An excerpt from the Ottawa Sun (Don Brennan):

Buzz is the Vancouver Canucks are interested in acquiring Antoine Vermette, the fleet-footed Senators forward who awaits a scheduled, July 31 arbitration hearing.

Original speculation had Ottawa hoping to land rugged defenceman Kevin Bieska in return, but the Canucks laughed off talk of a one-for-one deal. Most recently, the word coming from out west has Vermette heading to Vancouver for former Senators blueliner Sami Salo. The brittle Fin hasn’t played more than 67 games in any one of the the last three seasons, but even at that Salo has averaged in excess of 30 points per – a claim no signed member of the Ottawa defence can make.