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Entry tags:	commodore, meszaros, news, nycholat, richardson, vermette

Qualifying offers extended and other news
From the Ottawa Sun:

The Senators made the necessary qualifying offers to their eligible restricted free agents at yesterday's deadline, thus maintaining the rights to Andrej Meszaros, Antoine Vermette, Josh Hennessy and Jeff Glass.

Veteran Luke Richardson has informed Murray of his desire to play another year, but for now he's going to have to be content with participating in the waiting game. As it stands, the Senators' blue line shapes up like this: Chris Phillips, Anton Volchenkov, Meszaros, Brian Lee, Christoph Schubert and Lawrence Nycholat, a Binghamton farmhand whose deal (signed by former GM John Muckler) calls for him to earn $600,000 on a one-way contract next season. "We certainly need one more defenceman, at least," Murray said yesterday. "And I wouldn't be averse to getting a second. But they are hard to find." The 39-year-old Richardson suited up for 76 games with the Senators last year but was phased out in favour of Lee down the stretch and in the playoffs. "To be fair to Luke, I have not offered him anything," said Murray. "When free agency time kind of gets through a certain period, we'll look at our roster, and if we need that extra guy, and if he's willing to come back in a lesser role, then we would address that at that time. He wants to play, I believe, and he was good for us last year. He's certainly the character kind of guy that I want and like. What happened there, when Nycholat got the one-way contract, it kind of screwed Luke a little bit, as far as his opportunity to be that 6-7 guy. That's what I have to look at now."

Asked about the possibility of bringing Mike Commodore back for his blue-line toughness, Murray said: "Again, it becomes dollars. I've talked to his agent (last Saturday). It depends. I think anybody going to free agency thinks there's a jackpot out there, for whatever their role might be. If he made 1.3 last year, maybe 'I'd get 2.5 next year' type of thing. Based on that, it would be hard to do."