Budget won't be cut, could go higher

On a day the team fired associate coach Craig Ramsay, general manager Jay Feaster also had some good news. The Lightning's payroll will not be cut, as was speculated,  but remain the same as last season: $44-million. Feaster also said he believes that if the team is doing well during the season, he will get the green light from owner Bill Davidson to go even higher with acquisitions during the season or at the trade deadline.

Feaster said that should put to rest all the media speculation about the future of Vinny Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Marty St. Louis and Dan Boyle, all of whom Feaster reiterated he wants to keep.

"I just feel wonderful about the commitment and the support Mr. Davidson continues to show,'' Feaster said.

Feaster said he got the news Wednesday at a meeting with Davidson at his Auburn Hills, Mich., office. Feaster and team president Ron Campbell had said the preliminary budget was $40-million, about $4-million less than last season during which the Lightning's parent company, Palace Sports & Entertainment reported losses of $9-million on its Tampa operation.

"He made it clear he wanted to talk hockey,'' Feaster said of Davidson. "Right off the bat, he said, 'The numbers you presented, we're going to spend more.' He recognizes we are very, very close. He's bullish on this team.''

Still, the total likely will put Tampa Bay behind teams willing to spend to the cap, which is expected to be as much as $49-million. But it at least gives Feaster some breathing room.    

Comments

[Another joe]

Id love to get Smyth here maybe he will take a little less for a chance to win here. To get a chance to play with Vinny,Marty, and Brad he might be willing to take less. Not sure if he will though this could be his last big contract.

[slapshot]

green lite to the tarasky thing. richards to calgary-iginla to long island-ryan smyth here. sprinkle in picks and duds, should taste ok to all. frees up $3m and bring mucho quality to our house.

[Another joe]

i think best case scenario is we add a top line forward and one D-man in free agency,unload Denis, and a few of our young guys continue to develop.

What do you guys think about moving Prospal to a line with Richards to keep St. Louis with Vinny Lecavalier. Then maybe add some diversity to the top line by putting Tarnasky on that top line. He has decent speed and can add a level of toughness to that line. I know thats kind of radical thinking but i think Tarnasky is capable of doing more this year. What do you guys think?

[SarasotaBill]

Tim A.............

Your on the money brother!

"The bottom line is that the defense was absolutely atrocious. There were so many problems in the anatomy of the defense last season that it would be foolish to place all of the blame on the goal tending."

I couldn't agree more. Well said. I believe we will see much different defensive play next year which can only help our goaltending. That being said, I'm still leary of what we have back there. Garon? I think not. Just my opinion. I'm for much more aggressive D play which can help our average tending. I don't think the money is there for someone in goal who can be an impact kind of guy. That leaves with one option. Play some serious D and make what we have better.

Think about this for a moment. Brodeur is considered one of the best, if not THE best, in the league. We lost in the first round to them but how many goals did we score on the guy? His D, which has helped him gain his rep over the years, let him down. Even the best goalie needs good D play. Something we haven't had here in 2 years.

I say, get back to playing strong D. All of the sudden your goalie looks so much better.

[Tim A]

TSN.ca is putting out some what-ifs and suggesting that the Lightning might want to take a look and Mathieu Garon as one of our answers in goal. I don't really know that much about Garon, since he hasn't played a full season yet in the NHL. I think anyone the Lightning brings in here is a crap shoot unless they bring in an unaffordable big name. We might as well stick with Homqvist and Ramo. When the lightning replace their defense and assemble another line that can keep the pressure off the crease more than it has for the past two years, we will then provide some much needed support to our goaltending. I thought Holmqvist, for a rookie, did about as well as any other could have. The bottom line is that the defense was absolutely atrocious. There were so many problems in the anatomy of the defense last season that it would be foolish to place all of the blame on the goal tending. There were actually times last year when I thought that Marc Denis looked extremely good. He had several outings where he was unbeatable. The collapse of the Bolts defense early into last season was most likely the reason for such dismal goaltending numbers. Teams that played the trap as New Jersey and Vancouver did gave their goalies extra space and time to adjust to some of the shots that were approaching them with a high velocity in traffic. The Problem with the lightning is that if their fore check didn't work the defense couldn't stop the other team from coming into their zone at the blue line. Even though the shots may have been in favor of the lightning the scoring chances usually weighed much in favor of the opposition.

As for bring in another goalie, I suggest that we bring in a back up or a veteran who’s career is circling the drain like Eddy Belfour, but as for spending allot of money on a Goal tender, and to not now if he will work out, is not a good thing. We will be up to our arm pits in goalies. The Bolts have a number of decent prospects in goal. I believe that Ramo is a top notch prospect as well as Boutin. It would be a waste if we spent allot of money on others when Ramo and Boutin are perfectly capable of stepping in to the back up roll.
The biggest concern I think the Bolts have right now is, what are they going to do with Denis? I don't think he is going to be playing with the Bolts again but I still think he can be traded. The Kings are going to be needing a Goalie and Denis might be their man. Buying out his contract is not the answer since it will count against the salary cap.

