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The Pittsburgh Penguins continued to restock their roster Saturday, signing forward Matt Cooke to a two-year contract.

"Matt is a versatile forward that will bring grit, energy and experience to our lineup," said Pens general manager Ray Shero. "He is the type of player that adds depth up front and is capable of providing offense for our hockey club."

Cooke split last season between the Vancouver Canucks and Washington Capitals, scoring 10 goals and adding 13 assists in 78 total games. The 29-year-old spent eight-plus seasons with the Canucks before going to the Caps in a trade deadline deal for forward Matt Pettinger. Vancouver’s sixth-round pick in 1997 has posted 86 goals and 210 points in 583 career contests.

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Sources tell TSN that former Maple Leaf Joe Nieuwendyk is scheduled to meet with Toronto general manager Cliff Fletcher this week to discuss joining the team’s management group.

Fletcher’s first attempt to bring Nieuwendyk on board was stopped by the Florida Panthers, who refused to give the Maple Leafs permission to speak Nieuwendyk before his contract as an advisor to Panthers general manager Jacques Martin expired on June 30.

Nieuwendyk, a three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Calgary Flames, Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils, played 1,257 career games over 20 NHL seasons, scoring 564 goals and 1,126 points.

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Free agent forward Matt Cooke signed a two-year contract with Pittsburgh on Saturday, replacing Jarkko Ruutu as the Penguins’ primary agitator. The Penguins also offered Ruutu a two-year contract earlier this week but he signed a three-year deal with the Ottawa Senators after free agent bidding began. Read Original Post Here

Center Brooks Laich and defenseman Shaone Morrisonn of the Washington Capitals were among 15 players who elected to take their teams to salary arbitration, the NHL Players’ Association said Saturday. The only other club to have two players go that route were the Minnesota Wild, who are set to have hearings with forwards Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Stephane Veilleux. Read Original Post Here

Turns out size really doesn’t matter. It’s length that counts. When Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero is building a team, anyway.

He continued doing that Friday working on a contract the Penguins hope to finalize today with free-agent winger Janne Pesonen, the 2007-08 scoring champion in Finland’s top league. But it was the moves Shero made Wednesday that captured the essence of his philosophy. He completed a seven-year, $35 million agreement with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, then struck a pair of one-year deals with free-agent wingers Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko.

Fleury joined Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Ryan Whitney and Brooks Orpik on the list of young players who are under contract for extended periods and make up the nucleus around which the team is assembled. Conversely, Satan and Fedotenko joined a revolving cast of complementary players who were brought in on short-term deals and are far from certain to be retained after those contracts expire.

Pesonen, 26, had 34 goals and 44 assists in 56 games with Karpat in Finland’s SM-Liga and is in line for just a one-year deal. That’s mandated by the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, which. requires players his age to get a one-year, two-way deal. In addition to being the league’s current scoring champion, Pesonen was the SM-Liga Rookie of the Year in 2003-04, has been a member of four league-championship squads and was the playoff MVP in 2007. His size is a bit suspect — he’s listed as 5 foot 11, 179 pounds — but his speed, skill and instincts make him an intriguing prospect if he can adapt to the smaller rinks and more physical play of North America.

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The Washington Capitals will not pursue a contract with left wing Matt Cooke but remain hopeful that center Sergei Fedorov will return next season, General Manager George McPhee said yesterday.

Acquired at the trade deadline from Vancouver, Cooke, 29, was an integral part of the Capitals’ late season push, amassing three goals and four assists in 17 games. But the unrestricted free agent became expendable when grinder Matt Bradley signed a three-year, $3 million contract extension in May.

"You can’t keep everybody," McPhee said.

McPhee does, however, anticipate keeping Fedorov, though a deal might not materialize immediately, he said. The 38-year-old unrestricted free agent notched two goals and 11 assists in 18 games with the Capitals.

"We’ve talked to Sergei," McPhee said. "He wants to come here and is willing to wait until some of the dust settles. We’ll continue to talk to him, but we’re pretty confident that we’ll get something done here."

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Brenden Morrow admits he has said he hates Sean Avery. In public. The Dallas Stars captain does a weekly radio show and recalls a few times when he said on the air that he was bothered by the antics of the player who has been voted most hated in the NHL in multiple player surveys. The day after Avery signed a four-year, $15.5 million contract with the Stars, Morrow wasn’t entirely ready to back off those comments.

"I have said ‘hate,’ and I imagine if we wouldn’t have signed him, I would have said I still hate him," Morrow said Thursday. "But he’s a teammate now, and I’ll admit that I don’t really know him other than what I see on the ice. So now we need to get to know each other and work together as teammates."

Morrow said it is now his job - and the job of his teammates - to let Avery know what’s acceptable.

"There are things here that we will talk about," Morrow said. "We feel we have something special going on here, and we feel we are a good team. And I have no problem with what he does as a player or how he works hard or gets people upset. But some of the stuff that makes the individual more important than the team, that’s not something we want to see here."

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The Vancouver Canucks have announced that the team has acquired forward Steve Bernier from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a second round draft pick in 2010 and a third round pick in 2009.

"Steve Bernier is a highly regarded young player who’s enjoyed success early in his career," said Canucks GM Mike Gillis in a statement. "With his right-handed shot he will be a great addition to our top six forward group and an asset to our power play."

The Sabres acquired the 6-foot-2, 225 pounder at the trade deadline as part of the Brian Campbell trade. Campbell has since signed with the Chicago Blackhawks. Last season, Bernier, 23, scored 32 points in 76 games, split between Buffalo and San Jose

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After a year of enduring the wrath of Brian Burke, Edmonton Oilers general manager Kevin Lowe finally fired back at the Anaheim Ducks‘ executive on Friday. In a candid interview with Edmonton’s Team 1260, Lowe — who stayed relatively quiet each time Burke went after him over the last 12 months — finally let it all out.

"Where do I begin?," started Lowe. "He’s a moron, first of all. Secondly, he really believes that any news for the NHL is good news. Thirdly, he loves the limelight and I don’t think anyone in hockey will dispute that. Lastly, he’s in a pathetic hockey market where they can’t get on any page of the newspaper let alone the front page of the sports, so any of this stuff carries on."

Burke and Lowe have been at odds since the Oilers put forth a five-year, $21.25 million offer sheet to Group II restricted free agent Dustin Penner last summer — a contract that the Ducks did not match and sent Penner to Edmonton. At the time, Burke explained he had no problem with a team putting an offer sheet forward, but the money involved was the issue. Lowe responded in kind on Friday, saying the standard for such contracts was set long before the Penner signing.

"I mean, if he wants to debate what our offer sheet did to them or to the salaries, anytime," he explained to Team 1260. "The reality is, Rick Nash’s contract a number of years ago, (Patrice) Bergeron’s and (Ilya) Kovalchuk’s; that sets the standard - that’s been going on for decades. I’m sick and tired of it. I know everybody in hockey is. I know our peers are like, ‘Well, that’s Burkie.’ This guy is an absolute media junkie and I guess he’s achieving what he wants because he gets his name in the headlines. But the reality is, I hate the fact that my name is linked to his. He’s an underachieving wanna-be in terms of success in the NHL. He won a Stanley Cup? Great. I’ve won six Stanley Cups, you want to count rings? Who cares, it’s just a little pathetic that he carries on."

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Although Dan Boyle felt betrayed when the Tampa Bay Lightning decided to trade him, the standout defenseman is feeling much better about it after landing with the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks acquired Boyle from Tampa Bay in a four-player deal Friday, trading defenseman Matt Carle and top prospect Ty Wishart to the Lightning to add their second star defenseman in two days.

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