GM likely must wait to make any deal
With ownership in flux, Jay Feaster probably is limited in efforts to improve the Lightning.
By DAMIAN CRISTODERO, Times Staff Writer
Published December 24, 2007
When discussing roster moves the Lightning can make to improve itself, best to start with this:
General manager Jay Feaster's hands are pretty much tied until Hollywood producer Oren Koules signs a purchase agreement to buy the team or bows out.
It is a marketplace decision.
Palace Sports & Entertainment is not likely to add much payroll to a team it is trying to sell. Nor is it likely to cut payroll and diminish the merchandise.
There could be a waiver acquisition for depth, and goaltender Marc Denis seems destined for AHL Norfolk if Karri Ramo keeps it up. Generally, though, what you see is what you're going to get until the ownership situation is clearer.
That means more fretting about secondary scoring and a shaky but promising young defense, more up-and-down to the season.
More fun is speculating what might happen going forward.
Let's assume Koules signs a purchase agreement for the team, the St. Pete Times Forum lease and 51/2 acres of land near the arena for $200-million. Assume, also, it happens before the Feb. 26 trade deadline and that Tampa Bay is still in the playoff race. Does Palace Sports allow Feaster to add a significant piece that will increase payroll as he did with defenseman Darryl Sydor during the 2003-04 Stanley Cup season?
The team is several million below the salary cap. And with $200-million coming in assuming the league approves the ownership transfer and the deal closes, Palace Sports would make back more than the $80-million or so it says it has lost in Tampa after paying about $100-million for the franchise in the summer of 1999. If adding payroll means a better chance at a playoff run and a better bottom line, would it be worth the risk?
For one thing, the purchase agreement could fall through, as did the one with Absolute Hockey Enterprises. But considering commissioner Gary Bettman basically brokered Koules' deal and Koules, who was part of Absolute Hockey, has gone through the league's background checks, the process seems to have a chance.
Koules, too, would likely be on board with any roster improvements because this season's business will affect next season.
But who or what do you trade?
Probably not the core. And probably not next year's first-round pick in a draft that is supposed to be deep.
If Ramo pans out, perhaps you dangle the rights to prospect Riku Helenius. And there could be more trade bait within the organization's defensive depth.
Would it be enough? Feaster may have to be creative and certainly hope for better results than the deals that brought Denis and, if they don't improve, Jan Hlavac and Michel Ouellet.
But what happens if the sale fails? Does Palace Sports, as Feaster indicated, shed payroll if the team is out of the playoffs? With $24.5-million tied up in four players, big cuts could only come from the core.
Not signing free agent defenseman Dan Boyle could be an option. But center Brad Richards would be a tough sell with an annual $7.8-million salary, and right wing Marty St. Louis, like Richards, has a no-trade clause, meaning he would have to agree to a move.
Vinny Lecavalier does not have such a clause. But can the team afford to trade him? Perhaps the league's top player, he has iconic status among Lightning fans. Trading any of the Big 3, but especially Lecavalier, would have to make the team better to assuage the backlash.
Damian Cristodero can be reached at cristodero@sptimes.com.