Ducks Think of Finish at Start

Sean O’Donnell doesn’t count on playing hockey too many more years. At 34, he insists he’s no Chris Chelios, the Detroit Red Wings’ 43-year-old wonder.

“I’m not going to be around in three or four more years, I can guarantee you that,” O’Donnell said.

So it figures that the opening of training camp for the Ducks today at Anaheim Ice would be just another run-of-the-mill exercise for the veteran defenseman, now 12 years into the league with his sixth team.

But this camp is like no other one for O’Donnell or the Ducks, a franchise that faces expectations it has never had in its 13-year history. The Ducks are actively thinking Stanley Cup and may have the goods to deliver it.

“In Boston, we had some real good teams there,” O’Donnell said. “The year I was traded to New Jersey, we went to the finals. But this is the first team I’ve been on where there were these kinds of expectations going into camp.

“Once the playoffs roll around, we’re going to have expectations anyway. Might as well have them now.”

One player largely signifies the Ducks’ new outlook. General Manager Brian Burke swung a deal July 3, landing superstar defenseman Chris Pronger. The former Hart and Norris Trophy winner had forced a trade from Edmonton shortly after leading the Oilers to the Stanley Cup finals.

The trade cost the Ducks young goal scorer Joffrey Lupul, but Pronger joins a cast largely intact from the end of last season, which ended on home ice in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

Teemu Selanne is coming off a 40-goal bounce-back season at 35. Andy McDonald had a breakout season with 34 goals and 85 points. The Ducks also have an envied core of offense-minded youngsters who are expected to shoulder a greater load.

The defense, though, is getting most of the attention. The addition of Pronger to Norris finalist Scott Niedermayer gives the Ducks the kind of defensive depth that no other team in the NHL can match.

Pronger and Niedermayer are arguably the two best defensemen in the league, though they figure to play together only in some power-play and penalty-killing situations.

But the Ducks are salivating at the thought of having at least one of them on the ice at all times.

“I don’t really look at that too much because we haven’t played a game yet,” Pronger said on a conference call. “Everything can always look good on paper. You’ve got to go out and play the games, you’ve got to go out and compete and win hockey games.

“Until we do that, people can predict, project and all the rest of that.”

Second-year defenseman Francois Beauchemin was a revelation after being acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Sergei Fedorov deal. The Ducks also have a savvy veteran in O’Donnell and the serviceable Joe DiPenta, but they also need to fill holes created by letting Ruslan Salei become a free agent and trading Vitaly Vishnevski.

The Ducks also go into camp with Jean-Sebastien Giguere and newly re-signed Ilya Bryzgalov in goal. Both figure to be given opportunities to win the No. 1 job and the loser may be an unhappy camper.

Of any player on the camp roster, Selanne may be the happiest with the Pronger acquisition. The two have had a bitter rivalry over the last few years, and the physical 6-foot-6, 220-pound Pronger won’t be pounding Selanne the way he did in their battles over the years.

Then again, Pronger may run him into the boards just for old time’s sake.

“Just to remind me of how it was,” Selanne joked.

“It’s funny. We’ve had our battles. But when we met [two weeks ago], before we said a word we both started laughing and shook hands.”

O’Donnell cautioned that the other 29 teams care little about prognosticators tabbing the Ducks as a Cup favorite. But he said their new role makes training camp a lot more tolerable.

“Winning, or the anticipating of winning, makes things a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable,” he said. “So we’ll see how camp goes. I figure the sooner we get through with camp and iron out all the wrinkles, the sooner we can get to Oct. 6 and get this thing started.

“I’m looking forward to every step.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com