Chris Chelios Will Never Die; Brian Burke Will Soon, I Hope

After a bit of a break, I'm back with some interesting stuff around the horn.

• First things first, the immortal Chris Chelios has returned to the Wings as expected. I've always said that Cheli will never die, he will simply walk off into the sunset with Scotty Bowman one day. Mark my words.
• John Buccigross, meanwhile, caused me to vomit by suggesting that world class d-bag Brian Burke should be NHL Commish one day. Wow, that's the day I leave the NHL. In reality, probably not, since Brian Burke actually couldn't be worse than Gary "I'm a fucking tool" Bettman.
• The return of El Loquísimo seems imminent, with his agent hinting at a return and Ken Holland suggesting that only the contract needs to be worked out. This is very very good. I am tickled.
• In some very interesting news (ibid.), Ken Holland basically very bluntly put the cap on Mathieu Schneider's new deal at 5.25M. This totally confirms my suspicions, which were that Schneider would have to take a cut to around 5M for the Wings to keep him. Still no idea whether that will happen or not; Holland says they haven't even exchanged numbers. For what it's worth, the media is chiming in on the chorus line that only one of Markov/Schneider can come back. But with Hasek's return, and the Wings no longer needing to keep cash available for a goalie, I must reiterate that the Wings very well can bring back both.
• Scott Warheit of MLive/Quo Vadimus fame is pushing an excellent campaign to get Placido Polanco to the MLB All-Star Game. A worthy cause indeed, as Placido is by far the best 2B in the AL. While we're at it, can we get Maggs there too? I heard on Saturday's broadcast that he ranks 7th in OF voting for the AL. That's pretty ridiculous, especially when you consider that ESPN ranked him (granted, based entirely on statistics) as the best player in the MLB, and by a signficant margin. Let's get Polly and Maggs the recognition they deserve, folks. (Edit: Christy at BTJ basically said everything I just said here, and while she was at it, pointed out that MLB.com now says Polanco leads by 52,000 votes, a turnaround of 60,000 votes! Holy shit! Way to go Polly! And way to go Scott!)
  

Later tonight (I hope) I'll review the Wings forward situation and take a look at Todd Bertuzzi.