Tampa Bay Lightning to Jonathan Drouin: show up to Syracuse Crunch

Finally fully healthy again, Palat returned to the lineup versus Minnesota – the opponent he initially hurt his leg against on November 7 – and reminded everyone why he was, arguably, the Lightning’s most valuable player during last season’s Stanley Cup run.

It came to light early on Sunday that Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick Jonathan Drouin had requested a trade from the organization back in November.

“It not only was one of our better starts, it was probably the best first period we played all year”, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. Moving forward, my sole intention is to act in the best interest of the Tamp Bay Lightning hockey club. Drouin put up 213 points in two junior seasons with Halifax, leading the Lightning to select him third overall behind Nathan MacKinnon and Aleskander Barkov in the 2013 NHL Draft.

“(Drouin) has played in nine games in the last nine weeks”, Yzerman said.

National Hockey League referee Rob Martell (26) shakes hands with Minnesota Wild center Mikko Koivu (9), of Finland, and Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) before Martell’s 1,000th game as an official Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. His 1.09 first assists per 60 minutes of five-on-five hockey is the third-highest rate in the NHL out of the 533 skaters who have played more than 750 minutes combined in the past two seasons.

“Many, many, many emotions”, said Vasilevskiy, whose wife gave birth to a son in Tampa Bay on Thursday.

But then it sat back, and the Wild tied it at 2 with just under three minutes left in regulation on a goal by defenseman Jared Spurgeon. Comparatively, he added 143 combined assists during in these two seasons which adds some evidence to the belief that Drouin has the potential to be an elite-level playmaker who can also contribute with a modest number of goals. “Now we’re the team sitting back on our heels”. He did not hesitate when asked about Drouin’s future on Saturday.

With wing Ondrej Palat’s return Saturday against the Wild, Tampa Bay had 14 forwards, so someone had to go down. Moreover, while it would be a wrench giving up Tinordi to a division rival, the Habs are deep enough at defence that they can afford to give him up for a chance at a player like Drouin.

“Obviously we haven’t been playing as well as we’d like to and it’s been tough to get wins”, Filppula said.

And oh yeah. Drouin better show up to practice Tuesday with the Syracuse Crunch, the team to which he’s been assigned.