"Today, for the very first time, the Calgary Flames brass will sit down with Jay Bouwmeester to talk turkey.

Face to face.

The negotiations, which are slated to take place in Edmonton, figure to be intriguing.

"It'll be good to hear what they have to say," Bouwmeester said Sunday evening from Edmonton, his home town. "I've never (been in this situation before), so it's kind of an interesting process. I'm hoping to listen . . . and discuss some things."

By Wednesday at 10 a.m., the star defenceman, a pending unrestricted free agent, is eligible to entertain offers from every team in the National Hockey League. Till that time, though, only the Flames can chat to him.

Bouwmeester, however, noted that the deadline — July 1 — isn't a big deal, that it doesn't necessarily mean negotiations with Darryl Sutter and the Flames need to be condensed.

"You can look at it that way (that the respective parties have only a couple days to hammer out a deal)," he said, "but just because Wednesday rolls around, it doesn't close the door. We just get an extra couple days, I guess. It's just a date. I don't know. It is what it is. Nothing's really happened yet, so we'll just go from there.

"There's not a whole lot I can say about it right now."

Last season, Bouwmeester drew a salary of $4.875 million US.

Now, as an unrestricted free agent just entering his prime — a rarity in the NHL — his demands are expected to be considerable.

Requests for interviews with Sutter and Bouwmeester's agent, Bryon Baltimore of Edmonton, went unanswered Sunday. But, of course, the Flames bigwigs have been in touch with Bouwmeester.

"Just to arrange (today's) meeting," he said. "We'll go from there."

But those weren't the only Calgary-flavoured calls Bouwmeester fielded on the weekend.

A couple of guys by the name of Jarome Iginla and Robyn Regehr also dangled."