from St Louis forum:
Greetings and salutations! Early morning here in the greater-Los Angeles area. Since I did not get in till late last evening, I thought I would drop in and share with all of you some stuff early in the morning instead.
♫ I was blown away by the Paul Kariya-Teemu Selanne signings in Colorado. I knew they wanted to play together, but I had not heard anything about them willing to take so little in order to make it work. Three different people told me this was a complete shocker to them. (A side note to this: The Ducks tried to convince Kariya that if he took a pay cut, they would use the money to sign Selanne. But Selanne was not sure he wanted to go back to Anaheim, and Kariya was insulted that after sticking it out with the franchise through the down years they would ask him to take such a big cut. That is why the Ducks lost out on them. Kariya decided he wanted no part of Anaheim anymore after they did that to him when he felt he had been loyal to them.
♫ With that out of the way, there is much to report on the Blues horizon about, you guessed it, Sergei Fedorov and Curtis Joseph. Let us begin with Fedorov. The Blues are trying to negotiate a one year deal with him, and I am told they are thinking of offering him this carrot: a two year player option for $12 million after the lockout. The thinking is that when he sees what the salary cap is, he can decide if he thinks he can do better than that option or not, and exercise it or decline it accordingly. If my source is correct and this is offered, it could give the Blues an edge because the Rangers and Ducks do not seem to be willing to go past this season just yet. Another thing I was told is that even though his agent said he is done in Detroit, Fedorov has not officially closed that door yet. An agent-friend of mine thinks Fedorov and his agent, Pat Brisson, are trying to get the Blues involved to scare the Wings. I had heard the Wings have an offer of $32 million over four years on the table. This same person thinks Fedorov and Brisson are banking on the Wings upping that to $36 million over four if they know he would be going to the Blues instead. I am told the Kings are officially out, and are going to spend their money elsewhere (the Klatt signing seems to indicate this). There is a lot out there on this matter as you can see.
♫ As for Joseph, I have been told he will accept a trade to the Blues, Rangers, and Blackhawks (because of his relationship with Brian Sutter), but is not sure about Boston. He fears ownership there will not spend the necessary money to try and win, and there is no one there like Sutter that could make him overlook that. I am told the scenario Ken Holland favors would be Joseph going to Boston for Martin Lapointe, with Boston picking up half the difference between Joseph and Lapointe's contract, so each team is essentially paying for half of their combined salaries. But if Joseph declines to go to Boston, Detroit will have no choice but to look elsewhere. Chicago is dabbling, but unless Detroit picks up a hefty sum of the contract, no one expects Bill Wirtz to pull the trigger. I would say Chicago is the least likely of the three to get him, because of their penny pinching owner. Unless it is Eric Lindros going to Detroit, no one I have spoken to believes the Red Wings will get a really good player for Joseph, but Holland is not a fan of Lindros (Yzerman is though). I am also told there is a "surprise" team in the running, but I cannot nail down who it is. Since Detroit is not going to help the Avs, my guess on that team would be the Canucks, but that is just speculation on my part. If Joseph declines to go to Boston, the Bruins will probably try to get whoever the odd-man out is elsewhere (Dunham, Osgood, or Thibault), but that is just speculation putting two and two together.
♫ A source with a team in the Pacific Division says the Blues are probably kicking themselves for signing Osgood so soon, in light of the Fedorov and Joseph/Hasek stuff. What happens with Osgood (and his $3 million salary) if the Blues get Joseph? The only possible destination would be Boston, but this source does not think the Bruins would have any interest in Osgood if it came to that, unless the Blues would take Lapointe off their hands. Would the Blues be willing to eat another $2.5 million for Lapointe's contract to dump Osgood? And, if not, that is essentially $3 million wasted dollars, that could have gone to a solid scorer or defenseman, which instead goes to a guy who would play 25-30 games, and none in the playoffs. (This bit of info is not a rumor, it is speculative on the part of this source.)
♫ The Blues are interested in Chris Drury, but an agent friend says Buffalo probably would have to get a great offer to move him, and "Pleau won't part with what Buffalo wants." You know who that means, right?
♫ Joe Nieuwendyk would like to go to Toronto, but the Maple Leafs are not as interested as he thought they would be. Detroit is his next choice, because of its proximity to Toronto, but the Red Wings are going to wait until the Fedorov and Yzerman situations play out before doing anything at the center position, and even then, they may prefer Prospal instead.
hmmm....
