Selanne’s hat trick leads Ducks

One day remains until the NHL trade deadline, and the Ducks are still looking at some potential big targets.

But their best deal may have been done weeks ago.

Teemu Selanne came back from a long sabbatical for a short-season contract that’ll pay him more than $1.75 million. Call it money well spent in the Ducks’ eyes.

Selanne notched his 20th career hat trick game to highlight a five-point night in the Ducks’ 6-3 victory Sunday night over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Honda Center that extended their winning streak to four games.

Selanne now has 546 goals in his career, and he passed legendary Montreal Canadiens star Maurice Richard for 25th place on the all-time list.

“I knew that he had 544,” Selanne said.

“That’s the only guy who I really know how many goals he has. It was special.”

Selanne passed Richard with his second power-play goal in the first period when he ripped a sharp angle shot between the pads of Chicago goalie Patrick Lalime after Ryan Getzlaf drew defenders his way before setting his teammate up.

The third goal was the most important.

After the Blackhawks cut the lead to 4-3 in the third period on Brent Seabrook’s goal, Selanne teamed with linemate Chris Kunitz eight seconds later on a successful redirection play after Samuel Pahlsson won the faceoff at center ice.

“The speed and the space he creates for himself makes him so good,” said Kunitz, who added the final goal along with three assists. “He jumps by guys and he’s always there. You just know he will be right over there if you throw it past your guy.”

The Ducks have been deciding over the last few days whether they want to give up prospects and a potential high first-round selection in this year’s draft to go after a scoring center who could be available in the next 48 hours.

All it cost them to welcome back Selanne was a prorated amount of $570,000 and a $1.2-million bonus that kicked in as he played his 10th game with the Ducks.

In turn, Selanne has six goals -- five coming over the last three games -- and 11 points.

And the Ducks are 9-1 with No. 8 back in uniform.

“The impact Teemu’s made on our team is one that we needed in a positive fashion,” forward Todd Bertuzzi said. “We needed goals and he showed up and he’s supplying them.”

The Ducks (36-23-7) tied their season high for goals, matching what they did on Oct. 15 against Detroit and Nov. 15 against the Kings.

Getzlaf had a goal and two assists and Kent Huskins added the other goal to more than offset two by Patrick Sharp, who has had four goals in the last two days.

Goalie Jonas Hiller made 29 saves as he started for the first time since beating New Jersey on Feb. 8.

But the focus was on Selanne, who appears to have found his game after taking the first four months of the season off to contemplate retirement.

“To be honest, I knew there would be a little price to play when you take so much time off,” Selanne said.

“I think the first couple of weeks was a very important time to try to get the timing and everything.

“This is a good confidence boost the past two or three games.

“I’ve had some really good chances. It was good to see those pucks go in.”

Ducks captain Chris Pronger left the ice with a split bottom lip in the second period after getting hit in the mouth on the follow-through of Sharp’s shot as he scored his second goal.

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