Vacation time mail bag for the week leading up to the start of Lightning training camp

Posted Sep 5, 2009 by Erik Erlendsson

Updated Sep 5, 2009 at 09:36 AM

Happy Labor Day weekend to everybody, I hope you stay safe and enjoy the holiday.
As I’m off with the family enjoying what will be our last weekend of freedom for quite some time (with soccer season getting underway on the same day Tampa opens training camp), I wanted to see where the thoughts of you the fan are right now.

So, with that in mind, email me your questions over the weekend and I’ll spend some times on the days next week leading up to the opening of training camp answering as many as I can (or are willing to). All I ask is that you keep it clean and at least provide your first name.

And to prove that I’m good to my word, I’ll start off with one I got from Cookie yesterday in regards to Mike Lundin and wondering what is going on with his situation.

Lundin is a restricted free agent who has yet to be signed with a week to go before training camp. In speaking to his agent once or twice, Lundin feels that he has already been pushed out of the team’s plans with all the moves they have made this summer on top of being sent down to the minors last year and never getting called back up (although he would have had to clear re-entry waivers). Lundin’s only leverage is to hold out, even though that may not be in his best interest right now. I’m sure he would like to be moved to another organization, but the only way to showcase himself is to get on the ice here in Tampa during the preseason and prove that he belongs at the NHL level. While he can continue to hold out, he has to since by December or he is not eligible to play.

Somehow, I think that Lundin will eventually sign a contract and be in camp, but we’ll see.