Is there still life in this body?

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San Jose Sharks defenceman Brian Campbell, right, congratulates Joe Thornton after his teammate scored a goal against the Montreal Canadiens in March.

Photograph by : Reuters, File

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- Darcy Tucker ($4.5 million over two years) to Colorado. No tag days for Tucker, who's still getting $6 million over six years from the Leafs after they bought him out. The Avalanche need a checking centre for their third line, but Tucker could fill the hole with the NHL's resident iron man, Andrew Brunette (453 straight games), leaving for Minnesota. Tucker's body is beat up because of the style he plays, but he's still a disturber and the Avs can use that kind of guy.

KEVIN LOWE'S OFF THE HOOK

- With the Vancouver Canucks giving St. Louis Blues winger David Backes a $7.5-million, three-year offer sheet, maybe people will get off Lowe's back. Backes is smaller potatoes than Lowe's renegade move on Thomas Vanek that was rebuffed by Buffalo last year and his successful play on Dustin Penner of the Anaheim Ducks, but it's still a rogue play for a Group 2 free agent by Mike Gillis, a former player agent. The Blues will likely have to swallow hard and match this, rather than take a middling second-round pick as compensation, because Backes is one of their few front-line forwards who plays with an edge after they traded Jamal Mayers to the Maple Leafs at the draft.

BACKUP GOALIES, EVERYWHERE

- Goaltender Ty Conklin parlayed last year's stirring work in Pittsburgh into a one-year $750,000 deal with Detroit as a safety net in case farmhand Jimmy Howard can't make the jump from the American Hockey League to give Chris Osgood a breather. Conklin must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven when Detroit called.

- Tampa Bay reached out to Olie Kolzig, who felt he got the dirty end of the stick in Washington late last season when Huet came in and the longtime Caps goalie had to play cheerleader. Don't be surprised if the Lightning consulted Jeff Halpern, Kolzig's longtime teammate, before signing Olie the Goalie. They're paying him $1.5 million for one year, which is $550,000 more than Mike Smith, who theoretically should be the starter after they got him in a trade last February for Brad Richards.

- Curtis Joseph, who didn't like being away from his family late last season in Calgary, gets a sweetheart $700,000 deal to caddy for Vesa Toskala in Toronto, not far from his farm. Alex Auld and Patrick Lalime (both two years, $2 million total) got deals in Ottawa and Buffalo, respectively, which leaves the Canucks out in the cold. They wanted one of them to give Roberto Luongo a breather.

jmatheson@thejournal.canwest.com