Commissioner Gary Bettman maintains the status quo in Tampa Bay Lightning front office ... for now

When Tuesday's meeting betwen NHL commisioner Gary Bettman and the Tampa Bay Lightning's feuding co-owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie was over, the status quo in the Lightning front office apparently was maintained in terms of hockey operations.

No one from the league would comment, and neither would Koules nor Barrie. One person with knowledge of the situation begged off by saying he was under a "super gag order." But indications are that the hierarchy remains the same with Koules as CEO and governor and Brian Lawton as general manager and the point man when it comes to hockey operations. The belief is that both Koules and Barrie have to sign off on major player moves brought to them by Lawton, which is how it has been. That means if a potential trade for captain Lecavalier is discussed, it would need the approval of both owners and Barrie has made it clear he wants Lecavalier in the franchise, calling him a "generational" player.    

But here is the interesting part. It seems Bettman is doing some marriage counseling as well, apparently giving the parties some time to work out a workable ownership structure that eliminates some of the rancor. There are only so many options there. One could buy out the other. There could be new investors. They could work out something between themselves. But it is clear something has to be done to alleviate the tension. How quickly, or slowly that process will take is unclear.

The meeting at the league offices in New York was called to determine whether Koules or Barrie would have the authority to make decisions for the franchise, and not just hockey decisions but business decisions as well. Koules has been responsible for much of the day-to-day running of the club since OK Hockey took control about a year ago. Barrie has spent most of his time in Victoria, British Columbia, managing and trying to sell his Bear Mountain Resort.

The dispute centers around philosophical differences in direction of the team which you read all about in today's column by John Romano.

Comments

[2WayCenter]

hyjyljyj - Me too. I am a huge fan of the "New NHL". The game is more open, fast and exciting than it was 5 years ago. I look forward to watching all the teams play, especially in the play-offs.

Best

[hyjyljyj]

Thanx 2Way

Is it next spring yet? I just want more playoff hockey, with or (more likely) without us.

Let's hope they don't move the team, especially to Winnipeg, I don't speak Manitoban

[Don in St. Pete]

Geo, et al, Be careful what you wish for. We can all make conjecture at this point but nobody seems to be able to provide facts. I'm in waiting mode to see if they implode at the draft or trade the franchise. The only thing keeping V4 from being dealt is Len Barrie at this point. While that may not contiue to be the case, I think we have a better chance of being competetive with a $48mil roster than a $40mil roster.

[Geografer]

Bettman speaks (per nhl.com - http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=431647&cmpid=rss-kimelman)

Bettman addressed speculation over the ownership situation with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Recent reports have suggested that co-owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie were not speaking. Bettman had the pair in his New York office Tuesday, and the commissioner said he was confident that whatever differences of opinion the two might have can and will be ironed out in time.

"Things are OK right now," said Bettman. "They're speaking and they sat at the Board meeting next to each other. They may, long-term, have some issues they'd like to resolve, (but) things are stable and OK right now. I think ultimately whatever's going on can be resolved. The owners are in a position where they're working together right now. They each understand what they need to be doing. Whether or not that changes in the future is up to them to decide, ultimately."

Somethings got to give. From what I saw last year and the fact there is no doubt in my mind that Lennie baby's personal issues with Boyle are what drove the horrible trade - he needs to go. NOW!

[gus georgiou]

PD, I agree with your comment of V4. What is going to put people in the seats is not Vinnie here and losing like last year, but a competitive team that may or may not have Vinnie on it. People will not come and watch a third straight season of bad losing other than the loyal diehards.
The trading of Boyle and not having anything comparable on the team in return, trading of Eminger (salary) and Messaros with him not producing like he has in the past is what is making everyone gunshy about trading V4 and getting shafted with what they get in return. People don't want to see players dumped for money and make up excuses as to why it was a good deal.
If the story of Barrie not yet putting any money in the team is true, I would hope he isn't making decisions on team personnel since he has nothing to lose other than his fortune on paper which doesn't pay the bills.
I sure hope Koules and Lawton have learned their lessons from this last season fiasco and make some moves that truly will help this team. Unfortunately these moves will probably be young prospects and draft choices since it will cost you a lot less in salary than free agents. If they spend any money on free agents I sure as hell hope it is on two good defenseman. But who knows what Smith will be like and that means maybe looking for a goalie so there goes money that could be used for other players.
I pray that one of these guys buys the other one out or they sell the team because this team is doomed if both of these guys are involved in the operation of this team.

