Paul Kariya/Leaving the Ducks for the Avs in the 03-04 Season

[Lemonlimey]

Blame should go on GM Pierre LacRoix as much as outmatched rookie coach Granato. One guy hired the other. And whats worse, Lacroix thought he was almighty god and could tinker the perfect roster on paper - trading for Matt Barnaby, Peter Worrel, and Chris Gratton to all come in and form a third line. Nothing gelled top to bottom. Selanne should have been in a wheelchair.

 

[WingsFan95]

It's been said pretty clean cut so at this point it's just going to be my opinion.

On paper the Fedorov signing looked pretty solid but I and many Wings fans understood at least part of Fedorov's success on the ice was due to the team structure and not just his talent alone and certainly not at his age in 2003. Kariya fit the team better.

Guathier was no longer the GM but the ownership was the same and Kariya basically had 2 choices:

1. Get paid less than 10 million, if the Fedorov contract is any indication he still gets about 8 million and a long-term deal.
2. Go to a serious contender with his friend and great linemate Selanne for 1 year and get more than 8 million the next.

Now what's really interesting is how Selanne returned to the Ducks the following season after the lock-out and Kariya signed a 2 year deal worth 4.5 mill per with the Predators. This meant he became the face of a franchise now more at the bottom than the Ducks in terms of fan support (at the time) on a 2 year deal worth a lot less than 8 mill a year. In hindsight he looks a bit like an idiot to be honest. Money-wise he lost out on tens of millions. He signed a 3 year deal at 6 mill per with the Blues and that was it for his career earnings. He of course never sniffed the Cup again.

Selanne's contract meanwhile was 1 year except for a 2 year sign with the Ducks that yielded the following:

1
3.7
1.5
3.2
2
3.2
4
4.5
2

Now Teemu clearly enjoyed Southern California so let's not just look at his salary but overall he made 25 million with the Ducks whereas Kariya made 27 million with the Preds/Blues in 4 less seasons. Teemu of course in his later years enjoyed a lot of comfort with the team working around him and the stability of living in the same area. He was able to make money outside of hockey because of that stability. Most importantly of course he won a Cup and played in 2 other extended playoff runs. Kariya played 10 playoff games after Colorado. But of course as mentioned earlier, Kariya with as much money as he could have made in Anaheim and maybe won a Cup did lose out in the end.

 

[Hoser]

Selanne's contract meanwhile was 1 year except for a 2 year sign with the Ducks that yielded the following:

1
3.7
1.5
3.2
2
3.2
4
4.5
2

Note that Selanne's $1.5 million contract in '07-'08 was signed in January of '08, the season already half over. He would have made much more had he signed before training camp; he explicitly left money on the table.

 

[FerrisRox]

I remember having dinner with friends at our Grad.student dormitory in Vancouver when he joined the Avs. We were like, "Okay, Selanne and Kariya are on their second line...". I agree, it seemed like the Wings in 2001-02 when they'd basically already won the Cup before the season started.

I don't think it was like that at all. People were excited for Hockey Pools, for sure, but they weren't taken very seriously as a Cup threat because their goaltender was David Aebischer.

 

[ShelbyZ]

I don't think it was like that at all. People were excited for Hockey Pools, for sure, but they weren't taken very seriously as a Cup threat because their goaltender was David Aebischer.

I kind of remember it this way too, but less to do with Aebischer. I think it was more or less the oddball way the recent playoffs had gone, where Colorado and Detroit were gone after the 1st round and the WCF ends up between a #6 and #7 seed. That helped keep some of the talking heads from really predicting that certain teams would/wouldn't be Cup favorites, at least in the West.

I do somewhat remember Lacroix justifying the decision to go with Aebischer by alluding to something along the lines that having a top 6 of Sakic/Forsberg/Kariya/Selanne/Hejduk/Tanguay would give them plenty of offense to cover any potential goaltending deficiencies. I also remember some speculation that the Kariya and Selanne signings might convince Roy to reconsider not taking that final high paid year of his contract.

In all reality, for the Avalanche, Roy picked a pretty bad offseason to call it a career. Had he hung the pads up after the game 7 WCF blow out the previous season, the Avs could've entered a bidding war with Detroit for Joseph, with the loser getting Belfour (and the Leafs ending up with Dafoe ). Instead, Aebischer ends up their best option in an offseason that was extremely thin on available goaltending talent. There was speculation that the Avs would court Hasek if the Wings denied his option year, but obviously the Wings weren't going to let that happen and they certainly weren't going to deal Hasek or Joseph to Colorado. I think the Rangers at one point were the front runners for Joseph, which would've made Mike Dunham available. Roman Cechmanek and his unibrow could've been an option, but he was dealt while they waited for Roy to decide (might've actually been the same day...). Then Osgood took a pay cut to stay with the Blues. That left them with Garth Snow, Jeff Hackett, Felix Potvin and Jamie Storr on the free agent market. Yikes. Aebischer was likely better than opting for one of them or giving up assets in a trade to get a true #1.

 

[Terry Yake]

i'm pretty sure the avs tried to get roy out of retirement during that season and he turned them down

 

[Albatros]

Aebischer was also still relatively highly rated at that point, stellar at WJC and an elite backup for Roy, wasn't inconceivable that he could pull it off.

 

[c9777666]

Aebischer was the LEAST of the Avs' problems in '04:

i’m not sure what aebischer could have done. first time starter is a game out of the top ten in GP, 7th in wins, 8th in shots and saves, 2.08 GAA and .924 SV% (top ten in both), and if you care about phoney baloney stats, he was 4th in goals saved above average, 6th lowest in adjusted goals allowed, and 4th in goalie win shares.

he wasn’t patrick roy but he’s pretty low on my list of guys responsible for that season’s disappointments.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Aebischer was also still relatively highly rated at that point, stellar at WJC and an elite backup for Roy, wasn't inconceivable that he could pull it off.

I went back and read some old articles on this topic and it seemed like Aebischers stock dropped a bit after 02-03 where he had a losing record and his numbers weren't as stellar as 01-02.

There were even some wondering if Philippe Sauve could challenge him for the starting job...

 

[Albatros]

I think the team as a whole had a bad start and it affected both goalies then, both won only 4 of their first 13 games.