What If The Anaheim Ducks Trade of Corey Perry Pulled Through?

Corey Perry picked up his 700th point as an member of the Anaheim Ducks with an assist on Rickard Rakell’s goal on Tuesday.

He is the third player in franchise history to hit this milestone.

But he was never suppose to have a career with the Anaheim Ducks to start with.

GM Bryan Murray (no relation to Bob) traded Corey Perry and a first round pick to the Edmonton Oilers.

In exchange, the Mighty Ducks received Mike Comrie.

The trade, however, fell into the abyss after Edmonton requested Comrie to pay $2.5 million to complete the transaction and he refused.

I do not blame him. He was just two years into his career, only compiling $3.55 million in earnings.

Meaning he would lose a huge chunk of what he had earned.

But what would have happened if it came to fruition?

The Missing Piece:

Kariya was the leading scorer for the franchise for four straight seasons and it was unclear who was going to replace his production.

After his departure, the 2003-04 squad struggled to keep up with the opposition, allowing four or more goals in 20 games.

They also scored 19 less goals and went from a +10 GD to a -29.

As a result, the Mighty Ducks missed out on a play-off spot by 14 points.

Right off the hop, Mike Comrie would have been able to replace the offensive void left by Paul Kariya in the off-season prior as he’s shown he can produce goals.

One knock against Comrie as a player for his position was his size (5’10”).

But for what he lacked in size, he made up for in heads-up plays and versatility.

The Grand Prize:

More from History

• Anaheim Ducks Tales: When Paul Kariya Almost Came Back
• Anaheim Ducks: The Franchise All-Time Bracket Matchup
• Anaheim Ducks: Top 5 Goals in the Stanley Cup Finals
• Anaheim Ducks: The Series that Defined the Decade
• Anaheim Ducks Tales: The Past Reminds Us to be Thankful for the Present

I may get some heat for this but I do not think the Anaheim Ducks would have won the cup in 2007 if it wasn’t for the kid line.

The beauty of the play-offs is that everything shifts another gear.

And while the Perry-Getzlaf-Penner line did well in the regular season.

It’s another thing to continue their strong play in the play-offs that the Anaheim Ducks were the lucky beneficiary of.

They accounted for 16 of 58 total goals scored in the Stanley Cup run, a cool 27.5%.

Every goal they scored came at the right time, especially in the first round versus Minnesota where the games were tightly contested.

Case in point: each of them had at least one game-winning goal, Getzlaf had a total of three.

A Thorn:

You best believe that Corey Perry would try to bury his former team every time he came to town.

With his occasionally dirty plays and sneaky trash talk, playing against him would be a pain. Especially when he can get the last laugh by scoring a goal.

Next: Anaheim Dumps Stefan Noesen

But like the case with Stefane Robidas and Ryan Garbutt, if you can’t beat them, sign them.