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Post by The Hockey Hitman on Jun 23, 2009 14:35:22 GMT -5
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Post by Zoom Waffles on Jun 23, 2009 15:16:36 GMT -5
wow... bad news for the bolts? or is smith/helenius the future of the club?
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Post by The Hockey Hitman on Jun 23, 2009 15:39:00 GMT -5
Yeah, its just another bad news story for the Bolts. This makes three players who have signed with a KHL team this summer in our system, the other two being wingers Radek Smolenak and Johan Harju. Not a good thing when 3 of your teams better young players elects to play in russia in the same summer. Its a sign of things to come for Tampa I'm afraid, the team may be in line to draft projected no. 1 overall draft pick Taylor Hall next summer. Theres a huge rift between majority owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie, and it seems one of them is all for trading Vinny and having a salary cap of around $40-42 million next season, while the other is in favor of keeping Vinny and getting the cap up to $50-54 million in order to better compete. Gary Bettman met with the two today, in order to decide which person was the defacto head man in charge, and Bettman declared Koules is in charge. www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jun/23/bettman-koules-has-lightnings-final-say/sports-lightning/
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Post by Zoom Waffles on Jun 23, 2009 16:52:14 GMT -5
Koules is apparently the owner in favor of moving Vinny, from what I've read. Should be interesting to see if that's truly what the rift was.
as a lightning fan, where do you stand on that? Should Vinny be traded?
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Chiro
Second Liner
Experience the Evolution
Posts: 475
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Post by Chiro on Jun 23, 2009 17:13:04 GMT -5
I'm also interesting in hearing how you feel about whether or not to trade Vinny.
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Post by The Hockey Hitman on Jun 23, 2009 17:13:38 GMT -5
I've heard conflicting information, one that says its Barrie who wants to deal Vinny, and one for Koules. Barrie was the driving force behind Danny Boyle being dealt last summer, so it wouldn't surprise me to find out hes the one wanting to ditch Vinny as well.
And no, absolutely not, theres no reason for Vinny to be traded whatsoever. I'm very much against the idea, and will be furious if they move him. You just don't trade one of the top 5-6 hockey players in the world, period.
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Post by fukufuji on Jun 23, 2009 20:06:03 GMT -5
So sorry to hear, things just keep getting worse and worse there. If vinny got traded what the heck would even be going for the team. I feel bad for the fans and Vinny how frustrating to just face year after year of this.
Note to self, more than one person in charge = bad. Dallas, Toronto, Tampa.
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Post by Zoom Waffles on Jun 23, 2009 22:51:10 GMT -5
well if vinny gets traded you've got stamkos, hedman, st. louis, and a TON of other assets that come in for lecavalier.
personally, trading lecavalier seems to make sense. especially after a somewhat disappointing year. but THH is right... this guy is a top 5 or 6 player in the world. You trade that and you better be getting a LOT in return. more than any of the rumors are saying thus far.
how does the fan base feel about vinny? would it be a last-straw kind of thing for a lot of fans with these new owners?
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Post by Shredded Red on Jul 7, 2009 0:29:16 GMT -5
These owners seem arrogant. Like they want to create their own team, and they don't want to do it with any pieces from the old team. So far all the new pieces they've brought in....most of them are gone (Jokinen comes to mind). It doesn't seem like they have a clue what they're doing.
Trading Vinny would be like the Stars trading Modano, or the Wings trading Yzerman. I would throw Sundin in there as well, but he did leave the Leafs....another franchise with bad management. He's not an aging star yet, he's still their franchise player, the captain of that team who has been with them from the start. You want to talk about some serious rebuilding, not just of a team, but of an entire fan base....that's what happens if they trade Vinny.
The KHL is posing a serious threat to the league, and its continuing to get worse. So far the KHL is trimming the NHL's talent from the ends, and by that I mean, they seem to be luring the younger talent that's struggling to break the lineup (Tampa's 4 losses this year, and Radulov last season in Nashville), and the aging talent that's past it's prime (Jagr, Fedorov). That still leaves the NHL with a lot of good players in their prime, but it still leaves a void for fans and for the teams farm systems. Teams are going to be hesitant to waste picks on Russian players if they continue to leave for the KHL, and as a fan it's just sad to see players like Fedorov just poof into oblivion without a proper NHL retirement.
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