Anaheim Ducks

Anaheim entered the NHL in 1993-94 as an expansion team, under the sobriquet "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim." This was the full name, rather than the usual sports convention of "Anaheim Mighty Ducks." The team was originally owned by the The Walt Disney Company who named them after the successful Disney film "The Mighty Ducks." The team was purchased by Henry and Susan Samueli in June 2005, and a year later the franchise name was changed to "Anaheim Ducks."

They play at the like-named Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, an excellent facility which is very close to Disneyland (by no accident). They were one of the first teams with a mascot, Wild Wing.

The team struggled in its first few seasons as most new franchises do, but the team's first-ever draft pick, Paul Karyia as a bright light, debuting in season two. By season three, 95/96, Paul scored 50 goals to lead the team. Late in the season the Ducks executed a trade with the Winnipeg Jets, acquiring star forward Teemu Selanne to compliment Kariya. The Ducks just missed the playoffs that year with at 35-39-8 record.

In 96/97, Selanne and Kariya propelled the Ducks to a winning record (36-33-13) and a first ever playoff appearance, where they defeated the former Jets franchise, now the Phoenix Coyotes, in seven games, only to be swept out of round two by the Cup-bound Detroit Red Wings.

The following season a long contract hold-out by Kariya, and then a subsequent injury, limited him to less than two-dozen games and the Ducks failed to make the playoffs. But in 98/99 Kariya and Selanne again were a potent combination, producing another winning regular season and another playoff appearance. Sadly for Ducks fans, it also produced another Red Wings matchup, and another sweep by the Wings.

1999/2000 saw the team miss the playoffs, and 2000/2001 was also a disappointment. With the team struggling, at the 2001 trade deadline management sent Teemu to the San Jose Sharks.

Though Mighty no longer, the team improved almost immediately upon their leaving the Disney Corporation. They won the 2006-07 Stanley Cup, facing the heavily favoured Ottawa Senators in the finals, in what was the first time two modern era expansion teams had faced each other in the Cup finals.

Team colors: Black and metallic gold, with an orange accent (a "metaphorical link to ... Orange County").
Old "mighty duck" team colors: Purple, Jade, Silver, and White.

AHL affiliate: The Portland Pirates.

Retired Numbers:

• #8  Teemu Selanne
• #99 Wayne Gretzky (league-wide retirement)

A little known fact about hockey's Mighty Ducks is that they originally had two mascots.

Wildwing is their current mascot; a feathery duck with a yellow beak and an old-fashioned goalie's mask in the style of the team's logo, he lives on to this day. But at their first regular-season game, on October 8, 1993, they introduced a second mascot.

Iceman was apparently supposed to be one bad motherfucker, but he pretty much came off as a jerk. He descended from the rafters in a big plastic ship of some sort, stepped out in a black costume, and started pushing the man in the duck suit around.

Suffice it to say, the audience was not thrilled. He was gone by the end of the first period.

Disney's plan for world domination was only set back five years by this unexpected backlash. However, this unprecedented display of individuality suggests that there's still hope for mankind.

Despite the Disney-ish overtones of Wildwing (he looks like a tall, muscular version of what Donald Duck might look like on steroids), local fans were polled to determine whether Wildwing should stay or go when the team transitioned from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim into the Anaheim Ducks in 2006. The overwhelming response was to keep him, and so he, and his granite statue outside of Arrowhead Pond, remain.