[PD]

Don, it very much does look like an imminant rebuild on the cheap.

My question would have to be why? These clowns won't be able to financially survive a rebuild..they will be stocking a team for KC or Winnipeg.

I do disagree with those that think that trading Vinny will kill sales?

What sales? Last year they reported seasons tix at about 9500. This year, on the economy alone, it will be under 8000. Those 8000 are hardcore and could appreciate the build, but they will not be able to carry the team financially.

Where Bolts Mgmt. (?) blew it, was last year:
Boyle trade for nothing
Mezz trade..big over pay
Barrie's Free agent signings.. horribly thought out.

RIP OK

[Casper]

Now we learn our strident ownership is headed toward soap opera strata. This too is painful, as in watching a guy meander the streets with a gun to his own head. Every day we tune in to see if it’s been done yet or if we can witness the carnage.
Makes me sick.

Every day now, we turn on computers to see if Vincent Lecavalier has been……has become a 'has been' around these parts. It is a gloom I do not enjoy. He is going to not relish the game he adores playing so much when the boo-birds eat his lunch during a few lackluster shifts.

Phone calls and Twitters to Brad might help him cope, but the contractual quagmire is not entirely his fault. Everybody wants a few bucks, but when tremors rock the whole financial system of Nations, the PLAYERS ASSOCIATION needs to step up and help SAVE THIS GAME by ratifying amendments to allow contract adjustments. You don’t trust the owners because they’ll screw away with all the money? I feel the same way, but there are more cameras and mic’s around now. (And blabbering ex-wives, wink, wink.) Accountability is somewhat possible, or more realistic than ever. Notice how hard it is for some of these mokes to scrape their shoes.

I hope for resolution, not revolution; but prepare clean underwear for the storm.
With any spare pesos I’ll take TWENTY PowerBall tickets!

Go Bolts!

[Don in St. Pete]

Zero, Good point and to also back up earlier statements, Fenneley from the Trib and Romano from the Times are the Sports Opinion Columnists, so their story include their own spin, they're more like Editorials. I guess a few grains of salt should be in order.

[ZERO]

And also...Eklund has been predicting Vinny's trade for a very long time. So far he's 0-for.

[ZERO]

Don - Not sure if you're joking. Not everyone has the ability to watch TV 24 hours a day. People work and people drive. Hence, radio is needed. Gasbag or not, he's the main voice of that station, especially for Lightning fans (he's the only one who talks about them).

They could've chosen Rich Peckham and Andy or others who do the Lightning Hockey Night show. Maybe they'll be there too, but I believe Duemig is the main guy for the event.

[Don in St. Pete]

I suggest we all be on hand at noon to ask DC some pointed questions. Since EK is intimating a V4 trade on hockeybuzz, that leads me to believe now that it won't happen. But perhaps the possibility still exists or another option has reared it's head and OK and Lawton want to use Duemig to sell it to the fan base. Pure speculation at this point. Why would anyone want to listen to the gasbag on radio when they could watch the draft on Versus?

[2WayCenter]

And now this:

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jun/24/little-reason-feel-good-about-lightnings-future/sports-lightning/

Not what you would call balanced reporting.

Don - please tell me how this is any different than a blogger's piece. It is fraught with opinion and judgment. We do not see this from Damian.

Now it is "Koules apparently wants out of that deal...."

