Hey Edler, you awake?

Apparently that's the question that he says that he's most asked according to the CDC Offside with Alex Edler

Q: What question do you always get asked?
A: Are you awake?

No news is STILL news on Ohlund?

I don't know how this became a story. I guess it's a slow news week.

Contract talks stall between veteran defenceman Ohlund and Canucks

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Contract talks between veteran defenceman Mattias Ohlund and the Vancouver Canucks have stalled.

"I don't think there's too much going on at the moment, but we'll see what happens," Ohlund said Friday after the Canucks' morning skate in advance of a game against the Edmonton Oilers....
...
"Right now, I'm just focusing on hockey and I'm leaving (a possible new contract) to J.P. (Barry) and Mike (Gillis)," said Ohlund. "We've still got some time. We'll figure it out one way or the other."

and now a little love for Henrik and Daniel Sedin

These Sedins never get any of my attention. Now that they're the main scoring line, however, they sure have the attention of other teams' main defence. The 'cycle' has not been able to flourish this year because they've been so well-checked. Hopefully the addition of Mats Sundin will ease the opposition attention on the Sedins so that the cycle may flow freely once again.

I'd like to take the time to praise them for being so resilient, talented, hard working, and blessed with high endurance.

Matty calls long distance to Mats

Apparently Mattias talked to Mats on the 18th. Here's a snippet from the article by Iain MacIntyre.

“It sounded like he was coming,” Ohlund said Friday when asked about his Thursday morning telephone call with Sundin. “I’m going to be honest: I did think I had a pretty good scoop yesterday morning.”

A few hours later, the National Hockey League team announced the most impressive free-agent acquisition in franchise history.

The way Sundin told it during a conference call Friday morning, the brief telephone call with Ohlund sealed the deal.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Ohlund said. “I just talked a little bit about our team and the way we play. That’s about it.”

Agent J.P. Barry, who represents both players, asked Ohlund to call Sundin to assuage his countryman’s fears about possibly disrupting the chemistry or continuity of the Canucks.

Sundin said he didn’t want to displace or upset anyone.

“I think that speaks about the kind of guy he is, to even have those concerns,” Ohlund said. “Obviously it shows he’s a very humble guy. That was one of things we talked about. Obviously, the guys in this dressing room are nothing but very excited to have him come in.

“We spoke for a couple of minutes, maybe, but I just said guys would love for him to come here and it would be a great fit for our team.”

Ohlund and Sundin were teammates, as were Canucks Daniel and Henrik Sedin, on Sweden’s gold-medal winning team at the 2006 Olympics in Turin.

“I’ve played with him a handful of times and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about him,” Ohlund said. “I don’t, by no means, know him really well, but he’s a nice guy.”

Mats Sundin seriously signed with Vancouver??!

Oh don't tell me you're not thinking it. Everyone thought he'd go with New York!

So, ok, Mats will take $10 mill next year... How is that going to effect the signings of the Sedins and Ohlund? Well, I never had much faith that the Sedins were going to get re-signed, unfortunately. I had more faith that Ohlund would be but there's so much talk of him being involved as trade bait, it can't all be coming from nothing. I wonder if JP Barry's clients are miffed at some of his other clients' contracts.

EDIT: See? Kuzma's put some thought to this too. Here's a snippet of his article.

"We're not making any progress," said Barry. "We're trying to talk about the league in general and the difficulty here is that we're talking about two players, not one.

The thought of giving up a no-trade clause bid won't wash with the twins.

"That's almost a non-starter for these guys," added Barry. "They've been pretty clear about that since the day they entered the league."

Meanwhile, extending Ohlund might also be a slippery slope. At 32, he's not considered old, but Gillis is loathe to extend older players to multi-year deals. But Ohlund, who is earning $3.5 million in the final year of his deal, could command up to $5 million on the open market.

"You see high-calibre defencemen playing into their late 30s," said Barry. "We're not looking at a seven or eight-year deal. Mattias is probably looking at a four- or five-year deal."

The hockey chapter closes for Linden

Sigh. Well, we all knew that it was coming but it was still a bittersweet moment to watch. I doubt there was a dry eye in the house (or in BC) as the blue and white banner with Linden's number 16 was raised to the rafters of GM Place.

Here are the highlights of the ceremony honouring Trevor Linden on cbc.

I suppose it was all very proper and tasteful but as with all official ceremonies, I yearned for the personal aspect. The closest that came was Shorty's little pre-introduction to Mattias Ohlund, Willie Mitchell and Roberto Luongo (at around 5:00 on the video below).

Shorty: "I should say first of all actually when Trevor retired, he left behind a roommate and one of the saddest sights this year has been watching Mattias Ohlund mope around like a lost puppy dog on the road."

Mattias: "... we were roommates for a lot of years, seven years and we had a lot of fun together and it's been a tough year without you buddy."

An old Mattias Ohlund article from 1997

I had bookmarked a few old articles on Ohlund that I promised myself that I would eventually get to posting. Unfortunately, the sites and links died and the Ohlund articles were lost. Sigh. Anyway, here's one from when Pat Quinn matched Toronto's offer sheet on Mattias Ohlund back in 1997.

Canucks match offer sheet for Swedish D Mattias Ohlund
Posted: Thur August 7, 1997 at 4:24 p.m. EDT CNN Sports Illustrated

The Vancouver Canucks today opted to match the offer sheet for Swedish defenseman Mattias Ohlund, signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs last Friday.

Ohlund, who was the 13th overall selection in the 1994 NHL draft by Vancouver, agreed to a five-year contract worth $10 million with a signing bonus in excess of $7.5 million, according to IMG, which represents Ohlund.

Vancouver had seven days to match the offer entirely or make a deal with Toronto to deal his rights. Now that the Canucks have matched the offer, Ohlund cannot be traded for one year.

"Mattias has proven to be a solid player in international hockey and we look forward to having him play for our team this season," said Canucks president and general manager Pat Quinn. "He possesses a high skill level that will make him a valuable NHL player."

The 20-year-old Ohlund was voted the best defenseman at the past World Junior Championship tournament, and earned second all-star team honors at the World Championships in Finland.

He recorded seven goals and nine assists in 47 games last season for Lulea of the Swedish Elite League.

Ohlund's losing ice time..

Hmm. So I guess I'm not the only one who's noticed this. I blame Alain Vigneault! He always had it out for our veterans. Hmph. I haven't forgiven him for Trevor Linden!

From The Windsor Star (of all places):

OHLUND LOSING TIME: Mattias Ohlund, the Vancouver Canucks' best defenceman for several years, went into Sunday's game averaging 21:16 of ice time after logging only 18:43 in Minnesota. Ohlund's average ice time last season was 23:46.

"You'd have to ask the coach," Ohlund said about his playing time. "The year started like that. If you ask any player, especially defencemen, everyone wants to play more and play a lot. I'm no different. But we've got good depth and we're playing well."

Defencemen Kevin Bieksa (24:01), Willie Mitchell (22:49) and Alex Edler (21:23) are all playing more than Ohlund, a 32-year-old in the final year of his contract.

Aside: Good to have a win for the morale of the boys.

No news on further Ohlund contract talks

From Ben Kuzma's article today..

Mattias Ohlund has nothing to report on the contract-extension front after his agent J.P. Barry and Canucks assistant general manager Lawrence Gilman met Saturday.

"I'm leaving that up to them," said the defenceman, whose earning $3.5 million US this season. "I'm very mindful of having a good year and helping the team win and go from there."

Aside: Hey A, Thanks for posting the Men's Journal spread on the Rangers.. I saw this on msg tv and wondered what kind of info would be on there.