Don’t expect a big trade involving the Tampa Bay Lightning before the Olympic roster freeze or at the trade deadline in March.
The biggest reason for this is the sheer number of teams who can count themselves in contention. It’s easy to look at Buffalo, Edmonton and Calgary and see that they will not make the playoffs, but things get murky when looking at teams like Dallas, Winnipeg and the New York Islanders. Each of the latter three teams are not in the best position, but are certainly far from out of the race and may wait before deciding to sell off their assets, if they sell at all. This limited pool of bad teams reduces the amount of players available and also significantly increases the price of available players. It may not be prudent for GM Steve Yzerman to pay inflated market prices for rental players, especially when the team may stand pat with what it has.
This Lightning team is in an unprecedented position of depth and success. Players like Richard Panik and Andrej Sustr are currently in Syracuse, but both players have proven capable of playing at the NHL level. It’s clear that Yzerman values his kids too, based on the rumors of Tom Pyatt and Keith Aulie being shopped around. Why try to trade your depth players unless you’re supremely confident in the players behind them?
History would indicate that Yzerman will make a move, no matter how minor. Not every trade has to bring in Ben Bishop – we could very well see another lateral move ala Matt Gilroy for Brian Lee. That being said, the combination of team depth and league-wide parity are likely to keep things quiet for the Lightning.
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