Michael Peca will be the first one to tell you that he's not sitting by the phone every moment of every day waiting and hoping it will ring.
He does, however, check for messages.
That's what a veteran free agent does and if the player best known as "Captain Crunch" has learned anything from his long and oft-times fruitful National Hockey League career, it is how to be patient.
"I've kind of been through this before," the former Vancouver Canuck, Buffalo Sabre, New York Islander, Toronto Maple Leaf, Edmonton Oiler and Columbus Blue Jacket told me this week. "You can't just sit there hoping the phone is going to ring. I've learned how to be patient."
Understandable.
Peca once waited an entire season while the Buffalo Sabres opted to make an example of him and both refused to meet his contract demands or a request to trade him. It was an ugly time coming right after a good season in which the then Sabres captain played an important role in getting the Sabres to the 1999 Stanley Cup final.
Like so many other players, he also missed a season during the 2004-05 lockout and he's had a few significant injuries, including one to his knee while with the Islanders and playing against Darcy Tucker and the Leafs in the 2002 playoffs.
Still, if you push the issue just a bit you can get him to say that he's a bit surprised that no one has offered him a roster spot now that the season is well under way.
At 35 Peca is at a point where, like it or not, the end may be at hand, but when you factor in the time he's missed, he says he still feels fresh, still feels like he can contribute and he certainly wants to play.
He admits there have been a few nibbles, but he's a little choosy right now. If the call comes he wants it to be from a team that has a shot at winning.
"I think I've earned that," said Peca, one of the few players ever to captain more than one team in the NHL (Buffalo and the Islanders). "I understand if there are people who don't agree with that or think that maybe I'm being selfish, but at this point in my career it's all about having another chance to win (the Stanley Cup).
Peca came close to that goal twice, once in 1999 with the Sabres and the infamous "no-goal" game with the Dallas Stars and again with the surprising Edmonton Oilers team that made it to the finals in 2006.
He also played for Canada at the 1994 World Junior Championships, captained the Canadian team at the 2001 World Championships in Germany and was an alternate captain on Canada's 2002 Olympic team, the team that won gold at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Winning has always been important to Peca. It still is, but he tempers that with the experience of now being a family man with a wife and two kids. "Ideally I would like to be close to home, "he said. “I've put my family through a lot with all the moves and I'd like to not have to do that again, but we'll see what (if anything) comes along and then make a decision."
Peca said he knows that's asking a lot, but he's dangling something that's seemingly more important to general manager's than his leadership skills, his Olympic and World Junior gold medals, two Selke Trophies and a reputation as a good man to have on your roster on and off the ice: he's willing to come cheap.
"I understand there's a bit of an age squeeze," he said, noting that a good many teams are going with younger and often inexperienced players simply because they are an easy fit under a salary cap, but "money is not an issue for me. I've had my battles with contracts, that's in the past; I just want to help a team win."
Peca is aware that an offer to play for less than market value might not be enough for some teams, especially teams with Cup aspirations. He's not beyond comprehending that the end might be at hand even if he isn't willing to fully embrace the idea.
"I still think I can compete and contribute," he said, noting that he still skates every day and plays in senior league competition and with the Sabres alumni. He also works out regularly in between stints taking his kids to school, watching his nine-year-old son play hockey and just spending quality time with family, something that hasn't happened except during contract disputes or recovering from injury.
He also looks back on some of that lost time, especially the contract issue with the Sabres with some regrets, but he still spends the bulk of his time looking forward.
"If it (an offer) doesn't come, well, I'm keeping busy and you have to accept the fact that this comes to all hockey players eventually. I'm enjoying the time with my family and I'll be looking to do some other things in the future, but I'm not convinced that it's over yet.
"I still think there are teams out there that I could help."
Sources tell me that Peca had a chat with Sabres GM Darcy Regier and that would be a good fit given that he's put down roots in Western New York what with a home and having his kids in school there, but Buffalo's roster appears set at least for now. There were rumors that a team in the West had some interest but it was simply too far away. The Philadelphia Flyers were rumored to be interested but they have cap issues. Toronto is close by and the GTA is where Peca was born, but the Leafs haven't revisited and even if they did it's not exactly a Cup contending team.
As a result his options are limited, but that's not as big a problem as you might think.
"I don't think I'd be comfortable with the decision of having it be over," he said. "Right now things are different, but I think it would be difficult to concede that this is the end. I still think there's a fit out there somewhere."
There may well be, but if not, well, there's a life after hockey and Peca has already had a taste of it.
He knows it's good, but one last chance to win before he takes it on full time would make it just a little bit better.
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Just a few words in the immunization debacle plaguing the Calgary Flames and what will surely be other teams and other sports.
Seriously, what did you expect?
Athletes get special treatment because of who they are and because non-athletes, especially the ones working in government and business are only too happy to fall all over themselves to give them that treatment because, hey who doesn't want to be pal to Jarome Iginla, or a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs or Toronto Raptors?
The really sad thing about all of this is the cover up on both sides. Flames President Ken King claims his players didn't do anything wrong and there's some truth to that and he argues that his organization pretty much worked within the rules as they were described to him.
That almost works until you get to the fact that the private clinic was actually a room set up for the Flames by government officials who were supposed to follow protocols that didn't include hockey players moving to the front of the line. Worse, King's arguments go right through the five hole when you factor in that the players got special treatment not just for themselves, but for family members as well.
Show me how the families of hockey players are different from your families and mine and I'll show you a hypocrite.
And don't expect much from the investigation by government officials. Already an unnamed staffer has been fired which is the cultural equivalent to throwing a virgin into the volcano to appease the tribe upset with actions that are beyond their control.
It very much appears that government officials made favoured decisions at the highest levels to allow the privileged few to move to the front and there's little doubt that we’ll see more and more stories about more and more teams having been beneficiaries of the same non-policy decisions.
Will anyone pay a price for that? Doubt it. Already the Leafs and Raptors are running for cover provided by PR people and firing a mid-level "staffer" in the Alberta Public Health Office and not even releasing his or her name is a clear indication that elected officials are going to turtle as well.
There have been apologies aplenty, but no one will truly pay a price for what officials on both the teams and the health ministries did, which is knowingly violate both the protocols and the common decency of putting themselves first at the expense of maybe a kid who didn't get a shot in time or the senior citizen who doesn't have the clout to get out of line and into a favoured person room.
That's the real tragedy here and you can rest assured no one in a position of power or influence is going to admit to that.