The Mighty Ducks acquired Oleg Tverdovsky from the Phoenix Coyotes in exchange for Travis Green on June 26, 1999, in order to give the team more scoring from the blue line since Fredrik Olausson was the only point producing defence man last season.
Defense man Mike Crowley would not make the roster with the Ducks although scoring 4 goals and 9 points in 28 games over the last two seasons, being sent to the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the IHL.
Anaheim stayed below that mark until January 26, 2000 when rumors surfaced about trading Selanne to give the Ducks more depth in order to make the playoffs, which looked questionable at that point.
Since the Mighty Ducks never were out of the playoff picture fans and experts criticized General Manager Pierre Gauthier's decision not to obtain a player with some scoring touch (Sergei Krivokrasov and Brendan Morrison were dealt at the trading deadline).
Anaheim's biggest problem was their penalty killing: the Mighty Ducks struggled often short-handed during the regular season, as they had the lowest penalty-kill percentage in the NHL at 79.05%.
[1] The defense ranked seventh in the West, but the team's poor penalty kill resulted in 21 more goals allowed than the previous season, which cost them the playoffs.