Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said they needed to change the roster in order to get closer to winning the Stanley Cup, and the front office did a good job in its attempt.
"I think it was just time to have a little bit of a change," Getzlaf told the Ducks website in remarks published Thursday. "That group played well together, but we need to take that next step and we need to do it now. That was kind of the message over the summer, that we were going to compete for the Stanley Cup again."
The Ducks lost the Western Conference Final in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks. Anaheim held a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series before losing Game 6 at Chicago and Game 7 at home.
"We had them down, and we had two chances to put them away and didn't do it," Getzlaf said. "… I wish that in Game 6 we would have come out and taken more control of the game than we did (a 5-2 loss the Ducks trailed 3-0)."
Ducks general manager Bob Murray added forwards Carl Hagelin, Shawn Horcoff, Mike Santorelli and Chris Stewart, and defenseman Kevin Bieksa during the offseason.
"We've always had a good line of communication, because [Bob] needs to know whether I've heard things, whether I feel someone will be a good fit in the locker room, those kinds of things," Getzlaf said. "Judging talent and all that stuff is really their department. But we talk about what we need in the locker room, what we were missing last year, that kind of stuff."
Getzlaf will attend his 11th Ducks training camp later this month.
"We're going to get everybody acclimated right away, get together as a group," he said. "This season is going to start really quick (Oct. 10 at the San Jose Sharks), and if you can get out of the gates the way we want to, it makes things a lot easier come February or March. We'll be ready to go."
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