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Anaheim Ducks ponder a trade with Vancouver Canucks for Kevin Bieksa

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With the unrestricted free agent market drying up and the list of restricted free agents dwindling, the next way to add players is by exploiting another team’s need for a salary dump.

While the Anaheim Ducks are becoming known for penny-pinching ways, their threadbare blueline needs a little help. (I mean, Lubomir Visnovsky can bring some offense to the table, but do you really think he’s a No. 1 guy ... on a good team, at least?) Ben Kuzma of the Vancover Province reports that the Ducks are taking a look at excess Vancouver Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa

The Anaheim Ducks are doing more than kicking the tires on Kevin Bieksa. They’re checking the sticker price.
If the Ducks are willing to part with a draft pick and a prospect, that could send the Vancouver Canucks defenceman and the $3.75 million US remaining on his salary to a team in need of back-end help. It would also ease salary cap concerns for the Canucks, who added $825,000 to the mix Thursday in Jannik Hansen’s arbitration settlement that puts the the club more than $1 million over the $59.4 million ceiling.

After trading defenceman Steve Eminger to the New York Rangers - and losing Scott Niedermayer to retirement - the Ducks are down to Lumobir Visnovsky, Sheldon Brookbank, Tony Lydman and Danny Syvret as roster veterans and have yet to sign restricted free agent James Wisniewski.

It’s amazing how far the Ducks’ defense has fallen from just a few years ago when they had Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer patrolling their blueline (they also had a decent support guy or two leave, like Francois Beauchemin). Bieksa wouldn’t heal all wounds - especially when you consider his injury problems the last few years - but he’d be the top four defenseman the team badly needs.

Bieksa or not, I wonder if the Ducks will dress a playoff-caliber defense next year. In a brutal Pacific division and an ultra-competitive Western Conference, it might be a long shot.