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Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said negotiations have officially stalled with the two restricted free agents who appear trickiest to sign, Tim Gleason and Tuomo Ruutu.

"I haven’t had any conversations in the last week," Rutherford said. "So it will just run its course at this point."

The Canes have a few other restricted free agents to sign, but there's still two weeks before any deadline pressure starts to mount. On July 1, any unsigned restricted free agents can receive offers from other teams, but that's happened only twice last summer, for the first time in a decade.

Passed over for last year's U.S. World Junior team, Canes prospect Drayson Bowman is among 53 players invited to Lake Placid, N.Y., for this August's junior evaluation camp.

That, along with his stellar season for Spokane (WHL), should give Bowman a leg up in his final shot at making the World Junior team.

A few Hurricanes footnotes from last night's NHL awards ceremony:

• Eric Staal finished 33rd in voting for the Lady Byng Trophy with 13 points (0-1-1-0-1) while Matt Cullen tied for 72nd (0-0-0-1-0) and Joe Corvo and Frantisek Kaberle were tied for 83rd with one fifth-place vote each.

• Peter Laviolette received one first-place vote and two second-place votes for the Jack Adams Award, finishing 10th in the voting.

• Rod Brind'Amour finished 24th in voting for the Selke Trophy, which he won the previous two seasons (0-0-1-3-5). Staal received one fifth-place vote and finished tied for 66th.

• Corvo received one fifth-place vote for the Norris Trophy, tying him for 17th.

• Staal received one third-place vote for the All-Star team at center, tying him for eighth. Corvo received one third-place vote at defenseman, tying him for 19th.

Trevor Gillies, who spent all of last season with Albany (AHL), signed a new contract Friday. The one-year deal will pay him $500,000 in the NHL and $100,000 in the AHL, with a guarantee of $115,000.

Gillies had 112 penalty minutes in 51 games with the River Rats, third on the team. He also had a goal and an assist and served as one of Albany's rotating captains.

The latest Q&A at the River Rats' web site is with new Hurricanes goalie Michael Leighton, who says, among other things, "I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with Carolina and I was wondering if I might become a free agent in July. My goal was to get something done with Carolina, and it did get done, so I’m very happy."

Another interesting answer:

I got a lot of offers in Russia, I even had offers mid-season to go over to Russia. Seeing how the situation was going and how I was playing and how the team was doing I decided to stay and it turned out well for me. I didn’t particularly want to go to Russia, that’s just more of a moneymaker. You go over there for a couple years, make some money and then retire. I’m 27, I’m not young, but I’m not old and I was just looking to get a good spot, where I could set myself up for the next couple of years.

The Carolina Hurricanes will continue playing home hockey games at the RBC Center until October 2024 under a extended lease agreement being announced Friday.

The five-year extension comes after nearly two years of negotiations between Gale Force Holdings, the Hurricanes parent company, and the Centennial Authority, the public agency that owns the RBC Center.

“It makes a big statement on our belief in the continued growth of our sport and the Hurricanes and the market,” said Jim Rutherford, the Hurricanes' general manager.

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Last week, the Canes decided that Michael Leighton had indeed done enough in the AHL to replace John Grahame as Cam Ward's backup this season.

On Wednesday, Leighton, 27, signed a two-year contract worth $1.2 million to make it official.

The AHL's goalie of the year and an MVP candidate, Leighton led the AHL in shutouts (7) and save percentage (.931) and was third in goals-against averate (2.10).

His 98-save performance in a five-overtime playoff loss, the longest game in AHL history, is believed to be a professional hockey record.

At $600,000 per season, the Canes will save $800,000 in that spot. Grahame made $1.4 million in each of the past two seasons.

The Hurricanes shook up their coaching staff Monday, moving Albany (AHL) coach Tom Rowe onto Peter Laviolette's staff in Carolina and dispatching assistant coach Jeff Daniels to take over for Rowe in Albany.

Rowe, who has been coaching Carolina's minor-leaguers since 2004, has done a masterful job in Albany. Last season, he took a cobbled-together River Rats roster into the playoffs, relying heavily on AHL goalie of the year Michael Leighton and a revolving door on the dressing room.

Daniels joined Carolina's coaching staff within months of his November 2003 retirement. When the Canes fired Paul Maurice in December 2003, Daniels joined holdover Kevin McCarthy on Laviolette's new staff and has been there ever since.

After spending the year in Russia, defenseman Anton Babchuk may be back in the frame for the Hurricanes. According to russianprospects.com, Babchuk is considering a contract offer from Carolina.

But Hurricanes general manager Jim Rutherford said Friday the Canes haven't offered Babchuk anything.

"His agent has expressed interest in him coming back here," Rutherford said. "That's as far as it's gone at this point."

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For the past seven seasons (counting the lockout), Glen Wesley and Bret Hedican have been pillars of the Hurricanes' blue line. With the news Thursday that Wesley is retiring and the confirmation that Hedican is moving on, it's hard to imagine Carolina's defense going forward.

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More honors for Ron Francis: The Hurricanes assistant general manager will receive an honorary doctorate from Algoma University in his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

This is his second such honor. In 1998, he received an honorary doctorate from Lake Superior State University, just across the St. Mary's River in Sault Sainte Marie, Mich.

In case you missed it: N&O staff photographer Robert Willett sat down with Glen Wesley to discuss some of the high points of winning the Cup in this slideshow.

On getting the Cup from Rod Brind'Amour to carry in the victory parade: "I was a kid in a candy store right there. I actually didn't realize I was going to get that until Rod came up to me and said, it's all yours."

ECHL All-Star Daniel Manzato, who spent most of the season on loan to the ECHL runner-up Las Vegas Wranglers, re-signed with the Canes for another year Friday.

Manzato, 24, will make $522,500 at the NHL level and $75,000 in the minors. He will be part of a three-way battle for playing time in Albany (AHL) with Justin Peters and Kevin Nastiuk.

UPDATE, 1:04 p.m.: Manzato and Peters are expected to be the tandem in Albany, assuming Michael Leighton is in Raleigh. The Canes don't plan to offer Nastiuk a contract, general manager Jim Rutherford said.

Glen Wesley's retirement got all the attention Thursday, but his announcement came at the end of a long — and dramatic — day of front-office meetings, and there was plenty of news to go around.

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