This time around the Ducks’ 24-year-old winger knew he had to look out for the retired Niedermayer, but one person that he didn’t expect to run into was the third Canadian Olympic gold medal winning member of the Ducks, Corey Perry.

Perry would make several more appearances last night, accepting both the Hart Trophy as the league’s M.V.P., and the Rocket Richard Trophy as the leading goal scorer.

As for Bobby Ryan, maybe next year he can get some help from fellow American teammate Cam Fowler.

Total Pro Sports – With the start of the 2009-10 NHL Season upon us it’s time to take a look and see how each team stacks up. As per the norm, each preview will be broken down by division in order of how we think the team will finish.

Lets take a look at the Pacific Division for the 2009-10 NHL Preview.

1. San Jose Sharks

The Sharks managed to disappoint yet again in the playoffs last year after being eliminated in the 1st round by the Ducks. They’re hoping that the addition of a superstar winger and new captain will change the result, time will tell.

Despite loosing some depth in their trade with Ottawa the Sharks still have some very talented forwards. Joe Thornton will look to remain as one of the best playmakers in the league and Devin Setoguchi will look to build off of a great sophomore season that saw him collect 65 points. It’ll be interesting to see how Patrick Marleau reacts to his captaincy being taken away and how long it takes for Dany Heatley to find chemistry on the top line.

San Jose is set on defence with a good combination of toughness and offence. Dan Boyle and Rob Blake will yet again be the key catalysts for offence on the point. Marc-Edouard Vlasic will also be able to supply some scoring from the point and Douglas Murray will use his aggressiveness and toughness to hold things down in the Sharks end.

Evgeni Nabokov will be looking for his 3rd 40+ win season in a row and with an unknown backup in Thomas Greiss  it isn’t that unrealistic as Nabokov will most likely end up playing 65+ games in the regular season.

2. Anaheim Ducks

Despite the loss of two key defencemen over the summer the Ducks still have a solid roster and will look to build off of a fairly successful playoff run that saw them beat the Sharks and give the Red Wings everything they had.

Up front Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry still lead the Ducks offence. Teemu Selanne will be able to help out with the secondary scoring and Bobby Ryan should have a great sophomore season. Saku Koivu should be solid as the team’s 2nd line centre and Joffrey Lupul will look to forget his days in Philly and rekindle the success he had in Anaheim before being traded to Edmonton.

On defence veteran Scott Niedermayer leads what will be an underrated group. Ryan Whitney will be helping out Niedermayer with offence from the blue line and Luca Sbisa will show why he was picked 19th overall in the 2008 draft. Nick Boynton will look to build off of a successful 2008-09 season with Florida and James Wisniewski will have a solid season as he collected 11 points in 17 games with Anaheim after being traded from Chicago last season.

In net the Ducks will have a healthy battle between Jonas Hiller and Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Jiggy struggled last season which saw him loose his starting job to Jonas Hiller who had a great showing in the playoffs. If I was a betting man, I’d put my money down on Hiller to win the starting job.

3. Dallas Stars

Dallas had a terrible 2008-09 that saw them end with just 83 points and end up on the outside looking in during the playoffs.

Dallas really missed captain Brenden Morrow last season as he was only able to play in 18 games in which he managed 15 points. They’ll also be looking for a solid season out of Brad Richards as he was able to collect 48 points in just 56 games last year. The underrated Mike Ribeiro will be looking to crack the 70+ point mark for the 2nd season in a row and Loui Eriksson should be good for 30+ goals again. Budding power forward James Neal will look to improve from a successful rookie season as well as Fabian Brunnstrom who had 29 points in 55 games.

Although the Stars defence is fairly young and talented they’ll sorely miss the play and leadership of one Sergei Zubov.  Matt Niskanen will be taking Zubov’s spot as the go-to guy on the point on the power play with help from Stephane Robidas and Trevor Daley. Mark Fistric and Nicklas Grossman will give the team some solid defensive play and Jeff Woywitka will look to solidify himself as an NHL defenceman.

Marty Turco will have a great rebound season and Alex Auld is a solid reliable backup who can also start a few games if Turco happens to fall to injury.

4. Los Angeles Kings

As expected the Kings had a terrible 2008-09 season. However, there’s some optimism surrounding this young team heading into the season.

Anze Kopitar is the star of the Kings offence, although he took a bit of a step backwards last season recording 66 points and Dustin Brown brings a combination of toughness and scoring ability. There are some big question marks regarding three players: Alexander Frolov, Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams. Frolov seems to be on the outs and has been rumoured to be playing on the checking line. Ryan Smyth brings with him some leadership qualities but he’s run into some injury trouble the last couple of seasons which will effect his offensive production. Big fan of Justin Williams and think he’ll be great on the team’s top line, but he’s another case of a skilled winger who can’t seem to stay healthy.

Whether the Kings improve on last year will rely fairly heavily on how the team’s defence performs. Drew Doughty had a great rookie capaign while Jack Johnson is still struggling to find his game in the NHL. Both Matt Greene and Sean O’Donnell are tough hard-nosed defencemen that will play solid in the Kings’ end and they’ll be getting some help in that department with the offseason addition of Rob Scuderi.

In net there should be a good battle for the starter’s job between Erik Ersberg and Jonathan Quick. At the end of the day though, the Kings will most likely just go with the hot hand rather than have a true #1.

5. Phoenix Coyotes

If there’s one team to feel sorry for for the 2009-10 season it’s the Phoenix Coyotes. They have a decent roster on paper, but the off-ice destractions on the sale of the team may be too much to handle for the players.

