Ryan Getzlaf believes change had to be made

When you're a captain of a team that has averaged 112 points per season over the last three years (prorating the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season) and you have made it to the Western Conference Final just once, you're going to be pretty open to change.

Ryan Getzlaf is open to the change, and he believes the Ducks' latest moves have officially put Anaheim over the edge.

"I think it was just time to have a little bit of a change," Getzlaf told the Ducks website on 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 had to watch Matt Beleskey bolt for the Boston Bruins, and defenseman Francois Beauchemin sign with the Colorado Avalanche. They also sent Kyle Palmieri to the New Jersey Devils, Emerson Etem to the New York Rangers and James Wisniewski to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Those are significant losses for virtually any team, except for the Ducks. In return, the Ducks traded for forward Carl Hagelin, defenseman Kevin Bieksa and goaltender Anton Khudobin, and signed Chris Stewart, Shawn Horcoff and Mike Santorelli. While Hagelin may be the only forward with top-six caliber, the moves certainly gave the Ducks a lot of depth within the bottom six, something that cup contending teams certainly need. The moves also allows the young power forward Nick Ritchie some NHL time.

It'll take some getting used to, but the faster the team plays well together, the easier their lives will be.

"We're going to get everybody acclimated right away, get together as a group," he said. "This season is going to start really quick, 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."

(h/t NHL)