Score one for the Vancouver Canucks ... well, sort of.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were fined an undisclosed amount today by the NHL because, league deputy commmissioner Bill Daly said, coach Ron Wilson violated a league by-law "relating to inappropriate public comments by speaking generally to his club's potential interest in negotiating with Daniel and Henrik Sedin" before the Canucks forwards had officially become free agents.
The Sedins eventually re-signed with the Canucks, getting five-year contracts worth $6.1 million a season.
However, Daly ruled that the league "found no evidence whatsoever" to support the Canucks' concerns that the Leafs might "have engaged in any other conduct of activities" regarding the Sedins that would have been in violation of its rules relating to tampering.
Wilson told Toronto radio station The Fan 590 on June 30, the day before the NHL's free agent period began, that the Leafs would be interested in signing both players.
"You're hearing right now, and this sounds very contradictory, but there's a real possibility, I would think, thet we would be going after the Sedins," Wilson told the station. "Let's just speculate there."
If the Leafs had been found guilty of tampering, they could have been fined $1 million and forced to give the Canucks a first-round draft pick.
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