(For the latest information on Giguere, scroll to the bottom of this posting)

Let's see what has transpired since I last wrote a blog...

1. An article surfaces with quotes from Scott Niedermayer saying, publically for the first time, that he is considering retirement.

2. Another article surfaces with quotes from Brian Burke confirming that he has been told by Scott that he is considering retirement.

3. Ek, who obviously has a source much better than mine (no shock there), writes that Scott is retiring but he's not going to make it an e5 out of respect for Scott.

So, yeah, I was 180 degrees off course on this one. My blog was a case of bad information and even worse timing. It now appears that Scott Niedermayer will indeed walk away from the Ducks, his brother and the sport on top of his game and leave two years and $13 million on the table.

Where does that leave the Ducks? Well, the Stanley Cup Champions are losing arguably the best defenseman in the sport but they are getting $6.75 million in cap relief to spend in free agency. Think Brian Burke can put that money to good use? Yeah, so do I.

First and foremost the Ducks are not in the need for a top end defenseman. They still have Chris Pronger and Francois Beauchemin, both excellent defenseman, as their top two. What the Ducks need is mid-level defenseman and those are plentiful in free agency this year. Aaron Miller, Roman Hamrlik, Brian Rafalski...all would be fine as a second pairing defenseman and all could be had for well under $6.75 million. The Ducks also have the option of re-signing Kent Huskins, Sean O'Donnell, Joe DiPenta and/or Ric Jackman. Huskins proved himself to be ready for NHL minutes, DiPenta is a solid third pairing player, O'Donnell is still as tough and wily as they get and Jackman could give them some additional offense and help on the power play. The point is that the Ducks have players in house and available in free agency to maintain their status as an elite team in the NHL.

This also gives the Ducks all the money they need to re-sign J.S. Giguere. While the Ducks will not be able to replace Scott Niedermayer they will still be in good shape to retool and make a strong defense of their title.
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UPDATE (Tuesday, June 19th - 5:30pm PT)

I'm on my way out the door but wanted to pass along information that will back-up what Ek has already reported. I met up with J.S. Giguere today and while he cannot disclose information about his negotiations with the Ducks I left the conversation very confident that he will re-sign with Anaheim.

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