Drouin soon to be gone, Stamkos soon to be gone, not such a fuckin' genius now, are you, Yzerman.

Hawks should be on the phone.

_________________

Fuck Florida. They shouldnt even have 1 NHL team let alone 2.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

We've been over how Tampa has generally done well enough, but there's never any sense in standing in front of the Scorehead train.

Also, the Panthers just got a sizable taxpayer bailout from Broward County a few weeks ago, so they're not going anywhere, at least for the next eight years.

_________________

Go to a Hockey game in Tampa and get back to me. It might be the worst sports experience ever. Cold, sterile & screamy. Just terrible.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

Haha, as opposed to what, the United Library?

_________________

The Blackhawks game experience is great. The Lightning game experience is awful.

Dont even compare Blackhawks fans to Lightning fans.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

_________________
Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Thats hilarious.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I can’t speak for the NBA, but we’ve seen it in the NHL, MLB, and the NFL. All have teams in Florida…all have struggled with attendance, and NONE of them get relocated. No facts to support, but I believe there’s enough evidence to conclude FL is not stupid. The leagues came for stadiums / expansion and the state of FL was smart enough to contractually protect themselves from relocation. We saw it with the Rays in Tampa, the Jaguars in Jacksonville, and the Panthers. These teams are locked in and won’t be moved.

_________________

The leagues all want to be in Florida. Too much money, too many people. You don't have to give them all that tax money.

_________________

They don't see that money when the stadiums are empty.

_________________

Doesn't matter. National TV money.

I read in The Instigator that an NHL team in Atlanta was a condition of Fox carrying the league, even though ABC was covering the NHL by the time the Thrashers were up and running.

_________________

Hawks are in on Drouin trade talks, but a longshot behind Montreal, which surprises me because they're in Tampa's division. It also surprises me that Tampa is in Montreal's division.

_________________

What would you probably have to give up to get him?

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Picks and cost-controlled players, almost certainly. Teravainen would be one but I'm not willing to give up on him. Dano would be another, someone whom I don't see fitting here, which probably means he wouldn't get the deal done. I could see Forsling being thrown in as well; Yzerman would love to add a high-upside Swedish defenseman to the system. I'd think about trading Ville Pokka now that Gustafsson has shot through the system, but Forsling is worth the wait if the reports are true.

Ottawa is supposed to be in big-time on Drouin as well, though again, same division.

_________________

I cannot see then trading Teuvo. Any one else mentioned would be acceptable.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I'd say there's at most like a 5% chance of moving Teuvo. Sure, the Hawks will inquire about acquiring a third-overall draft pick because it would be irresponsible to do anything less, but when it comes down to making a deal, I don't think they make that deal.

The biggest strike against Drouin other than the haul it would take to bring him in is that he's said to have had a shitty attitude not just with the Bolts but even in his days in the Q. Halifax is a team that tries to run a pretty top-notch operation and asks a lot of its players in terms of being accessible citizens and all that jazz, and the word around town was always that he was a total prick who had no time for anyone else. That sounds the Brandon Pirri alarms for me. I think there's a very human element to the Blackhawks under Quenneville that we don't always see or take proper inventory of. Call it "an atavistic power structure of traditional hierarchical dominance" if you're Dan Bernstein or something, but there does seem to be a culture in that dressing room that keeps the younger players in their place. When we talk about the young guys Q likes and doesn't like, I've started to suspect it's not just about whether you get back on defense but how you comport yourself with your co-workers. Besides the cap implications of such signings, part of the reason Stan must like the undrafted collegiates like TVR is that they're going to come in, know their place, and not make any waves, and that what you give up in upside you get back in avoiding mouthy little shits making the workplace unpleasant. Drouin, as evidenced by the fact that he's demanding this trade in the first place, appears to be a mouthy little shit. He sure did put up the points in junior, though, wow.

_________________

With Nashville and St. Louis sputtering a little bit (well, Nashville sputtering a lot), I have a pretty good feeling we're going to get outbid. But if the Blues actually give up Kevin Shattenkirk to get Drouin, call this the best trade we didn't make.

_________________

Now he has been suspended by Tampa Bay for skipping his AHL game. His agent and him apparently decided he should no longer play in AHL games to avoid a potential injury that may hinder trade talks. Sounds like a shithead. Not hawk material.

_________________
That's my purse! I don't know you!

Yeah, I saw somewhere that Yzerman was asking for Dano and Nick Schmaltz. I'd say no on that one. But go ahead keep driving his value down, Stevie, we might be able to get him for Mark McNeill if this suspension lasts.

_________________

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

You think Drouin would thrive under Q?



Drouin is a spoiled little shit. Fuck him.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I said the Hawks should explore a trade. If there's a cost-controlled player drafted third overall available, you should always at least explore it. As this went on, I realized it would not be the best decision given both his attitude and the likelihood of the Blues to make a Pyrrhic trade to get him. I don't think I was wrong.

_________________

Fair.

I really don't think the Bolts are under any pressure to trade him without getting real value back. And I don't make that trade as another team unless I'm able to give 'some bodies' in exchange.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

No way, I would give either of those 2, for that guy, maybe for a Stamkos.

I'd do it for Mikkel Boedker if the Coyotes would have the courtesy to drop out of the playoff race already.

_________________

Sounds more and more like the Bolts are just going to disqualify him for the year, which means he'll have two years left on his ELC when they try to trade him this summer. Bold strategy, Yzerman, let's see if it pays off.

More and more I'm thinking they never should have drafted Drouin in the first place. 2013 was a weird season for the Lightning: Guy Boucher, who, if you recall, was Steve Yzerman's hand-picked genius before Jon Cooper was Steve Yzerman's hand-picked genius, was running that 1-3-1 zone defense that no one could reckon with until, well, they could, I guess, and the team ended up having a terrible year and drafting way too high for where the rest of the organization was. Remember that the team was purchased three years and change prior for the low low price of $90MM, which was really about buying the master lease to the Ice Palace and the rights to the adjoining undeveloped real estate -- they effectively threw in the hockey team for free.

So basically from that point, ownership and new management had been building this whole thing from the ground up, had gotten pretty far in the process, and really didn't need to pick third. With the organizational philosophy, ported over from the Red Wings, of scouring the globe for diamonds in the rough and then making them grow up together through the farm system until they were well past ready, there really wasn't the right culture for an impact player to come in straight from the Q and get the star treatment the way Stamkos, Tavares, Landeskog, KANER, et al all had. Add on top of that the murmurs of scouts that Drouin just got fat off MacKinnon (personally, I never bought this; MacKinnon himself doesn't even seem that great anymore), and it was an especially weird move. I'm not saying they should have traded #3 for thirty seventh-round picks like some caricature of Ken Holland -- lost in all the worship of Tampa, Chicago, and Big Daddy Detroit plumbing the 7th/NCAA for unheralded talent is that the Sharks have been doing the same thing for years but all they wind up with is shit -- but a player of his status and personality was a terrible fit for the Lightning. There definitely should have been some trading down. Imagine if Edmonton traded up to get Seth Jones. Hell, imagine if Tampa Bay got Seth Jones.

_________________

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q79qZ6F1YSQ
:/

_________________