We are just under two weeks away from trade deadline day for this season. Brian Burke has things started early with some of his moves and the Ottawa Senators have begun their garage sale. Elliotte Friedman's 30 Thoughts this week touches on the position that Steve Yzerman is in going into the trade deadline.

During the summer Yzerman had said that he wanted to rebuild this team slowly but since the Lightning are currently second in the Eastern Conference, does he change his strategy and make a push for winning this year?

Your Lightning and NHL links for this week after the jump...

Lightning links:

• In Puck Daddy's stat nerd Sunday feature: evaluating Stamkos' greatness at his young age of 21
• Jeff Vinik write a column in the St. Petersburg Times to the fans on his commitment to winning and community. He gives reasons to why he made the decisions and hires that he did.
• Ryan Malones will not require abdominal surgery but will still be out six to eight weeks (St. Petersburg Times)
• On the decline of Mike Smith from the NHL to being on constant audition in the AHL. From the Lightning coach Franz Jean: "Mike's certainly not going to sit on the bench, but Dustin Tokarski is part of our future as an organization, and our responsibility is to make sure that there's a good development process for him," (Hampton Roads)
  

Links from around the NHL:

• The Leafs trade Kris Versteeg to the Philadelphia Flyers for first and third round draft pick in the 2011 Draft (TSN)
• The Leafs acquire Aaron Voros from Anaheim for a 7th round draft pick (TSN)
• After playing just 35 minutes and 10 seconds of ice time, Peter Forsberg announces his retirement (Puck Daddy)
• Adrian Dater asks: Was Valentine's day the darkest day in Avalanche history? Peter Forsberg has just announced his retirement a day earlier and the team got blasted 9-1 by the Calgary Flames
• The Coyotes did the Southeast division a favor by beating the Caps 3-2 last night (recap from Japer's Rink)
• Another game, another injured defenceman. The Canucks lost another D-man last night against St. Louis to injury. They now have five of their defencemen on the IR which has Canuck fans thinking the remaining defencemen should be wrapped in bubble wrap (The Province)
• Igor Larionov turns down the Russian GM job at Sochi
• Mario Lemieux called last week's Penguins-Islanders game a 'travesty'. I wish whoever helped write his statement understood what the word travesty actually means
  
• According to the Canadian Press, a source says Lemieux won't be fined for him comments. Yzerman says "I would encourage him [and] I think we should all encourage him to get more involved with the league because he has a lot to offer."
• And then Zenon Konopka threatens his Mario Lemieux poster with a takedown according to Puck Daddy. He also plays the wife and kids card with his reasoning as to why Trevor Gillies shouldn't have got a nine game suspension. Weak sauce Konopka
• But Bob McKenzie thinks that Mario himself is losing big in the court of public opinion
• The Royal Half has another edition of Pundays!
• Jeanshorts and Baggedmilk has 10 Reasons to keep Dustin Penner with the Edmonton Oilers (site NSFW)