Up front the ‘Yotes are lead by the usual suspects in Shane Doan, Martin Hanzal and Peter Mueller. Despite only registering 28 points, Mikkel Boedker still had a successful rookie season displaying his speed, offensive and defensive abilities. Speaking of speed, Matthew Lombardi is expected to use his to put up some points and Scottie Upshall will be looking to act as the team’s tough pest while adding 30-40 points. Robert Lang was a savy pickup and will most likely be the team’s #1 centre.

On the backend Phoenix is looking fairly solid. Although his plus/minus takes a hit, Ed Jovanovski is a decent defenceman who plays tough and can also score some points. Zbynek Michalek will look to continue to grow as an NHL defenceman after putting up 27 points last season and Adrian Aucoin will look to continue his offensive play after back-to-back 30+ point seasons.

Ilya Bryzgalov will once again be looked upon to try and stand on his head. Although he is on Phoenix he should still be able to register around 25-30 wins as he’ll most likely end up starting 65+ games this year. Jason LaBarbera is a good backup but nothing special as he suffers from streakiness.

Total Pro Sports – With the 12:00pm EST July 1st deadline just hours away it’s time to take a look at some of the big fishes that will be available in this year’s UFA pond. With the salary cap speculated to decrease for the 2010-11 season it’ll be interesting to see what kind of contracts these players end up getting.

LW & C – Daniel & Henrik Sedin: Possibly the creepiest brothers in the NHL, they’re also two of the younger, highly skilled players available this summer. They’ll be signing as a package deal, but within that package you get two talented forwards who are in the prime of their careers and will average in the 70-80 points each per season range. Update: Re-signed w/Vancouver for 5 years @ 6.1 mil per

RW – Marian Gaborik: My personal favourite in this year’s free agent class. Gaborik has been bothered with injuries during his young career as he’s only been able to play a total of 207 games the past 4 seasons. However, despite this he still has a tremendous amount of talent and Martin Havlat showed this past season that it is possible to shake the injury bug. Update: Signed w/N.Y. Rangers for 5 years @ 7.5 mil per

RW – Marian Hossa: Poor, poor Marian. Loses in the Cup final with Pittsburgh, decides to sign a one-year deal with the Red Wings thinking they have a better shot at the Cup and then he ends up losing in the Cup final again against his former team in the Penguins. One of Hossa’s best traits is that he produces in both the regular season and playoffs. In 775 career regular season games he has 719 points and in 98 career playoff games he has 76 points. Update: Signed w/Chicago for 12 years @ 5.2 mil per

RW – Martin Havlat: The man made of glass was finally able to break whatever curse it was he had and showed just how much talent he has last season. Playing in 81 games for the Blackhawks last season, the most since the 2000-01 season with Ottawa, Havlat racked up 77 points. If Martin can make a habit of staying healthy he’d be a great addition for any team looking for a skilled winger. Update: Signed w/Minnesota for 6 years @ 5 mil per

LW/C – Mike Cammalleri: Mike enjoyed a great bounce back season with the Flames last year and will look to use that as leverage when signing his new contract this summer. Cammalleri scored the most goals out of the available UFAs this year with 39. Take that with the fact that he just turned 27 on June 8 and Mike shouldn’t have a shortage of teams willing to sign him to a big contract this week. Update: Signed w/Montreal for 5 years @ 6 mil per

LW – Alex Tanguay: Only played 50 games due to injury but was still able to put up 41 points with the Canadiens this past season. Thankfully for Alex he doesn’t have a big history of injuries like a Havlat or Gaborik and is in the prime of his career at the age of 29. Update: Signed w/Tampa Bay for 1 year @ 2.5 mil

D – Scott Niedermayer: Would be surprised if he signed with anyone but Anaheim. However, stranger things have happened. Scott brings great leadership, offence, solid defense and can still skate with the best of them at the age of 35 (will be turning 36 on August 31). Niedermayer would be a great short-term signing for any contending team looking for blueline help. Update: Re-signed w/Anaheim for 1 year @ 6 mil (including bonuses)

D – Mike Komisarek: Is mostly a one dimensional player but is great at that dimension. Komisarek is as hard-nosed as they come and is entering the prime of his career at the age of 27. Despite those positives I can’t help but see a team giving him a Jeff Finger-like overpayment which could end up handcuffing the team that signs him. Update: Signed w/Toronto for 5 years @ 4.5 mil per

RW – Alexei Kovalev: Possibly the most frustrating player available this summer. Is arguably the most talented UFA available and in the entire league, but is known for only playing when he wants to. If a coach out there thinks he can get the best out of Alexei and does, Kovalev could end up being the best signing out of the 2009 UFA group. Update: Signed w/Ottawa for 2 years @ 5 mil per

G – Nikolai Khabibulin: The best goaltender available this year, but at the age of 36, how much is left in the tank? If this past year’s playoffs were any indication, then his tank’s pretty full. He played great for Chicago in the playoffs and would be a terrific signing for a team that’s looking to contend and needs to shore up their goaltending…*cough*…Washington. Update: Signed w/Edmonton for 4 years @ 3.75 mil per

Not a terrible season last year for the Ducks, but with a disappointing playoffs and two of their big free agent signings from a year ago gone, they’ll be looking to have a better year this year. But will they?

Ryan Getzlaf leads the Ducks forwards followed by Corey Perry, Chris Kunitz, Teemu Selanne and Rob Niedermayer.  Brendan Morrison will look to prove that he’s still a top 6 player and young Bobby Ryan is also looking to crack the top 6.

On defence Anaheim is lead by two of the best in Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger.  Francois Beauchemin, Kent Huskins, Ken Klee and Steve Montador round out the blueline.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere is looking for another sold 30+ win season and Jonas Hiller showed last year that he’s a very capable backup.

Anaheim is a good team, but not great. Their lack of depth will end up hurting them and I could see them ending up in a war with Phoenix at the end of the season.