VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Brendan Morrison did not want to sit and wait for a team to call him with a contract offer.
Instead, the free agent centre dialed into his past glory and accepted a tryout opportunity from the Vancouver Canucks, the team he helped develop into a contender before leaving as a free agent after the 2007-08 campaign.
"I'd be lying to you if I didn't feel that I would have a contract right now for a certain dollar number," said Morrison. "But it hasn't happened."
Morrison, 35, was let go by the Washington Capitals last season despite a respectable 42 points in 74 games. He is caught in the crossfire of a collective bargaining agreement that favours the development of young players toiling for lower salaries over older veterans.
Players on entry level contracts are subject to a $3-million salary limit -- and many play for much less -- whereas veterans can sell their services to the highest bidder, provided the bidders are willing. Nowadays, they are not -- unless those players are superstars like Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils or Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo.
A native of the Vancouver suburb of Pitt Meadows, B.C., Morrison chose to accept a tryout offer from his hometown team rather than wait for a contract offer from a club with injuries and other concerns after the regular season had started.
"What you have to do, a guy in my situation, is really look at the landscape across the league to what's happening to guys who are in my age (group), the way the CBA is now," said Morrison. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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