Selanne won't guarantee this is his final year.
Most signs, if not all, point to this season being Teemu Selanne's last in the NHL. So it was easy to accept his quote (translated from Finnish) in the Aug. 27 edition of Helsingin Sanomat at face value: "This is my last year on the ice."
Not necessarily, Selanne said Wednesday.
"Especially at the end of last season, I had so much fun it's hard to say I don't want to play anymore," he said after taking part in an informal practice at Anaheim ICE. "The passion, the fun of the game - if I still have it (in 2011-12) I still want to play."
The 40-year-old winger has considered retiring three times in the last four years - in 2007, after the Ducks won the Stanley Cup, in 2008 before signing a two-year contract, and again after last season before signing a one-year contract in August.
If anything, Selanne is comfortable making light of his indecision.
"Even my wife doesn't believe me anymore, so maybe nobody should," he joked.
About J.P.
J.P. Hoornstra has been covering the Anaheim Ducks since 2007. Eight months after the University of Wisconsin won its third NCAA hockey championship, he was born in a frigid Madison winter. He betrayed his blue-blooded beginnings by graduating from UCLA in 2003, and welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
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