Post by JETStender on Jun 22, 2009 23:45:54 GMT -5
It's Getting Ugly in Tampa Bay
Posted Jun 22, 2009 11:00PM By Adam Gretz (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Lightning, NHL Economics
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Somewhere Barry Melrose is smiling, perhaps even laughing maniacally, at the news that Tampa Bay Lightning co-owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie are meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday to determine which individual has the authority to make decisions for the team.
Quick refresher course: The Lightning were, by far, the busiest team last offseason (and during the season itself) acquiring every player they could get their hands on, and, in some cases, badly overpaying them. A season that started with playoff predictions from ownership ended with the second-worst record in the league, and Melrose, hired on June 27, was ultimately fired after just 16 regular season games, sparking a public feud between he and the two owners. While Melrose didn't exactly get his wish of Tampa Bay not winning another game the rest of the season, he was relatively close.
Just seven months later, the fighting now seems to be taking place within the walls of the front office, as John Romano of the St. Petersburg Times describes the insanity currently unfolding in Tampa:
In essence, the commissioner is determining custody of a hockey team. And so the humiliation of an ownership group reaches a new crescendo. If you thought it was bad when Dan Boyle called them liars, or John Tortorella described them as cowboys or Barry Melrose accused them of being meddlers, then this is worse. This makes them look like complete incompetents. Which, hopefully, is the message Bettman delivers.
A few more tidbits on what is wrong in Tampa Bay this season:
1) As Romano pointed out in his column, former head coach John Tortorella referred to Koules and Barrie as "a couple of cowboys" and added: "But how it all goes about and how you treat your people and run your business is very important in this league. I look at the club and how some things have been done and how they treated Danny Boyle and really lying to the kid, and some of the other things that have gone on there, it's a total different team. Do I think the team needed to be blown up for it to get back to competing? No, I don't."
2) An offseason of splurging on free agents netted nothing but bad contracts and lopsided trades. After shipping Dan Boyle to San Jose for Matt Carle, Ty Wishart and a first-round pick, the Lightning turned around and packaged the first-round pick (and defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard) to Ottawa for defenseman Andrej Mezsaros. Following the deal, general manager Brian Lawton called Mezsaros an "elite player" and promptly signed him a six-year contract extension. Just a few weeks later, Matt Carle was sent to Philadelphia for Steve Eminger and Steve Downie, while Downie quickly found trouble playing for Tampa Bay's minor league team. So, basically -- and I hate looking at trades this way -- Tampa Bay has only Ty Wishart, Andrej Mezsaros, Steve Eminger and Steve Downie to show for Dan Boyle, Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard.
3) After inking Vincent Lecavalier, the team's captain and the face of the franchise, to an 11-year, $85 million contract extension, his name repeatedly came up in trade rumors, and will likely continue to do so until he's actually traded or he retires. Or, as Romano explains in his column, until Koules is no longer involved in the team's decision-making.
The talk is that Koules wants to keep Lawton as GM, wants to trade Lecavalier to get out from under his $85 million contract and wants to pare the payroll to the low $40 million range. Barrie is not as solidly behind Lawton, wants to build around Lecavalier and is in favor of signing some free agents to get the payroll closer to $50 million.
4) After signing Radim Vrbata to a three-year deal in free agency, the Lightning placed him on waivers in December so he could return to the Czech Republic, while both sides have to be suffering from a case of buyers remorse when it comes to the Ryan Malone contract (Malone for signing in Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay for signing Malone to that contract).
On the plus side, it's not all bad in Tampa Bay (really, it's not). Assuming cooler heads prevail and the team keeps Lecavalier, the Lightning have a legitimate franchise player in their 29-year-old captain to build around.
As owners of the No. 2 pick in this weekend's NHL Entry Draft, they're assured of the opportunity to land a potential franchise building block in either Canadian phenom John Tavares, or Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman (depending on what the Islanders do with the No. 1 pick). On top of that, last year's No. 1 overall pick, Steve Stamkos, rebounded from a slow start and ended up scoring 23 goals to go with 23 assists as a 19-year-old rookie on a horrendous team. That's not a bad start to your career.
The question, of course, is how can the two-headed monster in the owners box screw up the positives this franchise has going for it?
