An excerpt from the Ottawa Sun (Mike Zeisberger):
Bob Gainey is not ruling out the chance of landing prized free agent Mats Sundin by the end of the summer.
But not for the whopping $10 million US per season the Vancouver Canucks were offering the longtime Maple Leafs captain earlier this week.
“It’s still possible he could come to Montreal but not for (that price),” the Montreal Canadiens general manager said during a news conference in Montreal last night.
Just one day after Sundin politely informed those handful of teams willing to throw gobs of money at him that he is not yet ready to make a decision concerning his future, Gainey told reporters that he very much understood the stance being taken by the veteran Swede.
“We had almost a two-week window to negotiate exclusively with him and it became obvious that he wants and needs to be 100% if he wants to go through 100 games, if you include playoffs,” Gainey said.
“Having been a player, I respect that.”