Canucks target timonen/wild make backstorm offer/canes to deal Babchuk?/Belfour want starter role!

With another month of planning before the free agent market opens on July 1, the Canucks could look to sign defenseman Kimmo Timonen, reports the Vancouver Province.
Timonen, who has the same agent as Canucks rearguard Sami Salo, could receive a new salary as high as $5 million if he decides to listen to offers this July.
According to the Province, those close to Timonen know he desperately wants to play in a rabid hockey market, having spent so much of his career in Nashville.


The Wild has made its first contract proposal to goalie Niklas Backstrom in hopes of re-signing him before July 1, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Backstrom can become an unrestricted free agent this July and the team wants to lock him up to a new multi-year deal, TFP has learned.
Wild GM Doug Risebrough told the Star-Tribune Tom Lynn, the team's Assistant GM, plans to meet with Backstrom's agent, Don Baizley, in early June.
"We'd like to meet face to face, and we're trying to time it with Niklas back," Risebrough told the paper

Veteran defenseman Glen Wesley plans on returning for another season with the Hurricanes, reports the Raleigh News & Observer.
Wesley, who turns 39 in October, broke his foot at the end of the 2006-07 season and didn't want that to be the cause of his retirement.
"That was definitely not the way I wanted to finish the year off," Wesley told the newspaper. "I'm really looking forward to coming back and getting a fresh start and wanting to win again. That should be everybody's objective in the locker room. We have a team in there that can certainly compete for it."
Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford said wants to hold on to Wesley, who is the only player remaining who made the move with the team from Hartford in 1997.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes plan on trading defenseman Anton Babchuk. According to the News & Observer, the 23-year-old is being offered around the league for a second-round pick in June's draft.






Panthers goalie Ed Belfour is intent on playing another season in the NHL, but not as a backup, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Belfour, 42, is set to become an unrestricted free agent July 1.
"I'm definitely a No. 1 goalie. I'm motivated to come back and be a No. 1 guy," Belfour told the newspaper. "I think my health is there. I can play 60 games again. I can play more."
Panthers GM and coach Jacques Martin said the organization hasn't decided whether it would try to bring back Belfour for a second season.