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| | Thursday, October 28 | |||||
| RALEIGH, N.C. -- All-Star Keith Primeau will be skating
again, but not for the Carolina Hurricanes.
"They said the only way Keith will play for us is if he plays at $3 million and we are not trading Keith Primeau, so he can sit at home all year," Primeau's agent, Todd Reynolds, said in a telephone interview from Toronto. "If he's going to do that, then he has to start playing hockey, and that's why he's going to be joining the national team." Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford believes the offers have been fair. "They've played a risky game when you withhold your services," Rutherford said. "What they hope for is we're going to change our position, but we've made it clear all along that we're not going to."We have a business to run here, and we've set what we think what Keith Primeau is worth to our franchise, and there is nobody else in the league that has told me what we should be paying him." Reynolds said Primeau's playing for the national team isn't intended to force Carolina to trade him. "The point is to stay in game shape, and it doesn't benefit anyone for Keith to play for the national team -- really, except for himself," he said."Keith's wish is not to play here again, and our wish is that he does play here, and we will stick to our position that we won't trade him," Rutherford said. Primeau probably will join the Canadian team in a week at no salary, Reynolds said. The national team, which competes in international events including the Olympics and World Championships, is now playing in England. Primeau and his family will move to Calgary, Alberta, where the national team is based. Reynolds said the Canadian team extended Primeau an open invitation about a month ago, and Primeau joined it to stay in shape while awaiting contract developments. "He can play for the national team for a day, for a month or for a whole year," Reynolds said. "He would rather play for an NHL team, of course." Under the rules for a restricted free agent, Primeau would have to be traded by Carolina or signed to an offer sheet to play for another NHL team this season. Otherwise, he will have to wait four years until his free agency expires to be signed by another team without compensation to the Hurricanes. Reynolds said waiting four years is possible, but Primeau would rather be playing for another team."He wants to play," Reynolds said. "He wants to get a fresh team and a team that is willing to pay what he is worth." Rutherford has said that if Primeau signs an offer sheet with another NHL team, the team would match it. But Primeau has received no offer sheet since becoming a restricted free agent July 1. Primeau rejected a five-year, $20 million offer this past summer because the deal would have taken him one year past when he could be unrestricted. Then he turned down a two-year, $7 million deal. When he rejected that offer, the Hurricanes stripped him of his
team captaincy and reduced the offer to two years for $6 million. | ALSO SEE Hurricanes finally have arena to call home
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