Discount Me Out: Swede-Heart Deals May Be Over for the Vancouver Canucks

The clusterpuck over Daniel Alfredsson's escape to Detroit reached a new level of ignominy today with the revelation it was moolah and not a chance at Lord Stanley's mug that prompted him to shaft the Ottawa Senators.

And while the fallout continues in Canada's capital, reverberations should also be felt on the far side of the Great White North.

Mike Gillis, that sneaky little trade monkey from the Vancouver Canucks, is banking on a hometown discount from his two-headed franchise known as Sedin. Their current contract -- a five year, $6.1million cap hit that has yielded a Hart, two Art Ross' and an all-but Stanley Cup in 2010-11 -- runs out at the end of this coming season, and the assumption in Nuck Nation is the twins will again stay under market value and seal their status as career Orcas. It's a fair assumption given Hank and Dank love the city, built a hospital wing and aren't put off by the occasional overturned police car.

But is it actually fait accompli?

Ottawa GM Bryan Murray believed it was with Alfredsson. He'd convinced the Sens' icon to take haircuts in the past for the betterment of the club; this negotiation would be no exception, particularly with Alfie's playing days numbered and a roster not completely out of the Cup conversation. So Murray skipped merrily back to the well of frugality and drew out a deal measuring a miserly $4.5million. The result of this "flexible offer"? Ottawa's everything-man now resides in Hockeytown, his pockets fuller than the City Treasury.

Could it happen to Vancouver with the Sedins?

Given the sort of made-bed Gillis has had to lie in this summer, it would be in his best interests to forget the lowball as his first-up pitch.