who can come in and step it up if hte need arises.
And after you do that, if Scotty and Teemu both go you have all that money to really go spend happy and bring in a superstar goal scorer to play with Andy Mac and probably Kunitz on our first line. All in all not a bad situation if Beauchemin can continue to prove that he isnt a fluke and is deserving of the 30 minutes a game he played in the playoffs.