Free Agency Day 2 Morning Update

Beyond the Penguins' signing former New Jersey Devil free agent forward Mike Rupp yesterday, there's no additional news to report in Penguinland.

Rob Scuderi and Ruslan Fedotenko went unsigned through last evening, but I believe both will make decisions on their future today.

It seems that the Penguins' remain on Fedotenko's radar, but from what I'm hearing, Fedotenko has near a half dozen offers from other clubs. One of those offers is said to be for 4 years. I don't believe the Penguins have put more than 2 on the table at this point.

And, while I was optimistic late yesterday afternoon and early yesterday evening that the Penguins still had a good chance of brining Rob Scuderi back in the fold, some of the buzz that I'm hearing now backs me off that optimism just a bit.

I think the Penguins still are in the mix for Scuderi, and I believe he remains their #1 priority, but Pens' GM Ray Shero last night talked of how comfortable he was with his team and even went on to say, when asked about the current state of negotiations with free agents, that "nothing much" was going on.

That could mean he's not chasing Scuds -- or Rusty -- or it could simply mean that he's made his proposals and are letting the two of them think about it.

Elsewhere, the Penguins are said to have made offers yesterday to both Mike Knuble and Steve Sullivan. Neither chose to come to the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Knuble instead moved from one Penguins' rival to another, jumping from the Philadelphia Flyers to the Washington Capitals. Sullivan, meanwhile, re-signed with Nashville, and for a pretty darn high rate, in my opinion -- 7.5 million for 2 years.

Sullivan is a skilled guy, and he played relatively well in the last 30 or so games of last season, but 3.75 million per year is not a small fee to sink into a player who missed most of the last 2 years with a significant back problem. I'm certain the Penguins' offer to Sullivan was nowhere near what he got from Nashville -- and rightly so.

There remain trade rumblings that Shero is working to clear some cap space, but for the most part, Shero would not directly address that subject last night. He did address it somewhat indirectly, however, saying that he had no problem having both Rupp and Godard on the payroll (obviously, since he made the deal), and spoke in positive terms about having guys like Talbot and Dupuis who can play several different positions up and down the lineup.

Personally, I think that's just smoke and mirrors. I don't for one second interpret those comments to mean that Shero isn't working the phones for potential deals -- whether it involves those players or other ones.

We'll see what happens on that front, and with Scuderi and Fedotenko, today. Also, there remain several other players of interest to the Penguins still on the open market, including LW Alex Kotalik.

It should be an interesting day. Maybe not as fast paced as yesterday, but interesting neverthelss.

I'll post updates when I hear them.