"Apparently???" Come on guys, lend some conformation. Or just report and hold the "Mutt and Jeff" witticisms.

[2WayCenter]

They fixed the picture. Here is what it was before edit.

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv98/gigagolf/MD.jpg

I'm sure there will be a retraction posted shortly;)

[Randy C]

Patrick,

Many scenarios, many different parts to the plan, time is near for answers. For all the people that think our ownership is so stupid, do you really expect OK to rush to the press and tell us what they plan on doing? That would be stupid! Relax, the answers will come soon.

2way,

If you keep making sense, who's going to buy up all the extra papers? This truely is a ride.

[2WayCenter]

hyjyljyj - The picture is of Matt Duchene.

[Patrick]

If NYI take Hedman, which would bring the Lightning more in return, trading Vinny or trading Tavares?

If the Lightning were to trade Tavares, I wouldn't go any lower than 7th in the draft with hopes of still getting Cowen.

[hyjyljyj]

"Here is the latest piece of journalistic excellence. Notice the picture and caption."

The picture is of Tavares doing a leg-strength drill, with the caption "John Tavares was recently invited to work out for Lightning officials at the Forum." The article said they flew all 3 top prospects in for the same evaluation.

So, I don't get it. What are we supposed to notice?

[Don in St. Pete]

Patrick, It won't be quite that bad, but it won't be much better. There is no upgrade to any deal with V4, only lesser players filling other less important holes. If he's dealt to Montreal, I would expect probably Pleckanec and Higgins or Latendresse to be coming back along with Georges and one of Weber, McDonagh or Subhan, plus a pick. That would bring back a little more than $4mil in salary saving the owners $6mil which will promptly be lost at the gate. Perhaps they'll get Halak instead of one of the others, which would be an upgrade to the backup goalie position. Either way it doesn't look pretty. I wouldn't do the trade without Markov as part of the deal, but I don't have to pay his salary either. I hope you folks are right but everything I've seen points to V4 being moved. So if they don't qualify Matt Smaby by the 25th he could be signed by another team to an offer sheet and we would get a 2nd round pick in return? I hope Lawton gets his $hit together and gets that done at least.

[derekh]

Hey, I have a novel idea. Why don't we wait and see what the owners say about their squabble. We can also wait and see what happens at the draft before we start casting stones.

[Steve-O]

When teams suffer financial woes, and some like Phoenix file bankruptcy it makes the whole league look bad. So I must ask...Why do some take such delight in the struggles of teams in the league? The sheer joy that some have expressed over the Lightnings issues is bizarre at best. Is it because we won a Cup and that should be reserved only for Canadian based teams? I know...hockey in the good ol' US of A is offensive but heck weren't both finals teams this year US based?

If your team beats ours...have a good laugh and jab us in the ribs a bit. Take pleasure in the demise of teams in the league and you show your lack of class. But perhaps you're good with that eh? It's hard to take the trailer out of the park!

[2WayCenter]

The NHL told told both Barrie and OK to stay away from the player decisions. Let the GM do his job. THAT IS GOOD NEWS!!! Relax people, the press has got you on a doomsday ride.

[2WayCenter]

Good points on how Draft may affect V4.

Here is the latest piece of journalistic excellence. Notice the picture and caption.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jun/24/sp-theyre-no-2-and-thrilled/sports-lightning/

[Boltflasher]

Yes, Ray agree...I already said that as did Phil Esposito...

[Ray]

IF the Isles take Hedman and we pick up Tavares, expect the Cowboys to trade Vinny in a hearbeat.

[Leanmean43]

Patrick,
Two words for those top two lines, PUKE PUKE! Now we won't be able to score or play defense, sounds like a winning situation.

[Patrick]

Don,

With your roster, our top 2 foward lines would look something like this?

Malone-Stamkos-St. Louis
Prospal-Halpern-Vrbata

That makes a pretty compelling case as to why you don't trade away a #1 center of Vinny's caliber. We have no depth to fill the holes and we aren't going to get a good trade. It would likely be a reverse auction at this point with the winning team submitting the lowest bid.

