When Stevie Y was named the GM of the Lightning in May 2010, he inherited an underperforming, overpaid team, with only a few gems, that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2007. Going into the off season, Yzerman had six forwards, six defensemen, and one NHL goalie under contract, totaling approximately 39 million dollars. With the team’s anticipated internal cap, set just above the league’s floor cap number, this wouldn’t leave very much room to improve the team’s performance for the upcoming year.
Yzerman had a difficult task in front of him.
Yzerman’s first move was to hire Guy Boucher away from the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL farm team in Hamilton. Boucher won the coach of the year award in his first season in the AHL leading the Bulldogs to a 52 win season and lost a seven game series in the Western Conference Finals. Boucher had coached in the QMJHL for the better part of 13 years before this post, having success in this league as well. Boucher was targeted by the Columbus Blue Jackets as well, but chose the Lightning after receiving a coveted four year contract offer. Boucher will be the youngest coach in the league at 38, and the Lightning hope he can bring that success and fresh ideas to their team.
Yzerman’s next move was to sign the heart and soul of the team in Martin St. Louis to a four year extension on July 1st. And although I don’t mind the cap hit of $5.625 million dollars per year, and despite St. Louis’ seeming ability to get better and better with age, I worry about the 35+ contract issues that accompany the contract. But if retaining one of your better players, to a fair cap hit, is the worst move of the off-season, then Daryl and Jay should be taking notes.
Yzerman then traded out the albatross of a contract that is associated with Andrej Meszaros to the Philadelphia Flyers that same day. Meszaros isn’t a terrible defencemen, but he isn’t a true number one, or even two, and his contract is far too rich for what he offers on the ice. Almost three weeks later, Yzerman hooked up with Paul Holmgren again, acquiring Olympic Gold Medalist and All-Star Simon Gagne. The move bolstered Tampa’s top six bringing even more help to the struggling Vincent Lecavalier and budding superstar Steven Stamkos.
Yzerman has also made solid depth moves, bringing in Dan Ellis to help Mike Smith shoulder the load relieving some pressure to help the youngster get back on the path he was traveling on in his first season with the Bolts before a concussion derailed his season. He has signed Pavel Kubina and Brett Clark on defence creating better depth at that position, while signing Dominic Moore, Sean Bergenheim, and Marc-Antoine Pouliot to fill out the bottom six roles.
All in all, Yzerman has shown a great ability to come in and take stock of what he already had, figuring out what he needed to shed and what he needed to bring in. He has managed to keep his core offense intact, actually adding another offensive weapon, while dropping some long term contracts that will open the door to sign the future franchise player, Steven Stamkos, next season. And while Steve Downie is the only major signing left for a team sitting roughly 8 million dollars below the cap ceiling, I’d say the former Red Wing has done a pretty damn good job of setting the Bolts up for the this coming year. These moves should see them potentially challenge for a position in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and continue to succeed into the future.
Written by Michael Clowes
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