New Lightning owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie have certainly made their mark on their recent purchase. The changes to the Maple Leafs pale in comparison to the remake going on in Tampa Bay.
The new Lightning team has been remodeled from top to bottom. Jay Feaster was basically pushed aside and draft picks, signings and trades were being orchestrated by former player agent and now vp of hockey operation Brian Lawton. Last week Feaster resigned. He followed coach John Tortorella and Bill Barber out the door.
The new owners have been directly involved in all new hirings and signings. They hired Barry Melrose as coach - which is just one of many surprises since Melrose hasn't coached in 13 years and only had one succuessful season. Soon a number of additional personnel were brought in including Rick Tocchet, Greg Malone and Tom Kurvers (famous as being the player the Leafs picked up for a draft pick that turned out to be Scott Niedermayer).
First off they grabbed Steve Stamkos in the draft. Then there was a flurry of trades and signings including free agents Radam Vrbata, Adam Hall, Mark Recchi, Chris Gratton, Olaf Kolzig, Brandon Bochenski, Evgeny Artyukhin They traded for Vaclav Prospal, Ryan Malone and Gary Roberts. They also dumped all-star defenseman Dan Boyle's long-term $40 million contract just months after it was signed. Filip Kuba is, at the moment, the only Tampa blueliner with more than 220 games played. The wisdom of doing so is questionable since they were already very green on defense. In fact they now have enough NHL forwards to stock 6 lines.
I give them credit for the Vincent Lecavalier signing. The 11-year $85 million contract has a cap hit of about $7.7 per season. The last 2 years of the contract (when Vinnie is 39 and 40) are only $1.5 million and $1 million. So if he needs to be bought out, the amount is chicken feed. More likely there isn't enough money on the table to keep Lecavalier from retiring early. So if you knock off those last 2 years, 9 remaining years are worth $82.5 million which would be a cap hit of over $9 million per season. Those last 2 years make a big difference.
Will all these changes turn around the Lightning. Who knows? But you have to give then new guys A+ for effort.
