You could see this coming too

Nikita Alexeev is coming back to Tampa Bay.

That's right, 24 hours after the Lightning's marquee left-wing went bye-bye to Columbus for Marc Denis, the Bolts signed this former heir-apparent to Fredrik Modin's throne.

Who fills the void? Will Nikita Alexeev be brought back to get another chance to forefill his potential that he has failed to do time and again?

Like I said, you could see this coming too... As I did yesterday.

Nikita has been out of the NHL the last two seasons -- spending most of 2003-04 at the AHL level and recovering from surgery. 2005-06 saw Alexeev in Russia and shut-out from the Bolts.

He is much like Dmitry Afanasenkov where his abilities have not been fully tapped. Unlike Alexeev, though, Dmitry has been able to contribute to the Lightning while Nikita has simply had to bide his time.

UPDATE 4:46 PM EDT: Well, continuing on the "You could see this coming" subject heading, Pavel Kubina has signed a four year, 20 Million Dollar contract with the Maple Leafs of Toronto. The fast and furious first day of free agency has been overwhelming. (Chara to Boston, Jovanovski with the Coyotes, etc). You can find more information about Kubina's signing from TSN.ca's article (the above link is from the Tribune story about Alexeev/Kubina).