An excerpt from the Vancouver Province (Ben Kuzma):
A U.S. report that unrestricted free agent Brendan Shanahan was offered and rejected a one-year, $2-million US offer from the Vancouver Canucks is inaccurate, according to his agent.
“I can tell you that I’ve never been approached or had any discussions with Vancouver regarding Brendan,” said Rick Curran, who added that San Jose and Montreal are not in the mix either.
Habster:
With Bob Gainey awaiting Mats Sundin’s decision concerning his playing destination, there won’t be any interest in Brendan Shanahan. Gainey won’t have enough money to accommodate both players (if Sundin decides on Montreal) and don’t listen to those hockey “pundits” on the radio who think the Canadiens will drop salary or demote players to find the money. Bob Gainey has never demoted salary and rarely does buy-outs as well (Jassen Cullimore being a rare exception) so it would be totally out of character for him to dump salaries via buy-outs or demotions but I guess anything is possible.
As confirmed by Shanahan’s agent, Rick Curran, the Canadiens haven’t even made his client an offer or shown any interest.