The Stanley Cup finals lost nearly a quarter of what already was a small television audience. Anaheim's 1-0 victory over Ottawa in Game 2 on Wednesday night got a 0.6 cable rating on Versus and was watched in 446,000 homes in the United States.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed 2006 first-round draft choice Riku Helenius and 2005 third-round pick Chris Lawrence to three-year rookie contracts, Executive Vice President and General Manger Jay Feaster announced. Helenius, a 6-foot-3, 202-pound native of Palkane, Finland, missed the majority of the 2006-07 season for Ilves Tampere of the Finnish SM-Liiga after suffering a shoulder injury. Helenius recorded a 2.68 goal-against average and a .919 save percentage in 26 games with Ilves Tampere Junior during the 2005-06 season. He was the top-rated Finnish goaltender in the draft by NHL Central Scouting and was ranked as the top European goaltender in the draft by the Hockey News when the Lightning selected him in the first round, 15th overall, at the 2006 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver. ?Riku really lost an entire season of development due to injury last year,? Feaster said. ?We are anxious, nonetheless, to get him signed and have him continue with his career as we still believe he is incredibly talented and will one day be a top prospect for our organization.? Lawrence, 6-foot-4 and 212-pounds, is coming off his best season as a junior in 2006-07 when he tied for fourth in the Ontario Hockey League in goals with 47 and was tied for 20th in the league in points with 88 while playing for the Mississauga IceDogs. He was first on the team in goals and second in points. The Toronto, Ontario native also led the IceDogs in power-play goals with 15 and was second with six game-winning goals. Lawrence also played in five post-season games and scored three goals while adding one assist. ?If Chris Lawrence ever figures it out and consistently, shift-to-shift, plays the way he is capable of playing, he will be a dominant power forward in the NHL one day,? Feaster said. ?The only thing holding Chris back from achieving greatness in professional hockey will be Chris Lawrence and the issue of how badly he wants to be a special player. Talent, size, skill, skating ... Chris has it all. However, he needs to commit himself to bringing the complete package shift after shift, night after night, game after game, in order to really succeed in the NHL. We look forward to him taking the first step on that journey this year as he begins his professional career.? A veteran of 261 OHL games, Lawrence finished his four-year junior career with Mississauga after spending his first two-and-a-half seasons with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. During his OHL career he amassed 88 goals and 205 points. He played in a total of 12 playoff games and scored six goals with 10 points. Lawrence skated for Team Canada at the 2005 World U-18 Championships and also was selected for the 2005 CHL Top Prospects Game. Tampa Bay selected Lawrence, 20, in the third round, 89th overall, at the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. The pick was acquired, along with the 102nd pick, from Philadelphia in exchange for a second round choice in 2006. Entering the draft Lawrence was the 38th-ranked North American prospect according to central scouting. Helenius played in six games at the 2006 World U-18 Championships and posted 4-1-1 record with a 1.83 goals-against average, a .942 save percentage and one shutout. He was awarded the Directorate Award at the tournament as the top goaltender and had a 34-save shutout against Team Canada. Helenius began his career with Ilves Jr. in the 2002-03 season. He made his debut in Finland?s top professional league in 2005-06, appearing in five games for Ilves Tampere.

New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that the club has traded the rights to unsigned prospect Ryan Russell to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Montreal's seventh round pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Russell, 20, appeared in 58 games with the Kootenay Ice of the Western Hockey League (WHL) this season, registering 30 goals and 46 assists for 76 points, along with 40 penalty minutes. In seven postseason games, he collected three goals and six assists, along with two penalty minutes. The 5-10, 165-pound center has skated in 263 career games with Kootenay (WHL), totaling 98 goals and 118 assists for 216 points, along with 115 penalty minutes. Russell was originally a seventh round selection of the Rangers, 211th overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.

The Hurricanes signed goaltender Cam Ward -- the most valuable player of the team's run to the Stanley Cup last year -- to a three-year contract Thursday. Ward will earn $2 million next season, $2.5 million in the 2008-09 season and $3.5 million in 2009-10. The 23-year-old made $684,000 last year in the final year of the three-year entry-level contract he signed in 2004.

