No decisions have yet been made for next year on veterans Rod Brind'Amour and Ray Whitney, Canes general manager Jim Rutherford said today.
Rutherford said he has met individually with both forwards since the team's exit interviews and will meet with them again next month. Whitney is playing with Team Canada in the World Championships in Germany.
"We wanted to give everybody a little more time to get away from the regular season and let things settle down," Rutherford said.
Brind'Amour, who turns 40 in August, has a year remaining on his contract and is due to be paid $3 million next season, but may be considering retirement. The Canes have the option of buying out the contract for $2 million.
Whitney, 38, will be an unrestricted free agent July 1, but Rutherford said he hopes an agreement can be reached to keep the winger with the Hurricanes.
"He'd like to stay and in our initial (one-on-one) meeting we came to the conclusion we'd like him to stay," Rutherford said. "We are trying to make the team younger and at some point he does want to win again. But at the end of the meeting he made it clear that ideally he'd like to stay.
"Now we have to get down to how the contract fits."
A Raleigh native, Chip has worked at the N&O since 1979 and is the Canes beat writer. He can be reached at
Comments
my nickels worth
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 09:17 — louis12580With Ray, 2 years with the second being the teams option. Rod is the hard one. There's no safe way to solve the situation. He has a lot of pride and if you paid any attention to his exit interview you'd know that if her retired now he'd feel as if he's quitting. I witnessed Willie Mays "play" for those two seasons with the Mets and it is still painful thinking of him in that light. None of us likes seeing an athlete, especially one we admire greatly, look like this. Many are assuming that Rod will get some kind of job with the team. I think he will as well, maybe just not right away. He's a family man first and it would have to be something that keeps him here as much as possible. Only time will tell. In the end, I think he comes back for his last year on his contract.
Still wondering about...
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 08:39 — ocolumnCullen. There was so much talk of him coming back when he was traded. And he did well for Ottawa. He's younger than Ray. Anyone heard anything?
Cullen is perhaps more
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 20:12 — ctillCullen is perhaps more versatile and younger than Whitney, but Whitney has a better scoring touch. On the strength of Cullen's playoff performance, he will probably command a multi-year contract at more money ($2.8M) than he made this season.
If JR doesn't sign Whitney, he would have the money to sign Cullen -- but there would be an issue of allocating ice time across Staal, Sutter, and Cullen. I suppose you could put one of them at wing, but if JR doesn't sign Whitney I'd argue that the money would be better spent on a UFA natural winger like Frolov or Ponikarovsky who would add size up front.
Mixed feelings
Wed, 05/19/2010 - 18:17 — Hockeydogon Whitney. I think a max 2 year deal wouldn't hurt the Canes at all. He doesn't play a physical game and is agile enough to avoid a lot of contact. While nobody thought Rod "the bod" would decline as quickly, I'd venture to guess Whitney wouldn't decline much over the next year or two, barring injury. On the other hand I was hoping after the season we've seen and the play the young guns have displayed that the team would really go deeper into the rebuilding process. I would hate that Ray would be a casualty of that. I'd rather a couple of other forwards go, but alas they won't.
So I say sign Ray if the deal is good for the team. He's a great leader.
it is my understanding that
Wed, 05/19/2010 - 16:06 — jgrant641it is my understanding that if Rod retires we are still looking at his salary as a cap hit correct?
so it is cheaper for the team to buy him out, at 2/3's over 2 years... so $1 mill cap hit for the next 2 seasons.
I think we buy him out allowing him to retire and he stays on in a coaching, scouting, or "team ambassador" role.
Time to move on
Tue, 05/18/2010 - 14:35 — galatians220Sure hope we can save $ and roster space by Rod retiring. As for Whitney, I personally think it's time to go ahead & start fresh with a younger team. Players in their late 30's can decline very quickly. I'd rather save the money & try to sign a young winger to play on our top line w/ Staal.
Time to clean house
Tue, 05/18/2010 - 14:30 — stevemichaelsDump Rod his production and effectiveness have continued to go downward for too long - I would keep Ray but sign him to a low figure with lots of incentives, and a one year deal - I like both individuals, but hockey is a business - and after the hideous showing in our last game the bad taste still lingers
Well each of us
Tue, 05/18/2010 - 12:52 — esteban1949can hope & keep our fingers crossed all we want...this side of Hockey...as in the Business side or end of it...will come down to either very hard and tempered negotiations. But for myself Personally...I feel that Rod will be bought out and be given an visbale posistion within the Canes Organization...and Whiteny will be given say a 2 -3year deal based on how & what he does and IF he does then after year 2 he'd be there for the 3rd and final year of the contract..but again.it is NOW the hair pulling oh so fustrating sitting down with the agents and lawyers to hammer out a deal or 2...i wish them all the best in doing what needs to be done regardless of what we, the fans may feel about it personally...afdter all it is NOT our lives or livelyhood we are talking about it is Theirs...
The Canes are Good,My Grandkids are Better, and Life is Great !!
Go Canes !!