Hopefully he’ll give the Avs a little more of a discount due to this delay. Unfortunately, it will hurt them during the free agent period. Bummer. This is the first year he has struggled with the decision. And yet another “well maybe” gone from the Granato hiring decision.

Please don’t let this become Brett Favre, I don’t think it will, but you never know.

So here’s one of the all time team players and classiest guys to take the ice…and he’s holding a team hostage? It just doesn’t seem to fit. I realize I’m not him, but he’s had a couple of months to make the call here. I’m jumping out on a limb here, but I think he knows that he wants to come back, but it’s conditional. i think it’s some combination of these things:

• He doesn’t want to do camp. He’s done camp ~20 times, and he doesn’t want to do it in his last year, he’d rather work out himself. This is a touch concerning, because his conditioning didn’t appear to be tip-top last year to start eh year, and led to a sport hernia. Maybe this is his answer, and he’ll be doing something different on his own? doesn’t seem very Joe-like though—he’s always been so workmanlike and team-oriented.

• speaking of the hernia, it’s possible it’s not healing, or there’s some other health issue and he’s not sure if he can go at 100% this year. We don’t know, but this one seems to hold the most water for me.

• He doesn’t want to play a full year. Selanne and Neids did it, why not him? Again, doesn’t seem very Joe-like though.

• He wants to play on a Stanley Cup contender, and he’s waiting and seeing on the Avs re-signings and FA moves. Could be, but you wonder what he expects the team to do. Rolston? Bruno? Hossa?

• Perhaps this is being masterminded by FG, not Sakic. Maybe the Avs want to give Hensick a taste at the 2nd line center to start the year, see how he handles the pressure. Perhaps they want to make a play at a big name FA, then bring in Joey and Peter halfway through the year and make their big run, something that only works with the cap if Joey and Peter take pay cuts (not likely) or they only play part of the year. This holds some water with me, certainly more than Joe pulling Strahans or Selannes.

I dunno. It’s probably a combination of some of these, but I remain certain that he wants to play another year at some level. There’s either some health issues or some team-related reason, I just don’t buy he’s pulling a Selanne.

The Sakic situation has officially been upgraded to the “Sakic Mess” by Dater.

Linky

I had an appealing thought about Sakic’s decision. What if he is weighing whether or not to play for 2 more years, not just one. This thought is along the lines of Sakic wanting to play in the 2010 Olympics. If he were to decide to sign for 2 more years, his retirement would be set in stone to a large degree and maybe that’s why it is taking so long. I also agree that FG knows what’s up. I can’t see Sakic not letting the team know something before the free agency period begins. Maybe I’m dreaming and all this waiting means he’s done. No one wants to hear it and no one wants to say it.