Offseason Updates

It's been a rather uneventful offseason for the ducks so far. Fans have been hungrily waiting to see what Mr. Murray will do to make up for last year's Stanley cup absence.

Other than a couple of prospect signings, the Anaheim front office has shown no signs of life.

But fans can breathe a little easier knowing the silence will only last a little bit longer.

Fans who follow twitter, were given a major buzz of excitement when the official account of the ducks announced a signing would be made. This created some serious speculation, as everyone thought this was the first piece of big news they, well, we were waiting for.

Anaheim as an organization has never been known to tease fans with transaction hints. The Anaheim front office has always been more clandestine than other clubs. Nevertheless fans began to expect a big name like Ryan or niedermayer to be the signing.

In the end, Eric Stephens of the OCregister uncovered that the signing was for defenseman Sheldon Brookbank.

Not to bash on Brookbank, as he is an adept 3rd pairing defenseman, but fans were left expecting something big after so much time spent in silence. The hint dropped by the Ducks was almost like a message saying that the wait was over.

On the bright side, news is coming. Even if we have to wait a little bit longer.

Bobby Ryan's contract negotiations were described as being in their "early" stages a little over a week ago. The announcement of his signing should come within the next two to three weeks as a maximum, if he hasn't signed by draft day, it will be a safe bet that he will go to restricted free agency. Although it seems doubtful as both sides have sounded optimistic.

It has been announced that Scott Niedermayer will be announcing whether or not he will retire "soon". This is on the heels of Nicklas Lidstrom's recent desicion to return to his team for another year (at a million dollar paycut). Some could say that based on his interview, things aren't looking good, but Lidstrom (a fellow Norris trophy winner and future hall inductee) desicion could tilt the scales in the ducks' favor.

The draft is only a few short weeks away, and Murray is going to have to get a few signings done before then, to have a better picture of what kind of trades or free agent signings he needs to make.

So rest easy Duck fans, the silence will soon be broken.