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The NHL will not announce plans for next year's season opener in Europe for another month or so, but at least three clubs have expressed interest in going, including one from Canada, the Calgary Flames.

And while the Toronto Maple Leafs are not a candidate for 2009, they would be a leading contender to open the season abroad in 2010, one NHL source said yesterday.

Flames president Ken King said in an interview, "If the league or anyone thought we'd be worthy, we'd certainly be interested."

The other clubs in confirmed negotiations for the junket are the Detroit Red Wings and the St. Louis Blues, both of which have targeted Stockholm as their venue of choice. The Red Wings, the Stanley Cup champions, have a nucleus of Swedish-born players, including perennial James Norris Memorial Trophy candidate and team captain Nicklas Lidstrom, last year's playoff most valuable player, Henrik Zetterberg and others — Johan Franzen, Nicklas Kronwall, Mikael Samuelsson and Andreas Lilja.

The Flames have been involved in two previous overseas tours. In 1998, they opened the season in Tokyo with a two-game series against the San Jose Sharks. In 1989, coming off their Stanley Cup championship victory, they toured the Czech Republic and the Soviet Union, playing games against club teams such as Sparta Prague and Moscow Red Army.

Normally, teams are shuttled to European cities that make sense in terms of the demographic makeup of their roster. Calgary's highest-profile European is a Finn, goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. It is thought Helsinki was high on the list of European cities next in line for an in-season NHL game, as the league tries to expand its footprint in Europe at a time when the Russian-based Continental Hockey League is also talking about expanding beyond its borders.

Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said his organization "was not interested a year ago, but I do have interest now.

"I've talked to our owners, I've talked to our coach and I've talked to some of our players," he said. "I am only interested if we go to Sweden. I'm not interested in going barnstorming. I'm not interested in going to other countries. I am only interested if it makes sense financially.

"We bring in revenues in the preseason. We want to be a cap team. In order to be a cap team, you need revenues. So if we can be made whole — between our preseason and regular-season games — yeah, we're interested.

"When I went to the league, I said, here are my concerns — financially and competitively. If everything works out, we'd love to be a part of it."

Blues president John Davidson, who would be the Red Wings' opponents in Sweden, also boasts a good young Swedish star in Calder Memorial Trophy candidate Patrick Berglund.

"With our team being so young, and bringing in more young people next year, we think it would be a good bonding trip," Davidson said. "But everything's got to work financially and it's complicated to put together. You've got to get your preseason games in here. You've got to play one or two exhibitions over there. You want to know exactly when you're going to play once you get back — and how many days off you get.

"You hope it's a game at home, so you can have your home opener and not a game on the road, because you've already been on the road and you went through all the time changes. So it's an exciting process to go through and we hope we can do it, but it hasn't been confirmed yet."

Two years ago, the NHL opened the season with two games in London featuring the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. Last year, four teams ventured overseas: the Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers, playing games in Stockholm and Prague. Beyond Helsinki, Berlin and Zurich, Switzerland, are two other cities thought to be candidates to stage NHL regular-season games.

Because of its two previous forays into Europe, Davidson suggested the NHL "had a pretty good handle" on how to deal with the logistics.

"They do everything for you — they set up your travel and your hotels. Organizationally, you can also take advantage and bring your top sponsors, so you try to make it a good trip business-wise as well."