Notebook: Red Wings GM will meet with Yzerman
DETROIT -- Steve Yzerman will meet this week with Detroit general manager Ken Holland to discuss whether the 40-year-old center will play a 22nd season for the Red Wings.
"I want Steve to play this year," Holland said during Tuesday news conference. "With the new coaching staff, I think he will be a tremendous asset to the coaches with his leadership in the locker room and as an incredibly determined athlete."
The Red Wings hired Mike Babcock to coach the team earlier this month.
Yzerman's future has been in doubt since he underwent surgery for a scratched cornea and multiple fractures below his left eye following a 2004 playoff game and after last season was lost because of the lockout. He is an unrestricted free agent.
Yzerman, the longest-serving team captain in NHL history, is sixth on the NHL's career scoring list with 1,721 points. He trails only Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Gordie Howe, Ron Francis and Marcel Dionne.
"I know what Steve has done for this organization from the day he showed in training camp," Holland said.
With Yzerman, the Red Wings have won three Stanley Cups and made 14 straight playoff appearances.
Holland's comments came the same day the team bought out the contracts of three other veteran players to make room under the $39 million salary cap imposed with the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement.
Detroit placed defenseman Derian Hatcher and forwards Ray Whitney and Darren McCarty on waivers Monday, and when they cleared Tuesday, the Wings bought them out.
"It was a difficult decision, especially in Darren's situation," Holland said of the 11-year veteran.
The Red Wings have committed about $22 million to nine players' salaries so far. The team is looking to add about another dozen players.
Holland said he is considering keeping free agents Mathieu Schneider, a defenseman, and Pavel Datsyuk, a center who Holland said has received an offer from a Russian team.
Lightning sign coach, GM to long-term deals
The Tampa Bay Lightning signed coach John Tortorella and general manager Jay Feaster to long-term contract extensions Tuesday, keeping together the duo that helped guide the franchise to its first Stanley Cup in 2004.
"Before the Stanley Cup Championship, and since, both have exhibited qualities to make you want to keep this team together for a long time," team president Ron Campbell said.
Entering his fifth season as coach, Tortorella's extension keeps him with the Lightning through 2008-09. His previous deal was due to expire at the end of the 2005-06 season.
Tortorella was named the NHL's Coach of the Year in 2003-04 after leading Tampa Bay to its second straight division title and first NHL crown. He is 121-114-36-18 in four seasons with Tampa Bay, though the Lightning are 35 games over .500 the past two seasons.
The Lightning's GM since 2002, Feaster's deal will now extend through 2010-11 season. The team had previously held an option on Feaster for the 2006-07 season.
Thrashers Waddell to be 2006 U.S. GM
Way back in 1979, Don Waddell had no idea he'd get to the Olympics wearing a tie instead of skates.
An ankle injury kept him off the "Miracle On Ice" hockey team that won gold at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, but a successful career as an executive with the NHL and USA Hockey landed him a second chance.
Waddell, the only general manager in Atlanta Thrashers history, was selected Tuesday to also serve as GM of the 2006 U.S. Olympic hockey team.
"This is the pinnacle of international competition," he said. "I missed that opportunity as a player and I never thought 25 years ago that I'd be sitting here and have that opportunity as a manager."
Waddell was chosen just four days after NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the league will send its players to the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, and the 2010 games in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The use of NHL players for the third straight Olympics was not secured until the league reached agreement with the union last week on a new collective bargaining agreement.
While running the Thrashers and dealing with the nuances of the new NHL labor deal, Waddell will also be working with Paul Holmgren, Philadelphia's assistant general manager, and Jim Johannson, a two-time Olympic player.
Together they hope to select a coach with international experience within 10 days and then get to work on picking the team.
Waddell has served as a USA Hockey executive in various capacities for the past seven years, including as the GM at this year's World Hockey Championships and the assistant to St. Louis' Larry Pleau for the 2004 World Cup.
The United States was beaten in the quarterfinals at the world championships by the Czech Republic eight months after losing a semifinal game of the World Cup in St. Paul, Minn., to Finland.
The Olympic tournament will take place from Feb. 15-26 and consist of 12 teams. Preliminary rosters of 60-70 potential players must be submitted to the International Ice Hockey Federation by October 1, four days before the NHL season begins.
The final team must be chosen by Jan. 10. The NHL will eliminate All-Star weekend in Olympic years.
USA Hockey will announce Thursday a list of about 35 players who will be invited to a September orientation camp in Colorado Springs, Colo. The camp will not be for tryouts and attendance will not be required to make the team.
Performance in the first half of the NHL season will be a key factor, especially for those players who sat out all year because of the lockout. Because the Olympic schedule features six games in nine days, Waddell is looking to fill the roster with a mix of veterans and younger players.
"We are going to leave a lot of good players off this team, but that's a good thing because that means that the base of U.S.-born players is better," Waddell said.
While using NHL players in the Olympics, the Americans won the silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, after not winning a medal four years earlier in Nagano, Japan.
The United States captured the gold medal in 1960 at Squaw Valley, Calif., and 20 years later in Lake Placid, N.Y.
"We have one purpose when we go to Italy and that's to win the gold medal," Waddell said.
Since taking over the Thrashers before their inaugural season of 1999-2000, Waddell has built a team that only once failed to improve from the previous season.
"He's been a leader in the development of hockey in the United States and we know he'll do everything he can to build a team that we will all be proud of," USA Hockey president Ron DeGregorio said.
