A fairly busy day in Anaheim, what with the Angels wrapping the regular season and the Ducks signing Teemu Selanne to a new two-year deal. Taking things a little out of sequence -- because I was giving the AP a hand on the Selanne story -- here are some of general manager Brian Burke's comments this afternoon, after the signing and before the Ducks played Vancouver in an exhibition game. (Because of the game, Selanne's won't be available to comment until later.)

On the two-year term of the contract, reported by the Orange County Register's Dan Wood to be worth $5.25 million:
"It was Teemu's request. I think he's entertaining thoughts of playing next year if his body will allow him to do it. The Olympics, in particular, have an allure for him. That would probably be his last competition in a Team Finland uniform. I'm not saying that he's going to get there -- either from a longevity standpoint or from a player-selection standpoint. That's up to the Finns. But I think that's in the back of his mind."

On the significance of the dollar figure, which Burke is not allowed to reveal:
"I will say, because I want to make sure I don't overlook this: These values reflect what Teemu means to us, and what Anaheim means to him. These are below-market numbers. What Teemu could command, what he could have commanded the last two seasons -- this is a guy who's taking a pay cut to play for Anaheim. And I think anytime an athlete does that it should be noted and singled out and praised. This is a wonderful young man. And by taking the salary he's taking, he's given us money to spend elsewhere to try and win. A very, very rare guy. My admiration for him has always been considerable, but it just goes up all the time."

On concerns Selanne might once again mull retirement after the season and leave the Ducks in a salary-cap bind:
"I just had this debate with somebody. Someone said it's not right for these guys to have trouble making up their mind, and I said, our league is better if those guys play even half a year. ...
"So, to me, I think with these older players, it's a legitimate wrestling match with what to do, and if they decide to play partial seasons, they're not under contract to anybody. They're not screwing anybody staying out. ...
"I think you're going to see more of it, not less."

On getting under the salary cap -- since, with Selanne's signing, the team is reported to be about $1.2 million over:
"There's a whole bunch of ways to deal with it. One is to send players down, whether they're players on two-ways or one-ways. One is to trade a player for a pick, you know, move some money and not take any money back. Those are all options; we're looking at all of them. We don't anticipate we'll have a problem getting under the cap to start the year, or we wouldn't have done this."
It will, he said, be much easier than the deal last week to get Mathieu Schneider's contract off the books, which the Ducks accomplished by trading the defenseman to Atlanta for three players.
"Until we dealt with the Mathieu Schneider situation, it hasn't been a whole lot of fun, because you don't feel like you've got control over the decision-making process. You're really at the mercy of the team stepping up. I feel, until that happened, I don't feel like I had control of the steering wheel. And I don't like that.
"This will be an easier process. It will be purely a hockey decision that makes sense, or we've got internal options" (like sending young forward Bobby Ryan to the minors).