Stars News & Notes: Zubov watch
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page
On Tuesday morning Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk was asked during a radio interview about free agent defenseman Sergei Zubov, and Nieuwendyk said the door was still open for Zubov to possibly return to the team. A few hours later a report posted on ESPN's website had Zubov's agent indicating that door might be closing.
Nieuwendyk appeared on The Ticket for an interview with Norm Hitzges and was asked about an update on Zubov, who is an unrestricted free agent.
"Sergei is obviously rehabbing. We have never closed the door on Sergei," Nieuwendyk said. "We'll continue to keep in touch with him and see how he's doing. I don't think even Sergei knows if he's going to be able to play or where his desire is to play until later on in the summer."
Nieuwendyk and the Stars have maintained that it's going to take some time to assess where Zubov stands as far as his health as he comes off hip surgery last season.
"He's going through an extensive rehab program. He's had a serious injury, and at his age it's not easy to come back from" Nieuwendyk told The Ticket. "But we'll see. We'll certainly keep the door open for Sergei and monitor his progress."
About three hours later there was a story posted on ESPN.com in which Zubov's agent, Jay Grossman, indicated that the veteran defenseman might be ready to say so long to the Stars and move on to another team.
“There’s nothing negative there,” Grossman told ESPN. “He’d just like to take a look at something else.”
The ESPN story said Zubov is healthy, has been cleared to play and should be 100 percent when the 2009-10 season starts. That's similar to what Grossman told The Record in New Jersey last week.
The ESPN report said nine teams were interested in Zubov, including the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues (where former Stars GM Doug Armstrong is part of the management team) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (where former Stars coach Ken Hitchcock is the bench boss).
What ever happens with Zubov it doesn't appear it will be resolved any time soon. Zubov indicated to a Russian newspaper over the weekend that a decision on where he would sign could take a couple weeks, maybe longer.
Nieuwendyk: Stars set as far as free agency
During his interview on The Ticket Tuesday morning Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk indicated the Stars are pretty much done as far as the free agent market.
"I think we're pretty much set. We had some holes we needed to fill and we did fill them," Nieuwendyk said. "We added some players on the backend, some defensemen that add to our depth. Getting Jere Lehtinen signed for another year was an important piece because we don't have a lot of right shots up front. Jere has been such an important part of this franchise for such a long time, it was important to get him locked up for another year. We just added our backup goaltender the other day, so we are in good shape."
Nieuwendyk said he was surprised that Swedish goalie Jonas Gustavsson signed with Toronto. The Stars GM thought the Stars had a very good chance to the sign Gustavsson, but that Toronto adding goaltender coach Francois Allaire may have tipped the scales in Toronto's favor.
Quotable
"We've dropped our payroll, there's no question about that. I know Mr. Hicks' financial issues are well documented, and it seems to be in the paper all the time. We haven't discussed it a whole heck of a lot. I have a job to do from what I am given, and that's what we intend to do. Whether our payroll is X or whether our payroll is Y, I think we can field a pretty good team. I think one thing I know about Mr. Hicks is that he is very resilient and committed to winning, and he's going to do everything in his power to make sure we have the best chance to win. I feel very strongly about where we are right now. I think we'll field a good team and there will be better days ahead."
Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk, when asked during Tuesday's radio interview about how the financial issues surrounding owner Tom Hicks are affecting his job of putting together a team
