The Ice Sheet: Great Scott!

The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

After months of humming, hawing, indecision, speculation, and waiting, Scott Niedermayer finally announced what we all expected: He's coming out of 'retirement' and will return to the Ducks this season.

Brian Burke announced the big news at a conference Wednesday evening, and was very candid about how the Ducks were behind Niedermayer during the whole process, the fact that there will be no changes to the captaincy (which Chris Pronger now has), and that Scotty should be back within the next couple of weeks.
(Click here to listen to the audio of Burke's press conference.)

"We are obviously very pleased that Scotty has chosen to come back and play," said Executive Vice President/General Manager Brian Burke. "He earned the right to take time in making a decision, one that was clearly difficult for him."

Scotty's return will be HUGE for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who are struggling and sit out of the playoffs with a mediocre 13-12-4 record. The rest of the Western Conference can't be thrilled that the Ducks are getting back a premier defenseman, but they probably expected it to happen sooner or later.

Of course, the Ducks still have to deal with salary cap issues now that their Hall-of-Fame-to-be defenseman has returned to the league. Apart from paying for the salary this season, the Ducks will have to worry about their cap number for NEXT season, no matter if Scotty plays for the Ducks next season or not. Per EJ Hradek of ESPN.com, the Ducks have some creative accounting to do before Niedermayer can play for the Ducks.

This season isn't the issue for the Ducks as the veteran defenseman will be paid roughly $4 million of his annual $6.75 million salary. The problem starts in 2008-09. Under the rules of the collective-bargaining agreement, teams must be under the cap ceiling not only for the current season, but subsequent seasons.

The issue? If Niedermayer comes back, the Ducks' roster would have a full-season cap hit of $52mil, which is over the $50mil limit currently in place. You'll hear it called 'tagging', but it's basically a mechanism to prevent teams from parking expensive players on the sidelines for half a season.

If I were to bet on who the Ducks would trade, and just about everyone is making up their own trades and deals, I'd bet on the Ducks getting rid of Todd Marchant.

Why him? Well, the veteran winger makes $2.47mil per season AND has just five points this season. The Ducks don't really need his defensive services up front, and he'd be the easiest to lose off of the roster. Of course, there aren't going to be teams lining up to acquire an extremely over-paid checking forward, so Burkie might have to sweeten the pot with some honey.

This throw-away line at the bottom of this Los Angeles Times Column will also get Ducks fans in a tizzy.

Meanwhile, Teemu Selanne told a Helsinki newspaper that he would decide between Jan. 1 and the Feb. 26 trade deadline whether to return. Selanne has said he would play only for the Ducks.

If the Ducks are going to have to jump through hoops to get Niedermayer on the roster, how the hell are they going to have enough room for Selanne to join the party?

Gratuitous YouTube Embed: In honor of Niedermayer's return, let's remember that he's not exactly 'hard-working' ;)