Good morning from Chatteau de Rousseau. I’ll be on KFAN with Paul Allen at 10:20 a.m. and NHL Live on XM and NHL Network at 12:20 p.m.

Just got off the horn with potential free agent Stephane Veilleux. Remember, last summer, he acted as his own agent and signed a one-year contract with the Wild as a restricted free agent after the Wild humbled him by putting him on waivers.

As I wrote at the time on this link, it was a completely disingenuous by the Wild. Teams wanted to claim Veilleux, I was told by numerous sources, but the Wild knew nobody would take him with his arbitration brief due 48 hours or so later. So he cleared waivers, they told him, “see, you’re not as valuable as you think you are,” and he signed soon after.

Well, Veilleux just told me he learned his lesson. He’s hired Allan Walsh, who’s got a stable of clients that include Martin Havlat, Marc-Andre Fleury, Patrik Elias, Petr Sykora, Scottie Hartnell, Milan Michalek, etc, etc., and of course, Pierre-Marc Bouchard. No word yet if Bouchard gets a finder’s fee.

Veilleux said he was convinced that come July 1, he needed somebody in his court. After all, last summer he was only dealing with the Wild. This summer, he needs somebody who at least, say, knows the phone numbers of the GM’s and assistant GM’s. But, hey, with a new regime on its way, maybe something can still work out between the Wild and Veilleux.

That’s what he hopes at least. Regardless, he’s a respected — and young — checker, so he’ll get a job somewhere.

Hey, maybe Havlat comes here if he doesn’t re-sign in Chicago. Wouldn’t that be ironic, eh? Talk about things coming full-circle, but years after Marian Gaborik leaves Walsh, the agent signs Havlat to Minnesota to a big free-agent deal … because Gaborik left. OK, lots of things would have to happen and not happen to make those stars align.

This is how bad rumors start, so I take it all back.

Speaking of agents, I keep on getting emails from readers about Neil Sheehy.

I haven’t written his name since I believe the first or second GM search article because about 10 days ago, according to numerous player sources, the Minneapolis-based agent sent an email out to his clients saying he’s not interested in the Wild’s GM job and that his interest was only to continue to represent them.

He’s built himself quite the firm, including clients like Zach Parise, Kyle Okposo, Lubomir Visnovsky, Drew Stafford and Ryan Suter. Heck, add Ryan Carter to that list to the way the Minnesotan is emerging this postseason. Man, he’s playing well for Anaheim.

OK, more later. GM interviews are lined up this week….

Also, contrary to reports, John Ferguson IS NOT being interviewed.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Main, Marian Gaborik, Martin Havlat, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Stephane Veilleux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.