"Mike Modano will see what free agency has to offer before he'll consider retirement, he said Thursday.

``I go back and forth a lot, but the bottom line is the injury I had really messed up last season,'' he said of getting his wrist punctured by a skate in November and missing 42 games. ``I felt great before I got hurt, I feel great now, but I missed out a on a lot of the season, and so it does make you feel like maybe there's something more.''

Modano, who turned 41 on June 7, was seeking a little closure when he decided to try free agency last summer.

Bottom line, he wasn't ready to call it a career when Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk told him that he would not get another contract in Dallas. So, he signed a one-year free agent deal, went back to his hometown of Detroit and played a season with the Red Wings in search of maybe a few answers.

The problem is he came up with an ``incomplete'' again. And he said while watching 42-year old Mark Recchi win a Stanley Cup with Boston that he did feel the hunger to play again.

``The doctors did a great job of fixing the wrist, and it feels great, and so I feel great,'' he said. ``I don't have the sore knees or sore hips or back pain or concussions that some other players have, so that always makes you think that maybe you can still get out there and play.''"