On the Tampa Bay Lightning and Steven Stamkos …
- Joe Smith: With Anze Kopitar’s eight-year, $80 million deal getting close to being complete, have to wonder if it might move Steven Stamkos contract talks along.
- Jenna Laine Bucs: Dave Andreychuk on the Steven Stamkos contract situation: “I truly believe he’s going to be of the Lightning for a long time”
- Erik Erlendsson: An interesting comment by Andreychuk – coming from someone within management.
- Andreychuk is the Lightning’s Vice President of Corporate & Community Affairs.
On the asking price for Jonathan Drouin …
- Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Bob McKenzie on TSN 690 on the potential asking price for teams interested in Jonathan Drouin.
“Well, I think it’s pretty easy to figure what Steve Yzerman is looking for, depending on the team that he’s talking to. If he’s going to talk to the Vancouver Canucks, he wants Bo Horvat. If he’s going to talk to the Calgary Flames, he’s going to want Sam Bennett. If he talks to the St. Louis Blues, he’s going to want Robby Fabbri. If he’s going to talk to the Montreal Canadiens, I’m not sure what he’d want there. I’m not saying the Canadiens would do this, but I’m sure he would say, ‘I want Alex Galchenyuk.’ And maybe there are other elements within the Canadiens, whether it’s Scherbak or McCarron or whatever.
“But it’s obviously a really good young player, who’s either on his entry level or just coming out of entry level, so that he knows it’s a fixed-cost asset. They’ve got a cap situation in Tampa. They can’t take on a lot of salary right now, so whatever player comes back for Jonathan Drouin – if they intend to insert him in the lineup – it’s got to fit dollar-wise, and that’s probably less than a $2 million salary. So I don’t see him going for any experienced or higher-priced guys.
“But if you talk to the Anaheim Ducks, whether it’s Hampus Lindholm or Sami Vatanen – the list goes on and on for young players on entry level, or just coming out of entry level, that would be real good players for a long time. So if Jonathan Drouin goes elsewhere and becomes a star, the Tampa Bay Lightning has someone in their lineup who is going to be an above average player.“