Lightning Round: Tampa Bay speaking to Tyler Johnson about a possible trade

Pierre LeBrun reported on Sunday that the Tampa Bay Lightning have spoken the representation for Tyler Johnson regarding trades. Johnson has a full no-trade clause but it’s the worst kept secret in the city that Johnson would be a casualty of the cap for next season.

It’s good to hear that the two sides are working together on a move, rather than Julien Brisebois searching for ways to kick Johnson out on his own (I actually wrote about this in the Question of the Week that’s coming out tomorrow). The key now is to find a destination for Johnson that he’ll approve.

My guess is he’ll bless a trade to a competitive team where he can be the 2C and is hopefully temperate during the winters. Johnson has four years left on his contract, so he’ll be there for a while (unless he gets picked up by his home state team, the Seattle Kraken, in the expansion draft).

Man, I still love the Seattle Kraken name!

Is this all too soon? We’re officially one week since the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in the Edmonton bubble and the NHL Draft starts tomorrow (Tuesday). I guess there was never going to be much time for JBB to savor the win before he had to get back to work and worry about next season.

Where do you think Johnson will end up? Tampa Bay is a valid answer! My dark horse pick would be the Montreal Canadiens. He would be a big part of their offense, there are plenty of smaller forwards who have the tenacity and relentlessness that Johnson is famous for, and they’re becoming a competitive team.

Lightning Links

Did you know Andrei Vasilevskiy met Nikolai Khabibulin in 2004? I wonder what else happened that year?

There are some really cute hockey dogs getting reunited with their dads. This compilation has Scott Wedgewood, Mitchell Stephens, and Pat Maroon snuggling with their pups.

Henrik Lundqvist is a free agent and wants to stay in the NHL and win! Reports are that he could go to the Carolina Hurricanes or Washington Capitals, both are places where he’ll get lots of starts behind a competitive team. Personally, Hank deserves a defense like the Canes have. He’s suffered behind the Rangers defense for his whole career.

The Dallas Stars extended Andrej Sekera to a two-year deal worth $1.5 million AAV.

This was a weird one. I don’t know who broke the trade that saw Olli Maatta go to the LA Kings for Brad Morrison, but it looks like the NHL website accidently published the trade article and it was a while before the teams or insiders actually confirmed it.