[Satch]

Nolan Schaefer! Interesting thought. One that appeals to me also.

[Francois T. Bandersnatch]

Wouldn't mind stealing Nolan Schaefer from the Penguins. Remember, Toskala is an itty bitty guy, (his stats of 5'10"/195, are generous similarly to our #26 being taller.) in this new age of NBA on Ice, he was the first to get bulldozed through the back of the net and go on IR for a month or so.
Schaefer came along threatening both Toskala and Nabokov's (too much $$$) jobs. (Mindful that they had McLaren, Stuart, etc. blocking shots too.)
Stealing Schaefer before he digs in and seriously threatens Fleury for the #1 job in Pitt (maybe that's why they got him, to wake up the Kid.) and giving him a sincere shot as our #1 appeals to me.
Offer up a package of Denis and some of our own defensive "studs" Pratt, Sarich, etc.

How fast did Mika Noronen fall from the radar when he was in Buffalo squabbling for ice time against Miller and Biron?
Poor guy landed in Vancouver in early 2006, just ahead of you know whom--- then poof!
Anyone hear how he fared in Siberia?

I'm comfortable with Holmer, and giving Ramo his shot now. Boutin and Helenius aren't far behind.

[Another joe]

Just wanted to start some talk about who we could bring in. What do you guys think about Garon in goal from the Kings. He is a free agent and we could probably get him on similiar deal as Holmer and let them battle it out for the top spot?

Id love to see Ramo get one more full yeah in the AHL.

What does everyone think of Garon and name some other free agents your thinking about.

[Tim A]

Mike 13, as for signing defensive players, I'm all for the youth in the system. Ranger, O'brien, Smaby, Janik all need to be re-signed. I'd like to see Sarich return because I believe he is a good #6 or #7 defenseman. He is probably looking to make somewhere in the range of $2 to $2.5 mil a year and the Bolts aren't going to pay that kind of money for a defensive defenseman. If Sarich brought more to the table I believe the Bolts would go out of there way to keep him. An inside source told me that Nolan Pratt is willing to play for just about whatever the Bolts will offer him just so he can stay in the area. I believe now the Bolts should look to their new defensive coach for guidance on personnel changes. I would hate to see them put lousy AHL players with the well established ones we have currently. I do believe that the Bolts are just one or two defenseman away from something special. The defensive pairs that they had last year were exiting to watch and scored allot of goals, they just need a better scheme and a safer style of play in their own zone, much like what Anaheim or Ottawa plays. Jumping in the mix is fine but the pinching and cheating-in got them into allot of trouble last season, and you have to be able to clear the puck. The Bolts were relying way too much on defensemen to provide offense. They wouldn't have had to rely so much on them if they would have had more than one line that could put the puck in the net.

[Another Joe]

If we can get Sarich at 2.5 million per year then we will keep him. If he wants more then that he will be gone. Sarich is solid but we cant over pay him. 2.5 million is what he is worth. He might get offered 4 million on the market. I dont think he's worth that much. Just my opinion. we need one of our young guys D-man to step it up and make the team.

[Mike13]

I agree Tim A. Let's not forget Craig, though. What do you think about Pratt and Sarich? Should we resign them, or bring in a different pair? Maybe promote someone and use Janik. Not sure what to do there. I keep going back and forth.

It was rumored that the Bolts were interested in Sopel.

Again, the trick is going to be Feaster not going out and spending willy nilly on players that aren't essential. I loved Perrin, Craig, and O'Brien --but we simply can't afford to overpay them.

[Tim A]

This is great news considering that the lightning need to sign so many players. Eric Perrin and Shane O'brien should be high priority but Feaster has to be careful not to spend too much on too little too fast. Jay is also going to have to stiffen his upper lip and close his ears to allot of smooth talking from some of those nimrod agents.

Its a good thing not to spend to the edge of the salary cap before the season starts. This will give the Bolts the cap space they will need to go out and get the right players at the trade deadline next season, provided they are in the hunt for the Cup. Since we will still have the "Tres Hombres" and Dan Boyle this shouldn't be a problem.

[C.A. LeBlanc]

You're forgetting that not every guy who was on the team last year is getting re-signed.

[Satch]

As everyone breathes a sigh of relief, keep in mind that we were pretty much maxed out cap wise by the end of last season. This does mean Feaster can keep the trinity, along with Boyle, for the upcomming season but it doesn't leave room for finding another top 6 forward that is desperately needed. Some may say we need a d-man also. I say, let's see what our new coach can do with what we have on D now. If the right guy comes in here I think we will all be pleasantly surprised at defensive improvement.

Now...........if we could only find a taker for Denis!