- Brendan Savage of MLive: A report by SVT.se out of Sweden is saying that Pavel Datsyuk’s ankle surgery could keep him out longer than expected. The hope was that he’d be able start rehab at around the end of training camp. He had surgery to repair ruptured tendons in his right ankle.Rough translation of Datsyuk to SVT.se.
“Doctors say four-five months. So we’ll see,” Datsyuk said. “I hope I just miss a little early in the season. The rehabilitation time after surgery in June was estimated first 4-6 weeks, but has thus proved to be much longer than that.
“But I will still be in place in Detroit when the season starts in order to prepare myself with the team. Self is more difficult.”
Red Wings camp opens mid-September, with their first pre-season game on September 22nd, and they open the season against Mike Babcock and the Maple Leafs on October 9th.
- Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch: One agent on the stagnant free agent market.
“It’s tough,” the agent said. “There are plenty of teams interested in adding a player, but they don’t have (salary cap) room. It’s just not there.
“So either they’re trying to make moves to accomodate that, or they’re waiting for the market to adjust. There’s plenty of time. It’s the middle of July. But it’s been really difficult for a lot of guys this summer.”
Sources say the Blue Jackets have talked to the UFA defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, and a deal could be made if Ehrhoff’s asking price comes down a bit. The Blue Jackets need a defenseman that can play on the power-play. Ehrhoff told Pittsburgh reporters that he could sign a one-year contract.
The Blue Jackets have about $3.6 million in cap space, with about $3 million of that a bonus cushion.
Other free agent defensemen include: Andrej Meszaros, Cody Franson, Bryan Allan, Jan Hejda, Marek Zidlicky, John Erskine, Mark Fistric, Tim Gleason, and David Schlemko. No confirmation if the Blue Jackets are interested in any of the above.