American professional ice hockey center for the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League Ryan Kesler has been skating since he could remember.

Kesler was with the Vancouver Canucks for 10 seasons before moving to play for the Anaheim Ducks. He asked out and used his no-trade clause to narrow the options to two: Anaheim and Chicago. Both teams had openings at 2C. Both gave him a chance to win at age 30.

According to Ducks general manager Bob Murray who had tried acquire Kesler before the trade deadline last season "We got ourselves into a world of hurt years ago. We screwed up, big time. ... I think if you ask Brian Burke, he would tell you the same thing. We tried so hard to win the Cup again that we should have taken a step back and looked at what we were doing."

But aside from KEsler, the ducks ahs acquired young defensemen including Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen.

Murray added "That's always in the back of my mind. Where is that guy on the back end that's going to be that type of guy? They don't fall off the tree very easily. We're trying to grow them here right now, and if you can't grow them."

Now that the Ducks have Kesler, they won't have to overuse Ryan Getzlaf for offensive situation. Coach Bruce Boudreau said "It gives us better options. As far as matchups go, when a team was really matching up on Getzlaf's line, we didn't have that other big center that you needed to maybe match up against maybe their No. 1 line."

Getzlaf also said "I've started a lot, a lot of faceoffs in the defensive zone. Having another guy here who is responsible in our zone and can play those minutes is going to help me in some aspects of the offensive side - and just overall."

On the other hand, Kesler is revitalized with his new team. He said "I'm not old, but I'm getting up there. It's a chance. I know how close these guys were last year, and with the changes they made, hopefully we're that much closer."

"We're a long way from April, May. It's going to be a long year. It's going to be a learning curve for me, a learning curve for some of my teammates, too. But come April, we're going to be ready."