Apparently Lightning defenseman Paul Ranger didn’t want Vinny Lecavalier to feel alone this summer because Ranger underwent surgery on his right shoulder this week to repair a labrum. Ranger had the procedure done in the same place as Lecavalier, as well, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, where Dr. James Andrews did the surgery. Andrews also operated on Lecavalier last week.

The injury to Ranger is essentially the same as the injury Lecavalier suffered and the timetable for recovery is identical, 12-15 weeks, which means Ranger should also be available and fully recovered by the time training camp opens in September. And while the injuries are similar, they happened via different routes. Lecavalier took a hit from Matt Cooke that created the trauma to the shoulder causing it to seperate and damaging the labrum.

With Ranger, he had been suffering shoulder problems most of the season and was likely facing some sort of off-season procedure. But when he seperated his shoulder when hit into the glass at Buffalo late in the season.

Check back later today for the three finalists for the Selke Award as the league’s top defensive forward.

UPDATE NO. 1.

Didn’t really see this one coming, but Norfolk head coach Steve Stirling has been re-assigned by the Lightning into the role of a full-time college scout while the option on assistant coach Darren Rumble was not picked up, which basically means he was fired. I guess it’s a little difficult to make chicken salad with some of the players Stirling and Rumble have had the past couple of seasons in the minor league system, but at the same time, there hasn’t been much progression in some of the team’s better prospects. Andy Rogers has seriously regressed (injury problems has lent itself to this), Mike Egener is on the verge of falling off the map and played most of last season at forward and other than Nick Tarnasky and Ryan Craig, no forward has been able to come up and make an impact at the NHL level.

Here’s a quote from Lightning general manager Jay Feaster on the subject, including stating a coach search will not begin until the transfer of ownership takes place, which should be in about six weeks or so, assuming everything moves along smoothly:

“For the past 15-years, we have very badly needed a full-time scout devoted to college hockey,” Feaster said. “Over the years we have utilized part-time people as well as full-time pro and amateur scouts to fill the void, but we have never had a full-time scout to properly mine the talent at the college level. Given Steve’s extensive background and connections at the collegiate level, combined with his coaching history in the AHL and NHL, we are confident that he is the right person for the job and we appreciate his willingness to switch gears and assist the organization in this critical endeavor.

“In light of the pending sale of the Lightning to OK Hockey, we will defer the search for a new head coach in Norfolk until after the closing on the sale transaction. However, finding the right person to lead our team in Norfolk will be a key priority for us this summer. Once a new head coach is named we will work with that person to ensure that the new coach has significant input into the hiring of an assistant coach for Norfolk as well.’’

UPDATE NO. 2

Finalists for the Frank Selke Award were announced today. Here is the history of the trophy, for those history buffs out there, courtesy of the NHL : “The trophy was presented in 1977 by the National Hockey League’s Board of Governors in honor of Frank J. Selke, one of the great architects of Montreal and Toronto championship teams.’’

The three finalists, as voted by the members of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association, are:
1. Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit
2. John Madden, New Jersey
3. Henrik Zetterberg, Detroit

Here are my five votes, and admittedly I struggled to get five deep on this one:
1. Datsyuk
2. Sammy Pahlsson, Anaheim
3. Madden
4. Chris Kelly, Ottawa
5.  Mike Fisher, Ottawa

Finalists for the Hart Trophy (MVP) will be announced on Tuesday while Jack Adams (coach of the year) finalists will be named on Wednesday.