It's looking all but certain that the Wild will part ways with 2004 first-round pick A.J. Thelen. With Friday's 4 p.m. deadline to sign Thelen near, the Wild has not made an offer, Thelen's Calgary-based agent, J.P. Barry, said Thursday. "I haven't received any proposal yet, so we're not exactly sure where we're going," said Barry of CAA Sports. "If they want to do something, we'll talk to them. If not, we'll find a new team." If the Wild relinquishes Thelen's rights, it will receive the 42nd pick as compensation in next month's draft. "We're down to two days to go now, and obviously as the deadline gets close, the odds decrease that something will get done," assistant GM Tommy Thompson said from the NHL draft combine in Toronto. "When you draft a hockey player and develop him and establish a relationship with him as we've done with A.J., you'd like to see that player in your lineup as opposed to flipping him for more picks. "But a business decision will have to be made as to what the value is of the player and what the value is of the [compensatory] pick." Thelen, 21, a hard-shooting 6-3 defenseman from Savage, is coming off a strong postseason for the Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants. But the Wild has been disappointed with his development, and has admitted that it wished it had taken defenseman Andrej Meszaros with the No. 12 pick instead. The Ottawa Senators took Meszaros at No. 23. General Manager Doug Risebrough said, "If he was a priority signing, he would have been signed two, three years ago." Barry, who helped orchestrate Thelen's Western Hockey League trade from Prince Albert to Vancouver after being hired in January, said he feels Thelen has improved since the move. "I don't know everything about his previous history, but he did everything we asked," Barry said. "He left everything on the table at the end, which is always good." Reportedly, Thelen outplayed highly-touted teammates Cody Franson (Nashville) and Brendan Mikkelson (Anaheim) during Vancouver's playoff run. If the Wild indeed lets Thelen walk, Thelen's future is subject to debate. While the league has told the Wild that Thelen would have to re-enter June's draft under the transition rules of the new collective bargaining agreement, Barry contends he should become a free agent. "I read he should be free and I've talked to the Players' Association about my interpretation," Barry said. "We will see what the NHL's interpretation is on June 2." Regardless, the Wild will receive the 42nd pick.

If multiple scouting interviews mean anything, the Flyers seem to have narrowed their focus for the draft to 6-foot-1, 170-pound center Kyle Turris, who has catapulted to the head of the list in NHL Central Scouting's final rankings. The Flyers hold the second overall pick in the June 23 draft. They have had more discussions with the 17-year-old Turris than any other player. According to league sources, the Chicago Blackhawks are leaning toward choosing Patrick Kane, the 5-9, 160-pound right winger from the London Knights, with the top pick.

Mark Messier would seem to be the best and natural choice to replace Don Maloney as the Rangers' assistant general manager, except Messier does not want the job. Not now anyway. Appearing as a guest of Mike and the Mad Dog on WFAN yesterday, Messier took his hat out of the ring for a job that opened this week, when Maloney was named GM of the Phoenix Coyotes. "I'd like at some point to get back into the game," Messier said from Anaheim, where he is working for Versus on the Stanley Cup Finals telecasts. "But at this particular point, I don't think I'm quite ready for it."

The Canadiens have made a contract offer to Sheldon Souray, and the all-star defenseman will take a little time to digest it, and consider what might await him on July 1, should he decide to test the waters of unrestricted free agency. Paul Theofanous, Souray's New York-based agent, said last night that Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey made the offer on Tuesday, 24 hours after the club had signed 28-year-old defenseman Andrei Markov to a four-year, $23-million (U.S.) contract, making the Russian the best-paid Canadien of all time. "We got the offer," Theofanous said. "It's May, late May, but it's still early, and we're just going to sit here and evaluate Sheldon's free-agent options over the next couple of weeks."

Mats Sundin is on the verge of remaining a Maple Leaf through the 2008-09 season. Just one month before the long-time captain is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent, the two sides are close to agreeing on a two-year deal worth about $11 million US. As of tomorrow, the Leafs have a two-week window to pick up a team option on Sundin's existing deal. While the option would pay Sundin $4.56 million, it would still cost the Leafs about $6.33 million in cap space.

Dave Balon, who won two Stanley Cups with the Canadiens in the 1960s during a 14-year NHL career, has died. He was 68. Balon had multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years and died Tuesday, according to the Rangers, one of his former teams. Balon also played for the Canucks and North Stars, as well as the Nordiques when they were part of the WHA.