Steveformers: More Than Meets the Eye?

I'm going to take a departure from my normal satire, and actually try and provide an editorial here, with some "between the lines" ideas as far as the Gagne trade goes.

Steve Yzerman made his proverbial 'big splash' today sending off traffic cone Matt Walker, and a fourth round draft pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for former 40-goal scorer Simon Gagne.  The move takes on more than $5million in salary, but sends away (another) dead-weight contract for a relatively ineffective defender.

More-so it provides a significant boost to our offense, and gives us arguably one of the best top sixes in the league.  Dan Ellis in fact tweeted that this was the best group of forwards he had ever played with.  High regards given that he has played with the likes of Arnott, Radulov, Forsberg, Sullivan, Dumont, the emergence of Hornqvist, and so on.

The standard risk-reward analysis is simple: One year on the books, potential 40 goals, leadership, and if it doesn't work, he's gone by the time our cap situation gets really bad.

(More after the jump...)

But, I think there is much more to the equation than everything that's been offered so far. Given the comments from both sides, I believe that both Gagne and Yzerman have ideas about Gagne spending some serious time in Tampa.

Two striking things were offered from Gagne that lead me to believe it's in the works: "I'm looking at this opportunity as a new challenge and a new start" and "I was willing to waive my no-trade clause only for Tampa Bay, not for other teams."

With the way most professional athletes think these days, a one year "tryout" or "experiment" fall far from "opportunity" and "new start." I especially find it hard to believe that a class, hard working, team guy like Gagne would use dialogue like this if he weren't certain that he would be in one place for a while.  Even much-less down to Earth players would've offered comments such as "I'm hopeful this year can lead to great things" or "I hope I can prove myself in Tampa." So, again, for such strong language to come from Gagne seems telling to me.

The other flare is that he refused to waive his clause for anyone other than the Lightning.  Clearly the Kings-ready made contenders looking for one last piece-were interested in him, and he could've gone to LA and not missed a playoff beat.  The Lightning, while on a great track right now, are no lock for the playoffs.  Gagne has played in 90 playoff games in his career, and the Flyers have been in the playoffs eight of the ten years he played there.  Clearly, he thrives on the playoffs.  To turn down almost an assured playoff run during a contract year, is, well, something to say the least. 

And then, there is the Yzerman side of this all.  Since Vinik has taken over, the Lightning have generally played everything close to the chest.  Rumors abound all over, and the first real concrete evidence we were interested in Gagne was when we acquired him.

Gagne is a health risk, but a proven scorer, now playing for a team that had little to no secondary scoring last season.  He's a heart guy, a leader, and a hard worker.  He has success in the tournament our fans so desire to get back to. He has previous ties to Vinny Lecavalier. He was given permission to talk to other teams weeks ago.  He's only 30. 

Yzerman has proven with Pavel Kubina ($3.85mil down from $5mil) that he can get players to take less money even after a productive season.  This deal was done within hours of the Ilya Kovalchuk signing-the signing everyone pegged as what was keeping Gagne in Philly.  Yzerman has referred to the move as "flexibility down the road."  He was given permission to talk to Gagne weeks ago.  Gagne's only 30.

Make no mistake; Simon Gagne will be signed to an extension.  It may already be written up. 

For more of what I normally do-humor-please check me out at Don't Trade Vinny.