Aaron Voros traded to Toronto.

Aaron Voros’ brief time in Anaheim came to an end Tuesday when the veteran was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2011 entry draft.

In 12 games with the Ducks, Voros had no goals, no assists, a minus-4 rating and 43 penalty minutes. The 29-year-old left wing, who was assigned to the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch after clearing waivers last week, will report to the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate.

With the Maple Leafs, Voros would be reunited with Mike Brown, the same player he was signed in the off-season to replace in the lineup. Unlike Brown, however, Voros was never a steady contributor as the fourth line left wing. He appeared in just 11 of the team’s first 31 games before he broke an orbital bone during a fight in Vancouver.

After coming off injured reserve, Voros played only one game – Feb. 2 against the San Jose Sharks – before being placed on waivers.

It’s the second trade between the two teams in the last week. The Ducks pried Francois Beauchemin from Toronto for Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner and a conditional draft pick last week.

With the trade deadline 13 days away, one has to wonder: Will there be a third?

Ducks re-acquire Beauchemin for Lupul, Gardiner.

Defenseman Francois Beauchemin is coming back to Anaheim in a major deal announced Wednesday that will send forward Joffrey Lupul, defenseman prospect Jake Gardiner and a conditional fourth-round draft pick in 2013 to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Beauchemin, who played for the Ducks from 2006-09, has two goals, 12 points and 16 penalty minutes in 54 games with the Maple Leafs this season. An alternate captain in Toronto, the 30-year-old Beauchemin was second only to Dion Phaneuf in ice time (23:45) and was leading the team in blocked shots (131). In addition to Beauchemin’s physical play, the Ducks get a more reliable puck-mover from the back end than they currently possess outside Lubomir Visnovsky and Cam Fowler.

Lupul had scored five goals and 13 points in 26 games since returning from a blood infection in December. The 27-year-old winger was well off his career point production, relegated to a third-line role and second-unit power play duty while averaging just 13:13 per game.

Gardiner, 20, is a former first-round draft pick (17th overall, 2008) playing for the University of Wisconsin. In 30 games this season, he has seven goals, 30 points and a plus-20 rating.

The trade will allow the Ducks to save $450,000 toward the salary cap this year and next. In terms of actual salary, Beauchemin represents a net savings this year ($4.25 to $3.55 million) and next year ($4.25 to $3.8 million) and comes off the books in 2012, a year ahead of Lupul.

More details to follow …

Toronto 5, Ducks 2.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere was ready for this one.

The most decorated goaltender in Anaheim history, playing his first game against his former team since the trade that sent him to Toronto last January, made 26 saves and outshone successor Jonas Hiller at the Air Canada Centre.

Dan Sexton and Brandon McMillan scored the Ducks’ goals, the latter giving Anaheim a 2-1 lead at 5:23 of the second period. But Toronto scored four unanswered as the Ducks couldn’t stop the bleeding defensively. Hiller made plenty of All-Star caliber saves, but let in some relatively easy ones in stopping 32 of 37.

Mikhail Grabovski scored two goals and linemate Clarke MacArthur added a goal and an assist. Phil Kessel had a pair of assists for Toronto, which was coming off a 7-0 loss at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

Ducks Day 2 draft notes.

10:16 a.m.: With their second-round pick, the Ducks take right wing Devante Smith-Pelly, a right wing from Mississauga St. Michael’s (OHL). He is listed at 5-11, 211 pounds.

Smith-Pelly had 29 goals and 62 points in 60 games last season. He was ranked 67th among North American Skaters by Central Scouting in the midterm rankings, and 76th in the final rankings.

For Smith-Pelly, hearing his name called 42nd overall wasn’t necessarily a surprise.

“I wasn’t really sure exactly where I was going to go,” he said. “I came in not expecting to go anywhere, really, just soaking it all in. Then to hear my name called was exciting.”

The 18-year-old compared his game to that of Dustin Brown, the versatile Kings winger who can score, defend and hit with equal ease. Smith-Pelly described himself as “a guy who can excel in a top-6 forward role or a bottom-6 forward role.” This in spite of the fact that he came to the OHL from a team – the Junior Canadiens – “where defense was optional.”

Don’t be surprised if the Ducks ask him to spend some extra time in juniors to hone the defensive side of his game. For as much as Smith-Pelly would like to make the NHL club, the Memorial Cup tournament is coming to Mississauga next year, and his team will have the automatic berth given to the host squad.

