Ohlund: "Life is too short to be sad"

Ohlund: "Life is too short to be sad"

How true. But guess what, Ohlund? We'll be sad anyway.

Well, what a difference a week makes. The Canucks are out of the Cup race and we've likely just witnessed Ohlie's last game. Haven't really wanted to deal with it or talk or blog about it, quite frankly. I kinda really wanted Trevor and Mattias to end their times with Vancouver with a Stanley Cup ring and it's pretty heartbreaking that it wasn't meant to be.

Here's a link to Elliott Papp's article from yesterday on Ohlund.

Jim Jamieson's article pretty much reports what we've always known but Barry's comment was telling:

Ohlund’s agent, Calgary-based J.P. Barry of CAA Sports, said he’s had little interaction over the past season with Canucks GM Mike Gillis regarding Ohlund.

“We never really got traction on negotiations,” said Barry on Wednesday. “The door is not closed, but it’s almost closed.”

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."

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."

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.