I think your numbers on our RFAs are a little low:

As per the collective bargaining agreement, in order to protect its right to match an offer sheet and receive draft pick compensation if choosing not to match, an NHL team must tender a qualifying offer no later than June 25.

In order to be deemed proper, the qualifying offer must be for an amount at least equal to the player’s 2007-08 compensation for those who made $1 million or more this past season in base salary.

For players making less than $1 million but more than $660,000, the qualifying offer must be for 105 percent of the player’s ‘07-08 salary. However, the qualifying offer does not have to exceed $1 million if, for example, the player was making $990,000 in ‘07-08. That player’s qualifying offer would be $1 million.

Finally, for players making less than $660,000, the qualifying offer must incorporate a 10 percent raise on the player’s ‘07-08 salary.

Qualifying offers can either be one-way (same salary whether the player is in the NHL or minors) or two-way (higher salary in the NHL than in the minors) depending on each player’s circumstances.

Players with at least 180 career NHL games (including at least 60 this season) who did not clear waivers in ‘07-08 must be qualified on a one-way basis. All other players can receive a two-way qualifying offer, including veteran players who were injured this season and did not meet the 60-game threshold.

[Leanmean43]

I'm really close do being done with this ownership group. If they trade Vinny and get back nothing I won't attend anymore games as long as they are the owners. I'll watch on TV if I need a good laugh but that's it. Don't call me a fair weather fan either, trading Vinny and getting nothing good, is the line in the sand for me. Do you guys realize as soon as they trade him nobody will ever sign a long-term contract here again, and they'll probably have trouble re-signing their own players for that matter. That is the ultimate disrespect to a player, signing him to a longterm deal, promising not to trade him before the deal kicks in, and then trading him. I guarantee Marty and Malone are watching this closely and they'll be wanting out of hockey hell pretty soon.

[Don in St. Pete]

Boltflasher, While there's a chance all the reports could be wrong, I would suggest all Bolt fans prepare to accept a total rebuild on the cheap just in case. In that way anything more is a bonus, to be celebrated. However this shakes out I'm sure we'lll be debating who should be taken with a top five pic for a few years.

[HockeyBay.com]

Oren is still in Charge, Hey Fogetaboutit!

http://www.hockeybash.com/Koules_Guys.jpg

[Boltflasher]

Don, that's the scenario, sort of, I was trying to present the other night, except I still had Vinny in there so we could still have some fans....I doubt they've done an analysis of V4's contract vs empty seats to see where that comes out, plus Vinny may mean 4 or 5 more wins or more pending Smitty as well...

[Randy C]

Don,

I don't see any direct quotes from Oren or Len from the 3 print reporters. It really looks to me like they are trying to appear on top of this, but they are not. I hope I am right too!

[Don in St. Pete]

Randy, Believe me I hope you're right! I'm just getting a feel for what the team will look like and who will be coming back if a trade did indeed happen. I just can't see Romano, Erlendson, Damian and the Panthers blogger ( who reported a week ago that the Bolts would be at the Cap Floor ) all being wrong and Duemig being right. I've never met Duemig but I've heard him challenge people to fight on the air and then heard from someone else he has body guards if the people actually show up. Plus he's just so full of BS on most stuff. I hope he has the real inside scoop on this one but it looks like the odds are against him.

[Randy C]

It is still wait and see time. According to who I believe, not much has changed, Oren will call the shots as he has been. Way to much crap flying around looking for a place to stick. So much for accurate assessments, this looks more like a deliberate attempt to make things look way worse than they are.

Don,

It doesn't seem like you to throw out such disdain for Duemig. You must have met him and seen something you didn't like. I have heard many who felt the same after a meeting or disagreement. That aside, on major stories, he has more weight with 20 hours a week on the radio, he gets to the facts better than anyone in this area. He carries more weight and it is way better for teams that have him on their side to be straight with him. I hope you are wrong on this one.