12:15 p.m.: The Ducks have acquired the Toronto Maple Leafs’ fifth-round pick (122nd overall) for right wing Mike Brown, and used it to select Christopher Wagner, a right wing for the South Shore Kings of the Eastern Junior Hockey League. Wagner had 34 goals and 83 points in 44 games last season for South Shore.

Anaheim then used its own fifth-round pick (132nd overall) to select Tim Heed, a defenseman from Sweden. Heed was the 30th-ranked European skater by Central Scouting. The 19-year-old had eight goals and 37 points in 32 games last year for Sodertalje of the of the Swedish Elite League.

Neither player is here at Staples Center, but I did ask Brian Burke about Brown. Even though he didn’t trade for Brown – that was one of Bob Murray’s first deals as Ducks GM – he was on the Maple Leafs’ radar. “We’re very pleased,” Burke said.

The 25-year-old Brown set career highs in 2009-10 with 75 games played, six goals, seven points and 106 penalty minutes.

12:45 p.m.: The Ducks have chosen Swedish center Andreas Dahlstrom with the first of their two sixth-round picks, 161st overall. The scouting report, according to Eliteprospects.com

A very shifty player. Dahlstrm has impressive hands and technical
skills and is very creative. Can do the unexpected with the puck at all
times. Hockey sense is good and passing game is impressive. Skating
could maybe use some improvement as well as his finishing ability.
Injuries have also slowed down his development, but he has the potential
to become a high scoring player.

1:05 p.m.: Kevin Lind (Chicago, USHL) becomes the newest Duck with the 177th pick of the draft. Anaheim has one pick left, a seventh-rounder.

Lind fell from the 32nd to 139th on Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters. HockeysFuture.com ranked him as the 10th-best draft prospect in the entire USHL in January. According to the Ducks’ director of amateur scouting, Martin Madden, Lind was hurt by playing on a poor team and pushing back his college entry by a year (he’ll attend Notre Dame after playing next season in the USHL).

1:18 p.m.: The Ducks used their last pick of the draft (192nd overall) on Brett Perlini, a sophomore fowrard from Michigan State. The 20-year-old had seven goals and 12 points in 20 games last season. His father, Fred Perlini, played eight NHL games as a center for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Giguere traded to Toronto.

The Ducks have traded Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the most decorated goalie in franchise history, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Jason Blake and goaltender Vesa Toskala.

The writing was on the wall Saturday, when the Ducks tabbed Jonas Hiller as their goaltender of the future by extending his contract for four years. Giguere, who was set to become a free agent after the 2010-11 season, must waive his no-trade clause to approve any trade.** He was expected to do so to be reunited with goaltending consultant Francois Allaire and general manager Brian Burke in Toronto, which is also much closer to his native Montreal.

Toskala, 32, lost his starting job to Jonas Gustafsson in Toronto, and will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, when he is owed $4 million. Blake, 36, still has two years and $6 million remaining on his contract after this season, with a cap hit of $4 million each year.

Toskala has appeared in 260 career games with Toronto and San Jose, going 127-82-25 with 13 shutouts, a 2.77 goals-against average and .902 save percentage.

Blake peaked as a member of the New York Islanders in 2006-07, when he scored a career-high 40 goals. In an 11-year career that began with the Kings in 1998, Blake has 184 goals and 427 assists in 724 games.

**Update: The Toronto Maple Leafs were one of the teams Giguere previously indicated to Bob Murray that he would be willing to accept a trade to. Presumably, the trade was a done deal as soon as Bob Murray and Brian Burke had decided upon the specifics.
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Ducklings migrating from San Antonio

Some of the Ducks’ top prospects are flying north this winter.


Denied ice time by the Phoenix Coyotes’ prospects playing in San Antonio — the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate — Matt Beleskey, Troy Bodie and Brett Festerling have been re-assigned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. Additionally, Ryan Donally will be assigned to ECHL affiliate Bakersfield.

The Coyotes under new head coach Dave Tippett have gone with an older lineup, and several former young NHLers (Kyle Turris, Viktor Tikhonov, Mikkel Boedker, et. al.) have spent most or all of the season in San Antonio.

The Toronto Marlies are the AHL affiliate of the Toronto Maple Leafs.