Every time I think of this Brian Rolston stalemate, I see that Monty Python character, “Not Dead Fred.”

In fact, I know the actor who plays that character in Monty Python’s Spamalot on Broadway, and every time I think about this Rolston situation, I think of Tom Deckman screaming repeatedly during the show, “I’m not yet dead.”

Well, the Rolston negotiations are not yet dead, but it might as well be.

It’s close folks. As you can see in the story in Thursday’s editions, there is absolutely no talk between the Wild and Rolston right now and there’s no reason to think these two sides are going to come together by early next week.

It makes you wonder if deep down, Rolston’s already decided to test the open market.

And Rolston’s going to ace this test. Somebody will sign Rolston, and somebody will sign Rolston for big cash.

My only contact with Brian the last couple days is via text message, and he said to me tonight he doesn’t want to get into a “back and forth” with the Wild “in the paper.” But Steve Bartlett, his agent, has seemed to cut off contact with the Wild, and he’s certainly cut off contact with me considering the amount of voicemails I’ve left recently with no call back.

Bartlett has not called the Wild back since last week, according to assistant GM Tom Lynn.

Regardless of who’s right or who’s wrong here, this is the reality: Take Brian Rolston out of the Wild lineup, and it’s a massive, massive hole.

What do you lose? A guy who plays 90 seconds a power play at the point, arguably the best slap shot in the NHL from a forward, a phenomenal penalty killer, a respected voice in the locker room and quite frankly, a 22-minute-a-night vet who literally plays every single game (essentially).

How do you replace that in this sub-par free-agent class? You can’t, although you can get the guy that plays every single night in Andrew Brunette (the current Iron Man leader in the NHL).

I see the Wild going after Brunette and having a good chance at him. I also have an idea of other guys the Wild will go after, and I’ll talk more specifically about that this weekend or in the paper July 1.

Also, if you notice in the story, Tom Lynn publicly addresses Todd Fedoruk and Aaron Voros for the first time, and you shouldn’t expect them back, either.

If you look at the signings recently, it seems few teams have been able to re-sign their own unrestricted free agents.

K, that’s it. If you hear from me Thursday, it’ll be very late as I get my injured foot poked and prodded by doctors and sharp instruments during the day.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.