User:Cool a123/sandbox/History of the Anaheim Ducks

History
==1993-2004: The DThe Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company. The franchise was awarded by the NHL in December 1992, along with the rights to a Miami team that became the Florida Panthers. An entrance fee of $50 & nbsp;million was required, half of which Disney paid to the Los Angeles Kings as compensation for sharing the Southern California NHL market. On March 1, 1993, at the brand-new Anaheim Arena – located a short distance east of Disneyland and across the Orange Freeway from Angel Stadium – the team received its name, inspired by the 1992 Disney movie  The Mighty Ducks  , based on a group of misfit kids who turn their losing youth hockey team into a winning team. Disney President Michael Eisner had already said on the December press conference that the film's success served as "our market research". As a result of the name adoption, the arena was named "The Pond", and Disney subsequently made an animated series called   Mighty Ducks  , featuring a fictional Mighty Ducks of Anaheim team consisting of anthropomorphized ducks led by the Mighty Duck Wildwing. isney Era==

Philadelphia -arena management specialist Tony Tavares was chosen to be team president, and Jack Ferreira, who previously helped create the San Jose Sharks , became the Ducks' general manager. The Ducks selected Ron Wilson to be their first head coach in team history. The Ducks and the expansion Florida Panthers team filled out their rosters in the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft and the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. In the former, a focus on defense led to goaltenders Guy Hebert and Glenn Healy being the first picks, followed by Alexei Kasatonov and Steven King. In the latter, the Ducks selected Paul Kariya as the fourth overall pick, who began play in only 1994 and became the face of the franchise for many years. The resulting roster had the lowest payroll of the NHL at only $7.9 & nbsp;million.

The franchise's first game was played at home on October 8, 1993, against the Detroit Red Wings, preceded by a 20-minute pregame show at the cost of $450,000. The Ducks lost 7–2. Two games later, on October 13, 1993, also on home ice, the Ducks won the first game in franchise history 4–3 over the Edmonton Oilers. The team won 14 of their first 38 games, including four road games in a row in November against Canadian Western Conference teams, and their first shut out in team history on December 15, 1993, a 1–0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Led by captain Troy Loney, the Ducks entered February 1994 in eighth place in the Western Conference. However, any realistic chance the Ducks had of making the Stanley Cup playoffs ended with a 6–0 loss to the San Jose Sharks on April 1. The Ducks' finished the season 33–46–5, a record-breaking number of wins for an expansion team, which the Florida Panthers also achieved. The Ducks sold out 27 of 41 home games, including the last 25, and filled the Arrowhead Pond to 98.9% of its season capacity. Ducks licensed merchandise shot to number one in sales among NHL clubs, helped by their presence in Disney's theme parks and Disney Store s. Near the end of the season, Disney President Frank Wells died in a helicopter accident on April 3, 1994. They honored him by wearing Mickey Mouse patches with the initials "FGW" on them. Steve Rucchin was selected second overall in the 1994 Supplemental Draft.

With the 1994–95 NHL lockout in place, the Mighty Ducks did not play on the ice again until January 20, 1995. The shortened season marked the debut of Paul Kariya, who played in 47 of the team's 48 games that year, scoring 18 goals and 21 assists for 39 points. The Ducks had another respectable season, going 16–27–5. The 1995–96 season marked a big change for the team, especially for second-year superstar Kariya. During the season, he was chosen to play for the Western Conference in the 1996 NHL All-Star Game as the lone Ducks representative. At the time of his selection, January 1996, he was ranked 14th in the NHL scoring with 51 points (23 goals and 28 assists) over 42 games. However, despite his efforts, the Ducks were a low-scoring team.

Taste of success
On February 7, 1996, the Mighty Ducks made a blockbuster deal with the Winnipeg Jets, sending Chad Kilger , Oleg Tverdovsky and a third-round draft pick to the Jets in exchange for Marc Chouinard , a fourth-round draft pick and, most notably, star right winger Teemu Selanne. Following the trade, Ducks centre Steve Rucchin commented, "Paul [Kariya] had a lot of pressure on him... He singlehandedly won some games for us this year... Now that we have Teemu, there's no way everybody can just key on Paul." These three players formed one of the most potent lines of their time. Although the trade proved to be an important effort in the team, they still finished short of the playoffs, losing the eight spot in the West to the Jets based on the number of wins.

During the 1996–97 season, Kariya became team captain following Randy Ladouceur 's retirement in the off-season, and led the Ducks to their first post-season appearance , after recording the franchise's first winning record of 36–33–13, good enough for home ice in first-round playoff series as the number four seed against the Phoenix Coyotes. Selanne ended the season second in the NHL with 109 points—which remains a team record—while Kariya ended the season third with 99 points. The Ducks won the first two games at home but then lost the next three. Game 6 went to overtime, where Kariya tied the series with a slapshot that beat goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. The Mighty Ducks went on to win Game 7 at home to win their inaugural playoff series. However, Anaheim was swept by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings in the second round. Despite the four-game sweep, all four games were closely contested in the series; three went into overtime, including one that went into double overtime and one went into triple overtime.

The 1997–98 season was the worst in Mighty Ducks history as the team finished with a disappointing 26–43–13 record. Kariya was injured and Selanne provided the only real source of offense for the Ducks. Despite the team's lack of success, Selanne finished the season tied for first in the NHL in goals with 52, still a team record, and eighth in the NHL in points with 86.