Ask anyone NHL fan which player they would realistically trade for on the Ducks this time of year. The answer would be Bobby Ryan.
Bobby Ryan was the Anaheim Ducks' top goal scorer this year, picking up 35 goals and 64 points (not quite the expected production out of him but it's forgiveable.) finishing the the NHL season as the 10th best goal scorer and 45th in overall production.
That kind of player is without question someone the Ducks will need to have in their lineup.
Early attempts at contract extension talks failed as Ryan (or his agent/ or both) were not satisfied with the offers. Then both sides agreed to put talks off until this offseason so that Ryan could focus on his playing. But in interviews Ryan stated that he does want to remain in Anaheim and his first goal in the offseason is getting resigned.
“This is my home," said Ryan, who is due to be a restricted free agent. "I spend my summers here. I love being here and don’t want to be anywhere else. There will be some time still before we get to negotiations and talking. The dust will settle here and we’ll go from there. Anaheim is without a doubt a unanimous No. 1 for me.” (from Anaheimducks.com)
Ryan is looking to get as much money as he can because he knows he will be looked at hard by other NHL teams. But it is almost a guarantee that he will make no more than 5.325 million dollars (the same salary as Getzlaf/Perry) since such a salary will cause Perry and Getzlaf to underperform.
That means Ryan has an unofficial draft day deadline to come to terms with the Ducks organization.
The reason behind this comes from a situation that may still be fresh in Duck fan's minds. Dustin Penner back in the offseason of the 06-07 year, refused Anaheim's contract extension offer and was signed by Edmonton to an offer sheet. In return Anaheim got the 1st, 2cd, and 3rd picks in the following year's draft.
If he cannot be signed it leaves 3 options.
1.)Trade him alone or in a package for a Left Winger better or with similar talent.
Although that is very difficult to do, since the only players of that caliber are pretty much impossible to pry from their respective teams.
2.) Let him pull a Penner
If we do this we have no way of knowing what position draft picks we will get. A team like Washington could give him an offer sheet and then we're stuck with some terrible draft picks.
3.) Use him to move up in this year's draft.
Option one is the best if we can find a team to trade with, but this is a much better option than option 2, because this way we can know what kind of pick we get, hell maybe one of the top 3 teams will bite (at the risk of our other two picks.) But if Ryan doesn't get signed come draft day, option 2 is the only option left, and we're screwed (unless we trade his rights but our return won't be as high as it would be at the draft).
This is all hypothetical of course. But lots of Ducks fans are dead set on the notion that Ryan is staying. I wouldn't fully expect him to leave, but I wouldn't fully expect him to stay either. As much as I want him to.
Hopefully both sides can come to an agreement soon and we can stop worrying about losing such a key member to the organization now and in the future. In the meantime we wait. Hope he doesn't keep us waiting too long.
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