Big Goals Drive Ducks’ Kurri

Jari Kurri wants to play one final NHL season, score his 600th goal and play for Finland in the Olympics again before ending his Hall of Fame career, he said Saturday.

“I’m going to play one more year, that’s all. Where, I don’t know,” said Kurri, awaiting a decision from the Mighty Ducks shortly on whether they’ll exercise their option on his $1.5-million contract.

If the Ducks don’t renew Kurri’s contract, they still could try to sign him as a free agent at a lower salary.

Kurri, who turns 37 this month, met one of his two goals for this season, reaching the playoffs with the Ducks, but he fell four goals shy of becoming the eighth player in NHL history to score 600 goals.

“That’s part of it,” he said after scoring 13 goals in the least productive full season of his career.

Playing on another Olympic team after competing for Finland in the 1980 Lake Placid Games is another.

“People used to say, ‘How about ‘98?’ and I’d say, ‘That’s so far away.’ It would be nice to be a part of that,” Kurri said.