Count Kevin Lowe among those happy to see Anaheim in the Stanley Cup final.
The Oilers general manager will have an extra first-round draft choice at his disposal next year thanks to a condition inserted in last summer's trade that sent star defenceman Chris Pronger to the Ducks.
The clause stipulated that if Anaheim made it to the Cup final this year — which it did by wrapping up its Western Conference final against the Detroit Red Wings with a victory on Tuesday — Edmonton would get the Ducks' first-round pick in 2008.
"It's been an interesting spring, trying to convince people that after all the fallout [from the Pronger deal], we needed to be cheering for Anaheim up until now," Lowe, whose team missed the playoffs, told the Canadian Press on Wednesday.
"It's official: we can start cheering for Ottawa as of last night."
Lowe dealt Pronger — who led Edmonton to the 2006 Cup final — to the Ducks last July 3 in exchange for winger Joffrey Lupul, prospect defenceman Ladislav Smid, a first-round draft pick in the 2007 entry draft, a second-round draft choice in the 2008 draft and "future considerations.
"
That became a first-rounder when Anaheim played its way into a Cup-final meeting with the Ottawa Senators, though it will be at best the second-to-last pick of the opening round.
"I'm very happy to pay it," Ducks GM Brian Burke told CP on Wednesday. "What happened is that we were getting the deal done and Kevin said, 'I'm giving you a ticket to the final.
' So I said, 'Well, if we make it to the final, I'll put in another first-rounder.'"
When the Stanley Cup final begins next week, the residents of Almonte in eastern Ontario will be faced with a tough call — whether to cheer for the hometown boy or for what many consider their hometown team. Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and an assist in Anaheim's 4-3 win over the visiting Detroit Red Wings Tuesday night, as the Ducks will meet Ottawa in the Stanley Cup final. Former Calgary Flames defenceman Jordan Leopold was among four players re-signed by the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. A 17-year-old Inuvialuit girl whose dazzling work between the pipes turned spectators' and hockey scouts' heads at this year's Canada Winter Games has received a sports scholarship to attend university in the United States. Iran continues to enrich uranium and is expanding its program in defiance of a UN Security Council deadline, the UN's nuclear watchdog says in a confidential report.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and rival Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met Wednesday for the first time since factional fighting engulfed the Gaza Strip two weeks ago, but failed to reach an agreement on halting rocket attacks on Israel. Thousands of Palestinians streamed out of a refugee camp in Lebanon overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday during a break in fighting between government troops and Islamic militants. A 15-year-old boy has died after being shot at a school in Toronto's north end on Wednesday, police said. A police recording of a call made by an RCMP officer after he fatally shot a young man he had arrested was played at a coroner's inquest in northern B.C. The brother of a Vancouver woman who disappeared while backpacking in Syria has returned to Toronto empty-handed after searching for her. Aspirin seems to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by blocking an enzyme that causes inflammation, researchers have found. Using antibiotics for two to four weeks is enough to treat Lyme disease and there is no compelling evidence that longer treatments help, U.S. neurologists said Wednesday in releasing new guidelines.
Giving pure oxygen to people struggling to breathe might harm the brain, while adding carbon dioxide could help, researchers say. Deal or No Deal's Howie Mandel, The Late Late Show's Craig Ferguson and U.S. comedian George Lopez will each headline a gala show at Toronto's first Just for Laughs festival.
Robert Ash, the children's show host known by generations of Canadian children as Uncle Bobby, has died, according to his former employer. Canadian bands Billy Talent and Nickelback lead the field of nominees for this year's rollicking MuchMusic Video Awards. A fossil thought to show feathers on a dinosaur in fact shows the remains of connective tissue, say scientists who have rebutted an earlier study. Americans are getting more junk e-mail than ever before, but seem less bothered by it, according to a study published Wednesday. Scientists have found some fungi can turn radiation into an energy source for spurring growth, a discovery that could prove useful in cleaning up radioactive sites. The U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management is part of a second consortium that is in talks to acquire BCE, the communications giant said Wednesday.
The Bank of Montreal said Wednesday that it had eked out a second-quarter profit increase, despite losses on natural gas trading. Workers at the Voisey's Bay nickel mine in northern Labrador walked off the job Wednesday, forcing the mine to shut down. As the Canadian dollar continues to surge, Canadians are checking into five-star hotels and opting for luxury vacation packages, some U.S. tour operators say. EU lawmakers backed legislation Wednesday that will allow people to chat on cellphones without having to worry about costly roaming fees, even when calling Paris from Prague. The launch of Sunday shopping on P.E.I. last weekend opened Charlottetown's racino for gambling, but bar owners are annoyed they still can't run their VLTs on Sundays.
The Toronto Blue Jays will try to continue their recent mastery of the Orioles as the teams resume their three-game set Wednesday night in Baltimore. Filippo Inzaghi scored two goals Wednesday to help AC Milan win the European Cup title for the seventh time after a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the Champions League final in Athens. The Edmonton Oilers will have an extra first-round draft choice at their disposal next year thanks to a condition inserted in last summer's trade that sent Chris Pronger to the Anaheim Ducks.
Keywords: Stanley Cup, Detroit Red, Chris Pronger, Detroit Red Wings, Red Wings
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