On the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jonathan Drouin …
- Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times: Lightning head coach Jon Cooper on the statement from Jonathan Drouin’s agent, and the trade request that was made..
“All that stuff is kind of surprising, to be honest,” Cooper said.
“You never want to be in a situation where somebody wants out,” Cooper said. “This is probably not the first player that’s ever asked for it. But it’s too bad. It’s another situation you wouldn’t see this coming.
“But who knows. Who knows how this is going to end up? Jonathan may be with this team in a few weeks and maybe playing the minutes he wants.”
Lightning GM Steven Yzerman said that he’ll do what is best for the organization. Teams are definitely going to be calling, and if a deal makes sense, it won’t be a surprise if he makes the move.
Pierre McGuire on the situation.
“It’s a dangerous game for both sides,” McGuire said. “Because this is a really, really talented player. Sometimes organizations, they become frustrated and they move a player before they should.”
- Kevin Allen of USA Today: Allen references the Bruins trading Tyler Seguin and the Coyotes trading Kyle Turris.
In both instances, the teams that dealt the younger players didn’t receive good value based on the stars the traded players became. Drouin has only played 89 NHL games, and it is difficult to guess where his game will be at two seasons from now.
GM Steve Yzerman will be expecting a quality return and won’t lower his asking price just because the trade request went public. Jonathan Drouin doesn’t have any leverage.
There should be enough teams interested that Yzerman should be able to get a reasonable return for Drouin. They should be able to get a player in return that would help them right away.