My poor Tampa Bay Lightning

[gxc999 7]

Tortorella's coaching career in Tampa is DEAD! Long live the king! You pray for this day so long and it finally comes true! I have a feeling I'm really going to like the new ownership!

[Slapshot25 0]

I hear the Jackets are interested in Lecavalier...wonder if there is any truth to it

Everyone in the league is interested in Lecavalier.

True, but the Jackets are one of the few teams that could put together a decent package (Zherdev, draft pickers, character players) and afford to keep him locked up for a long time. The Jackets freed up over $10M when they got rid of Foote and Fedorov's contracts (how ridiculous is that??)

I've read that Tampa is going to try to sign lecavalier for life (like ovie and dipietro).

[RadioGaGa 162]

I hear the Jackets are interested in Lecavalier...wonder if there is any truth to it

Everyone in the league is interested in Lecavalier.

True, but the Jackets are one of the few teams that could put together a decent package (Zherdev, draft pickers, character players) and afford to keep him locked up for a long time. The Jackets freed up over $10M when they got rid of Foote and Fedorov's contracts (how ridiculous is that??)

I've read that Tampa is going to try to sign lecavalier for life (like ovie and dipietro).

That wouldn't be a bad idea...

[Chadd 916]

I hear the Jackets are interested in Lecavalier...wonder if there is any truth to it

Everyone in the league is interested in Lecavalier.

True, but the Jackets are one of the few teams that could put together a decent package (Zherdev, draft pickers, character players) and afford to keep him locked up for a long time. The Jackets freed up over $10M when they got rid of Foote and Fedorov's contracts (how ridiculous is that??)

There's only one guy on the BJs roster that I would consider for Vinny and they aren't going to offer him.

[gxc999 7]

To depart from Vinny talk for a moment, Melrose is apparently the new coach. The Tortorella reign of terror is over, whee (BTW, it looks as if Feaster will keep his job after all). Anyway, this club has a ton of talented young blue-liners (O'Brien, Picard, Lundin, Ranger etc) and potential filled goalies (Smith and Ramo). I think we might need to throw in one more scoring forward to the mix. I like the forward core a lot with Vinny, Marty, Stamkos, Ouellet, Jokinen, Halpern and Gratton, but we have only 2 proven scorers (3 if you count D. Boyle!) on the roster.

[wristshot19 0]

It's official:

Barry Melrose Named Head Coach of Tampa Bay Lightning

[chippa13 1844]

Wow, the obligatory Barry Melrose rumor anytime there is a coaching opening finally came true.

[JGraz15 53]

There it is:

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=241633&lid...os=topStory_nhl

9 years, $77M

[killthepoodle 0]

We have some serious cap room to play with this year......I think around 10 million......maybe as much as 13 million......the new owners claim they are going to be "startlingly active" in free agency.....I hope so!

[gxc999 7]

ESPN just reported that Danny Boyle's agent has been given permission to seek out other options via trade, http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3472843. This is really bad for a young Lightning defense corps. There are very few other experienced, successful defenseman on the market right now, so I'd really hate to see him go.