Lightning mailbag, Wednesday edition

Posted Sep 9, 2009 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Sep 9, 2009 at 09:58 PM

Sorry for the delay in getting the mailbag up tonight. Came home from the 5:15 scrimmage at about 6:30 without having dinner and was greeted by a clogged kitchen sink. It was quite the epic battle in trying to tame that nasty beast, but alas my feeble handiman skills eventually won out. Now I just have to keep an eye on the pipe and make sure that I actually managed to put everything back in its proper place and prevent leaks.

Here’s tonight’s question, courtesy of Ken, who technically directed his question at Brian Lawton and the management team with the Lightning, but I’ll give you my insight instead:

With an open wing slot on the top 2 lines, who are you considering for that position? Is it someone currently under contract or will you continue to search through free agency or trades?

Well, I’m pretty sure that the free agency route is closed off in terms of landing a top six forward, since there really are not any worth considering at this point, with the likes of Petr Sykora, Maxim Afinogenov, Miro Satan at the top of those still without a contract as training camps get set to open around the league. So let’s take that out of the equation, especially since they are not really looking at adding any more payroll, and certainly not at the price anybody of solid value would require to sign.

Having said that, the trade route can not be discounted here as the team has an excess of defensemen and Brian Lawton indicated yesterday that he believes that there are at least two trades to be made at some point before the season starts. Lukas Krajicek quickly comes to mind as somebody who could be moved as I’m quite sure the Lightning would love to cut loose his $1.475 million price tag. Beyond that you have to possibly look at Mike Lundin being moved if he does not come in and win a spot during training camp, he’s indicated his wishes to be moved to another team if he doesn’t earn a spot. Even, possibly, and this is just a hunch on my part, but Paul Ranger could be somebody targeted to head out via a trade. The team shopped him around last season and I wouldn’t be shocked to find out it was more than just last summer. Ranger is entering the final year of a very friendly contract in terms of the type of game he can bring.

Are any of those guys enough to bring in a legitimate top six forward? Not likely, but packages could be put together. And don’t even think of Dany Heatley. I said don’t think about it.

But those are down the road plans, as in down the road at the end of training camp. The plan heading into camp is to see who already on the roster could possibly earn the chance to play in a top six role. In my mind, right now Stephane Veilleux is that guy we could see line up along side Lecavalier and Tanguay on opening night. Other candidates who could find a spot there are Brandon Bochenski (who is on a one-way deal this year) if he really battles in camp, Dana Tyrell, Steve Downie and Drew Miller.

I think they will wait and see how those battles shake out in training camp before deciding whether or not they need to go out and bring in another top six caliber forward.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I’ll get the question up earlier tomorrow, provided I’m not dealing with a leaky kitchen sink at any point tomorrow.