It's no secret the Penguins won't be able to re-sign all of their free agents.

General manager Ray Shero said last evening that he won't even try.

"There are a few guys [who won't be offered contracts]," he said, "but I haven't spoken to them yet."

The Penguins have exclusive negotiating rights to their unrestricted free agents until July 1, and Shero said "there's nothing imminent" in terms of finalizing an agreement with any of them.

"I'm just in the process of talking to some agents," he said. "It's pretty premature at this point. I'm just touching base with some agents and going from there."

The Penguins' most prominent unrestricted free agents are forwards Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko, Petr Sykora, Miroslav Satan, Mike Zigomanis and Craig Adams, defensemen Rob Scuderi, Hal Gill and Philippe Boucher and goalie Mathieu Garon.

Although Guerin, Fedotenko, Zigomanis and Scuderi appear to be their primary targets, Shero is believed to have had discussions with Adams' representatives, and possibly those of some others.

The Penguins have about $46 million of salary-cap space tied up for next season, and Scuderi, coming off a sensational playoff performance, is expected to command a salary of at least $2.5 million. Although that makes him a long shot to stay, Shero plans to discuss a new deal with his agent, Steve Bartlett.

Most indications are that Scuderi will see what's available on the open market, although it's worth noting that defenseman Brooks Orpik did that a year ago before opting to return to the Penguins.

Because of the Penguins' limited cap space -- the ceiling for 2009-10 has not been set but is expected to be around the $56.7 million maximum of 2008-09 -- there might not be much negotiating in Shero's discussions. He generally enters contract talks with a maximum figure he's willing to pay for a particular player and rarely goes above it.

"This will be a process," he said. "We'll see where it leads us."

Shero said he sees no urgency to try to acquire additional choices for this weekend's draft in Montreal -- "There's nothing I'm working on right now" -- and that Minnestota GM Chuck Fletcher, who was his assistant until a few weeks ago, has not attempted to acquire any of the Penguins' players or prospects.

"He won't even call me back," Shero said, laughing. "I finally got him to e-mail me back because I requested his ring size."

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NOTE -- Shero, a member of the USA Hockey national team advisory group, said "it's going to be up to [Olympic coach] Ron Wilson" whether to add Penguins coach Dan Bylsma to his staff for the 2010 Games in Vancouver, but that it "might be a little bit of a stretch, because [Byslma] is so new."