Lack of Interest in Alexander Semin?

Alexander Semin? He remains all but ignored on the free agent scrap heap 10 days into July.
Actually, being ignored would be an improvement for Semin, who has been savaged by critics this summer. The TSN panel for the Canadian sports network's free agency coverage on July 1  with Marc Crawford labeling Semin as a player with "no character" and "a complete loser." And he was the good cop. Pierre McGuire really laid  the hammer as the bad cop.

"This is not a great teammate, I'm telling ya right now," McGuire told viewers. "Not a good guy to have around your group unless you got unbelievably strong leadership. He's the ultimate coach killer, that's what he is."

Mark Gandler, Semin's agent, called the exchange "the worst I've ever heard an analyst say about any player" and threatened "to check with my attorney" over the perceived defamation.

Other than those possible chats with his lawyer, Gandler's phone lines haven't been burning up with calls as teams have largely steered clear of the enigmatic Russian star.

The closest Semin has come to a nibble was this candid admission by Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford after the Hurricanes lost out in the Parise sweepstakes and were rebuffed in efforts to trade for Columbus forward Rick Nash.

"We would look at Semin on a short-term basis," Rutherford told the Raleigh News and Observer. "We wouldn't want to get locked in to anything, because we've all heard the stories about him. We do like his skill level. It could be that we could bring him in for a year, get to know him and go from there in terms of considering something longer term."

And that was from a team that, according to captain Eric Staal, was just one elite forward away from being a contender.

"We've got some very good pieces in place, and if we can add, like they're saying, another elite forward, it will definitely put us in the mix among the top teams in the Eastern Conference," Staal told the News and Observer. "It's exciting. I hope they'll continue to push -- and not just grab anybody, but the right person for our group."

It doesn't seem like Semin, for all his skill, is viewed as the "right person" by anyone in the NHL, or at least not the right person to commit to with a multiyear deal. That's nothing new for Semin. After signing a two-year, $9.2 million deal with Washington in 2008, he's had to settle for one-year deals the past two seasons, albeit with raises to $6 million and $6.7 million, respectively.by douglas flynn