NHL ROUNDUP \ News and notes

Salary cap: The salary cap will be about $44 million next season, an increase of $5 million per team, after league revenues were higher than expected in the first year following the season-long lockout. Commissioner Gary Bettman and players' association executive director Ted Saskin met Monday in New York and set the upper level of the cap at approximately $44 million with the minimum rising to about $28 million. The cap figures will be a topic today when the NHL board of governors convenes in New York. The final numbers will be officially set once all the revenues from the 2005-06 season are calculated by the end of June. They are expected to be in the $2.1 billion range, significantly higher than the projected amount of $1.8 billion. The league and the union used that figure to set this season's cap at $39 million with a floor of $21.5 million.
Avalanche re-sign Sakic: Avalanche captain Joe Sakic signed a one-year deal Tuesday to stay in Colorado. Sakic, who has played all 17 seasons with the Avalanche franchise, turns 37 next month. He said he thought a one-year contract extension was fair to both sides, but he hopes to play at least two more seasons. Terms were not disclosed. "If you're over 35, for whatever reason, if you sign a two-year deal -- and after one year you decided to retire, not that I'm going to, the team's still stuck with the cap number," Sakic said. "At this stage of my career, I thought one-year deals would probably be best for both sides." Sakic ranks 11th on the NHL's all-time list in points (1,489), 15th in assists (915) and 17th in goals (574). He has more overtime playoff goals (7) than anyone else.
Canucks' coach: Former Montreal Canadiens coach Alain Vigneault was hired Tuesday as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, who promoted him from their minor league affiliate. He replaces Marc Crawford, who was fired in April after missing the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. Crawford has since been hired as coach of the Los Angeles Kings. Vigneault coached the Canadiens for more than three seasons (1997-01) and spent last year behind the bench of the Manitoba Moose. He led the AHL team to its first 100-point season and the second round of the playoffs. The 45-year-old Vigneault spent most of the last 20 years coaching, starting in the junior leagues of his native Quebec in 1986-87. He was an assistant with the Ottawa Senators from 1992-96. After another stint in the juniors, he become the second-youngest head coach of the Canadiens on May 26, 1997. Vigneault was 109-113-39-5 in Montreal. After a strong 1999-00 season, the Canadiens started the next year 5-8-6-1 and Vigneault was fired after 20 games.
Associated Press
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