The Brothers

Nieder may join his brother

Wednesday, August 3, 2005

By TOM GULITTI
STAFF WRITER



On at least two occasions, Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello has attempted to trade for Rob Niedermayer as enticement for older brother Scott to stay in New Jersey.

Now, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim might be the ones to benefit from their bond.


On his second day as an unrestricted free agent, Scott Niedermayer narrowed the field to "four or five teams'' in addition to the Devils. The reigning Norris Trophy winner hopes to pick his destination by Friday and possibly as early as today.

"The sooner the better for me,'' Scott said Tuesday from his home in Cranbrook, British Columbia.

Rob, an unsigned restricted free agent for the Mighty Ducks, also lives in Cranbrook. Mighty Ducks GM Brian Burke will meet this morning with agent Kevin Epp, who represents both Niedermayers, at Epp's North Vancouver office.

"It would be something that we'd both love to do,'' Scott Niedermayer said of playing with his younger brother. "But, like I've said all along, there's a lot of things that I'm looking at. I think by the end of [today], we should know the lay of the land and after that it's going to come down to making a decision."

Epp was careful to say that the Niedermayers aren't a package deal, so a family discount might not be in order. In fact, Rob, 30, plans to sign his qualifying offer, meaning he can become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

"He's going to be there one year,'' Scott said. "It's sort of a dynamic situation. Obviously, he's here in my hometown, so we're talking and know what each other is thinking, so that helps a bit."

Scott would not reveal the other finalists, but it is believed that Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton are among those that expressed serious interest.

"There's a lot of places that are good places, New Jersey being one of them,'' said Scott. "So it doesn't make the decision easy."

Tuesday was a wild day for free agent signings, particularly among defensemen. Marek Malik (Rangers, three years at $7.5 million), Alexei Zhitnik (Islanders, four years at $14 million) Derian Hatcher (Philadelphia, four years at $14 million), Mike Rathje (Philadelphia, five years at $17.5 million), Adam Foote (Columbus, three years at $13.8 million) and Adrian Aucoin (Chicago, four years at $16 million) were among the blueliners to sign with new teams.

Those contracts seemed to set the market at around $4 million for a defenseman such as the Devils' Brian Rafalski. Rafalski's agent, Bill Zito, said Tuesday that there are still "12 teams that are seriously interested.'' Pittsburgh, Anaheim, Toronto and Montreal are believed to be on that long list.

Lamoriello failed in his bid to bring back center Bobby Holik, who signed a three-year deal with Atlanta at $4.25 million per season. Holik said that he and Lamoriello never discussed salary.

"I did talk to Lou, but after thinking it through, the Thrashers were the team who were making the most sense,'' he said.

RANGERS BUSY: In addition to Malik, the Blueshirts also signed unrestricted forward Martin Straka to a one-year deal for $3 million and re-signed restricted free agent goaltender Kevin Weekes to a two-year contract totaling $3.8 million. Straka will be reunited with former Penguins teammate Jaromir Jagr.

E-mail: gulitti@northjersey.com