Posted Jun 22, 2009 11:00PM By Adam Gretz (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Lightning, NHL Economics
Text Size A A A
Somewhere Barry Melrose is smiling, perhaps even laughing maniacally, at the news that Tampa Bay Lightning co-owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie are meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday to determine which individual has the authority to make decisions for the team.
Quick refresher course: The Lightning were, by far, the busiest team last offseason (and during the season itself) acquiring every player they could get their hands on, and, in some cases, badly overpaying them. A season that started with playoff predictions from ownership ended with the second-worst record in the league, and Melrose, hired on June 27, was ultimately fired after just 16 regular season games, sparking a public feud between he and the two owners. While Melrose didn't exactly get his wish of Tampa Bay not winning another game the rest of the season, he was relatively close.
Just seven months later, the fighting now seems to be taking place within the walls of the front office, as John Romano of the St. Petersburg Times describes the insanity currently unfolding in Tampa:
In essence, the commissioner is determining custody of a hockey team. And so the humiliation of an ownership group reaches a new crescendo. If you thought it was bad when Dan Boyle called them liars, or John Tortorella described them as cowboys or Barry Melrose accused them of being meddlers, then this is worse. This makes them look like complete incompetents. Which, hopefully, is the message Bettman delivers.
A few more tidbits on what is wrong in Tampa Bay this season:
1) As Romano pointed out in his column, former head coach John Tortorella referred to Koules and Barrie as "a couple of cowboys" and added: "But how it all goes about and how you treat your people and run your business is very important in this league. I look at the club and how some things have been done and how they treated Danny Boyle and really lying to the kid, and some of the other things that have gone on there, it's a total different team. Do I think the team needed to be blown up for it to get back to competing? No, I don't."
2) An offseason of splurging on free agents netted nothing but bad contracts and lopsided trades. After shipping Dan Boyle to San Jose for Matt Carle, Ty Wishart and a first-round pick, the Lightning turned around and packaged the first-round pick (and defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard) to Ottawa for defenseman Andrej Mezsaros. Following the deal, general manager Brian Lawton called Mezsaros an "elite player" and promptly signed him a six-year contract extension. Just a few weeks later, Matt Carle was sent to Philadelphia for Steve Eminger and Steve Downie, while Downie quickly found trouble playing for Tampa Bay's minor league team. So, basically -- and I hate looking at trades this way -- Tampa Bay has only Ty Wishart, Andrej Mezsaros, Steve Eminger and Steve Downie to show for Dan Boyle, Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard.
3) After inking Vincent Lecavalier, the team's captain and the face of the franchise, to an 11-year, $85 million contract extension, his name repeatedly came up in trade rumors, and will likely continue to do so until he's actually traded or he retires. Or, as Romano explains in his column, until Koules is no longer involved in the team's decision-making.
The talk is that Koules wants to keep Lawton as GM, wants to trade Lecavalier to get out from under his $85 million contract and wants to pare the payroll to the low $40 million range. Barrie is not as solidly behind Lawton, wants to build around Lecavalier and is in favor of signing some free agents to get the payroll closer to $50 million.
4) After signing Radim Vrbata to a three-year deal in free agency, the Lightning placed him on waivers in December so he could return to the Czech Republic, while both sides have to be suffering from a case of buyers remorse when it comes to the Ryan Malone contract (Malone for signing in Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay for signing Malone to that contract).
On the plus side, it's not all bad in Tampa Bay (really, it's not). Assuming cooler heads prevail and the team keeps Lecavalier, the Lightning have a legitimate franchise player in their 29-year-old captain to build around.
As owners of the No. 2 pick in this weekend's NHL Entry Draft, they're assured of the opportunity to land a potential franchise building block in either Canadian phenom John Tavares, or Swedish defenseman Victor Hedman (depending on what the Islanders do with the No. 1 pick). On top of that, last year's No. 1 overall pick, Steve Stamkos, rebounded from a slow start and ended up scoring 23 goals to go with 23 assists as a 19-year-old rookie on a horrendous team. That's not a bad start to your career.
The question, of course, is how can the two-headed monster in the owners box screw up the positives this franchise has going for it?