Last week, the agent for Tampa Bay Lightning winger Jonathan Drouin made it known that his client requested a trade from the club back in November. On Saturday, the 20-year-old was assigned to the team’s AHL affiliate in Syracuse.
He should get comfortable.
While teams around the league are going to be calling Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman about acquiring the disgruntled winger, there is no reason for the Lightning to make a hasty trade. Yzerman came from an organization in Detroit that often waited on prospects to be a little too good for the AHL before they made the full-time move to the Motor City and with Drouin currently unable to crack the Top 6 on a consistent basis, the Tampa Bay management team feels he’s better served gaining time on the top line with the Crunch.
Drafted third overall in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, the former CHL Player of the Year put up four goals and 32 points in 70 games last season and has been limited to eight points in 19 games so far this year. Yes, he’s playing limited minutes and hasn’t been skating with either of the top lines, but right now, his play doesn’t warrant that kind of ice time or opportunity and given that he doesn’t turn 21 until late March, maybe it is just a matter of needing more seasoning down on the farm.
Part of what likely fuels Drouin’s desire to see more ice time (other than his believe in his abilities) is that he sees countless others from his draft class logging top-line minutes and having an impact around the league, while he has yet to be afforded that chance.
The two players taken ahead of him in the draft – Nathan MacKinnon and Aleksander Barkov – have been given a chance to play regular minutes by their respective clubs since Day One, while players taken behind him like Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan and Max Domi are key pieces in their teams’ present and future.
But those players don’t have a wealth of young skaters ahead of them on the depth chart, which is the situation Drouin faces. Tampa Bay is a young squad with only two forwards over the age of 30, with the bulk of their key offensive contributors currently in their prime, leaving Drouin behind the likes of Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn and Nikita Kucherov, not to mention team captain Steven Stamkos.
Simply put, he’s stuck and hasn’t been able to change his situation with his play, prompting the request for a trade.
But as far as moving him just because he asked to be dealt goes, don’t expect Yzerman to take anything short of an A-plus haul in exchange for Drouin because you simply don’t move on from a young, Top 5 picks with tons of offensive potential without getting a ton back in return.
The Phoenix Coyotes gave away a 22-year-old Kyle Turris for David Rundblad and a second-round pick in December 2011. In his first two full seasons with the Ottawa Senators, Turris tallied 26 and 24 goals respectively and currently has 28 points in 39 games as the club’s top center; Rundblad is a depth defensemen in Chicago, while the pick turned into a couple prospects through a couple different trades.
Similarly, the Boston Bruins moved on from Tyler Seguin following the 2012-13 season, sending him to Dallas along with Rich Peverley and Ryan Button in exchange for Loui Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser. Seguin sits third in league scoring as of this writing.
As a skilled playmaker with 25-goal upside, Drouin has the potential to be fall somewhere between Turris and Seguin – maybe not someone that leads the league in scoring, but a guy that can lead your team in points and be a No. 1 center – and so Yzerman is going to command a king’s ransom in order to move him out of Tampa any time soon.
This situation will eventually be resolved – either Tampa Bay will move Drouin for a bushel of talent and picks or he’ll crack the lineup and all will be forgiven (though that’s far less likely) – but for now, it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out.
