from Rory Boylen of Sportsnet,

When Brent Burns re-signed with the San Jose Sharks for eight years and $64 million earlier this week, it took the best blueliner off this summer’s free agent market.

There are still some pretty good blueliners who could be available, including Dennis Wideman, Dmitry Kulikov, Kris Russell ad Brian Campbell, but Burns’ signing probably had the biggest impact on the next two best blueliners on expiring deals: Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk.

With Burns coming in at $8 million against the cap on his extension, what are these two younger, less dynamic defenders worth? Will they even make it to free agency?

“I understand last summer there were two teams given permission to talk to Shattenkirk by St. Louis and I believe that was Edmonton and Arizona. The teams aren’t commenting, the agents aren’t commenting, but from what I understand that was the case,” Elliotte Friedman said on Hockey Night in Canada’s Headlines segment.

"Shattenkirk wasn’t interest in Edmonton. Arizona did have some movement, but obviously not enough to get a deal done. A lot of teams think Shattenkirk likes the Rangers, but if there's a bidding war there it could push him up close to $7 million."

continued with more topics discusssed in the video which you can watch at Sportsnet.

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