I’m surprised as hell about some of the moves the Lightning made yesterday.
Ben Clymer was not made a qualifying offerr — mostly because a qualifying offer would have been $900 thousand. They want to bring him back like they did with Nolan Pratt last year – sign him for less. also, Sheldon Keefe — who’s either blindly loved by his fans or thought of as an enigma by others — was not made a qualifying offer. I thought for sure he would be given a qualifier at least so he could be used as trade-bait this off season (perchance during the draft) this weekend). Jeremy Van Hoof was another surprise non-qualifier as well as Pascal Trepanier. I can’t say the same for Dwayne Hay and Evgeny Konstantinov.
Conversely, I was surprised to see Jimmie Ovelstad and Shane Willis given qualifying offers. I thought Jimmie was destined to be in Europe this upcoming season (if there is one)… I guess the Lightning just want to continue to own his rights. Shane has had a non-gratifying tenure with Tampa Bay. I’m glad to see Jay Feaster hasn’t given up on him. In the past I have been bitter at Jay for certain moves he has made (involving Willis specifically) but time and again Feaster has proved to be smarter than I.
Since these qualifiers were made, attention turns to Jassen Cullimore who can become an unrestricted free agent on Thursday.
