Ducks Executive Vice President/General Manager Bob Murray spoke via conference call shortly after the trade.

On Cogliano
We dabbled in this a bit over the last year and a half. The biggest thing for us is speed. We tried to increase our team speed the last couple of years and we really haven’t accomplished that. He can definitely skate.

He’ll get in here. He’s a very good kid. Unfortunately for him, he was in Edmonton at the time when they were at the bottom trying to work back up and it was a bit of a rough go. He has a fresh start here. I have no idea where he is going to play here. That will be for Randy and him. The chemistry that happens through camp and through the beginning of the season will determine where he plays.

He was a great college player. I remember watching him at Michigan. He went into Edmonton right away because that is where they were at that point in time. Sometimes that sets a guy back a bit. I’m not saying it did here, but sometimes you have to be careful. He went in and scored a bunch of goals. Last year, he was a penalty killer and a checker. He prided himself on that and did a pretty good job. He’s very versatile and we like that here.

I haven’t talked (to his agent). I don’t know if I’m confident or not. If we have to go to arbitration, we have to go to arbitration. We’ll do one-year deals, if that is how they want to go. We’re here.

We’re hoping he is a good fit and gets comfortable very quickly here. You never know if it’s going to happen. Sometimes guys don’t want a change of address, but need a change of address. This may be a really good case for that.

He improved immensely. He takes pride in that. The only way for him to get ice time last year was to be a better penalty killer and to be a better faceoff guy. He’s proud of that role he did last year. That is a factor. We know we are not very good on faceoffs. We probably have to get somebody else if we can that can win faceoffs also.

He was an exciting, fast scorer at Michigan. He didn’t worry too much about his own zone at Michigan. But they were very good then, so he didn’t have to.

On Sexton
Dan has come in and provided good depth for us. We did the contract the way we did because we get tired of losing guys on waivers. This way I don’t think we do. He has a chance to play here and if he doesn’t, he is a really good depth player. We have to improve our depth around here. I have said that a few times and we are continuing to try to do that.

On Selanne
I talked to Teemu yesterday. His kids are in a camp and he is out there skating with them he says. We said we’ll talk next week like we always planned. He said he feels good.

On Deslauriers
He’s a big guy, been in the NHL and fought for the No. 1 job. It’s been rough. I needed some protection here a little bit. Pete Peeters has coached him, so he knows him. Pete was in last week and we went over a group of guys. That is why we did what we did. We feel comfortable now if there are problems with Jonas, we can get through the beginning until we have to do what we have to do. We’re hoping that never happens. If all goes well and Jonas is good from the beginning, we are really strong in goal. We are trying not to get to where we were last year, but sometimes it happens.



Deslauriers will earn $600,000 in the NHL and $105,000 in the AHL in the first year and $625,000 in the second.