[Don in St. Pete]

Well here is the payroll in all it's ugliness, minus V4 just to give an idea how much salary they could take back and remain near the $40Mil cap basement. There is some wiggle room as some RFA's could go untendered but then you're losing assets, some of which could develop. There's also a strong possibility players like Bochenski and Konopka could clear waivers and be sent back to Norfolk. In addition I pencilled in Murphy and Petiot as UFA signings in case a defenseman didn't come back in a V4 trade, but their salary would be mostly eaten up by Headmans $900k if he's drafted. So Lawton would theoretically have about $4Mil in salary to take back in a V4 trade. If you go after a UFA goalie to replace Ramo he'll likely cost more than McKenna. I guess this means we can rule out Komisarek coming back for V4. You'll notice I chose not to tender Krajicek and Welch as they would have costed too much especially Krjicek who was arbitration eligible and was forced to play Top 4 minutes on our depleted D last year. Does anybody have George Steinbrenner's number?

Malone $6,000,000.
St. Louis $4,000,000.
Prospal $3,500,000.
Vrbata $3,000,000.
Halpern $2,000,000.
Artyukhin $1,000,000.
Karsums $ 910,000. RFA 10% raise
Stamkos $ 875,000.
Craig $ 800,000.
Szechura $ 650,000.
Hall $ 600,000.
Bochenski $ 550,000.
Konopka $ 500,000.

Mezsaros $3,250,000.
Ranger $1,100,000.
Smaby $ 925,000. RFA 10% raise
Lashoff $ 875,000. RFA 10% raise
Lundin $ 825,000. RFA 10% raise
Murphy $ 550,000. UFA 20% raise
Petiot $ 550,000. UFA 10% raise

Smith $2,000,000.
McKenna $ 525,000. RFA 10% raise
Denis $1,000,000. Buyout

Total $35,985,000.

[McGz]

Damian, when are you guys going to ban Jumbotron, and his other aliases? How hard is it to pull an IP address and block it? He's been violating the bylaws since earlier this year...

[Don in St. Pete]

PD, I think the Vulture will have to wait a while. While there's nothing pretty about either scenario, I can't see how Koules can trade V4 for picks and prospects ( which is all we could take back if he wants a payroll of around $40Mil )and expect to draw good crowds. Where is the break even point with a $40 Mil payroll $12-13K? I wasn't totally against trading V4 if they were bringing back a top 2 d, a center and a scoring winger. I guess it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. We are oficially in total rebuild mode, while operating on the cheap.

[Mike13]

The last time the owner had to sign off on any deals was under PS&E and put handcuffs on Feaster. Looks like more of the same for Lawton. It's never a good thing when your owners put themselves in a position where they have to sign off on any and all deals.

[Boltflasher]

This ominous statement from Bob Gainey:

Habs blockbuster in the works?
Canadiens GM Bob Gainey isn't talking with any free agents yet because he said there could be a blockbuster trade over the weekend.

He's had some "preliminary discussions" with his free agents, but he told the Montreal Gazette that, "We're not going to make any moves until after the draft."

From ESPN Insider...

[hireup]

Unbleeping believable. Everyone knows all the Lightning employees complain about how abusive employment is under Koules and Lawton. If your hourly help, sales, sales management, general management and operations staff hate you, how are going to succeed? The last team owner/management this hated by employees was Vince Namoli.

[RealBoltsFans.com]

Put the Bear Mountain Resort on ebay

[PD]

Pretty apropos, derekh

Won't be long before Ballsillie starts searching through the remaining body parts.

[derekh]

The last two seasons have been the sun setting before the long, dark night...

[miracles]

Nice photo of Dumb and Dumber...if "marriage counseling" is what they needed from Bumblehead Bettman, we might as well right off the season even before it begins. The off-season scenario of "super gag orders" and "marriage counseling" doesn't bode well for Lightning fans.