Alex Tanguay and Petr Sykora probably still on the Lightning's list

And as long as they remain unsigned, it probably will stay that way.

It will be interesting to see who, if either, blinks first -- Alex Tanguay or Petr Sykora. Which player finally decides he needs a place to play and caves to the Lightning's hope that one of these scoring wings will take a one-year deal for a reduced rate and uses the platform to re-launch his career?

We have discussed this exercise before. But with GM Brian Lawton back from a brief vacation, he likely will re-visit his attempt to gain a scoring wing to perhaps play on Vinny Lecavalier's line. This is easier said than done for a team that already has a payroll pushing $50 million and which still has to sign Matt Smaby (either through negotiation or arbitration), Matt Lashoff, Martins Karsums and Mike Lundin.

So, Tampa Bay will wait to see if Alex Tanguay or Petr Sykora, the top two scoring forwards still available through free agency, will bite. Talk about a selling point. It's not the worst thing in the world for one's career to play with Lecavalier, especially when you are trying to revive your career, which both Tanguay and Sykora have to do. Much of the talk the past few weeks is about how much Tanguay would help the Lightning. But I say Sykora, who has 53 goals, including 28 on the power play the past two seasons for the Penguins, offers more. And he has more to prove after his playoff flop, though he also had a second-degree shoulder separation. Sykora's agent Allan Walsh also debunked an Internet report his clientwas bound for the KHL and said on Tuesday Sykora's priority is to play in the NHL.

On the other hand, Tanguay, at 29, is three years younger than Sykora, which might be attractive to a Lightning team trying to stay away from older players. On the other hand, the most persistent rumor is Tanguay will go to the Panthers. On one more hand, Sykora's salary last season was $2.5 million, much less than Tanguay's $5.375 million. Price is important for Tampa Bay, which still wants to shed some payroll as it is.

As it is, nothing seems imminent. In fact, the longer things drag out, the better the Lightning's position will be. Look, perhaps nothing happens. Perhaps the players find a market greater than what Tampa Bay can offer. Perhaps the financially troubled Lightning decides it can't make an offer, after all. But for now, it's fun to think about either of those players lining up next to Lecavalier.

Comments

[Don in St. Pete]

CNW, I agree that a reunion of the MVP line might be in order to start the season. The only issue I have with that is that Marty is the only forward that can match Stamkos speed.

[Boltflasher]

If its between FLA and TB for Tanguay, probably looking at a bit more money with FLA but less points. With TB, he can take a bit of a cut on his demand, but more points on Vinny's line and a better contract than with either team for next year...I would be surprised if he then chooses FLA...

[cnw]

IMO it makes more sense to have the Vinny, Vinny and MSL line together and Malone, Stammer and ?. My reasoning is that we want the Bolts to come out scoring and we know the MVP line can score together. Stammer's line is like a crap shoot. We think Stammer will improve the whole season and perhaps rack up 40 goals, but it's a crap shoot at this time. We want wins and lots of wins to bring in the fans and fill the forum and get this team back into a sound financial franchise. That way more and more good players can be developed or brought in and the players don't have to play desperation play all the time and get injured. They can concentrate on smart hockey plays.

By putting a younger player on Stammer's line, hopefully they will gel and be able to establish a line like the MVP has done in the past. It would be great to have 2 lines that are high scoring.

I always chuckle when I hear the announcers refer to Vinny and Marty as the "Dynamic Duo", "Two Headed Snake", the "LeSmoothe players." Wonder what they will call the Stammer line?

Where is that defense coach?

Go Bolts!

[Don in St. Pete]

Interesting if true on Sykora. It could mean Tanguay is about to sign elsewhere. Sykora would be a big help on the power play.

[The Skating Penguin]

thePensBlog is saying that Sykora is being offered a 2 year deal for $2.75M (not-sure if that is per, or total) by the Bolts

?????

[GP]

Haven't posted in a while. The signing of one of these guys (Tanguay, Sykora, Satan) indicates the Lightning are just banking on one of these guys having a great year playing with Vinny so they can flip him at the deadline for picks or prospects. Same thing they did with Recchi last year. It's actually a good business decision. I expect the Lightning to be competitive but another year away from a playoff spot .... maybe the 9th or 10th spot this year.

[The Skating Penguin]

Although he was well-liked by the players, word from 'da Burgh is that he fretted & pouted when benched during the playoffs in favor of Miroslav Satan after struggling since March:
inserted for Game 6 of the SCF versus Detwah, he broke his foot blocking a shot, and Satan dressed for Game 7.

"If" the reports of pouting are true, do you REALLY want that type personality on a young, rebuilding team?

[Patrick]

The Vinny, Vinny, Marty line has had a lot of success in the past. Marty is very responsible and skates hard, but did he play defense for all three of the forwards on that line? It's OK if the line isn't good defensively as long as they score 1-2 goals for every goal they give up. Will make the games more exciting too. Plus Vinny needs to have a good statistical season so we can put the "He's not worth 10 mil for the next 25 years" talk to bed before it starts again.

[ICEKICKER]

OK... Where to start... First, I agree, Tanguay & Sykora might be somewhat intriguing, but they are NOT the type of players that we need. V4 & V20 do need a grinder that can hang with them, but Karsums??? COME ON.. Did you actually watch him play last year??? Downie does bring toughness, but he is not a top 2 line player & Bochenski has less puck skills than Chris Dingman. I like the idea of Taylor Pyatt, another good choice would be Brad Isbister. Little lessor choices, but people that could skate with the Vinnys is P.J. Axelsson, Manny Malhotra, or Kyle Calder. We need to get back to the concept that we had when we won the cup. We had grinders on each line, we had players that would drop their gloves, and our 4th line worked their butts off.

Let's get back to Lightning hockey... We have some good choices out there, enough of this destroying our team by trying to make an all-star team with no toughness.

[Don in St. Pete]

NTMM, I agree to a certain extent. If we look at last off season's experiments, the ones that worked ( Malone ) and the ones that didn't ( Vrbata ) there is a common thread here. Malone is a tough 2 way guy who'll work in the corners and the PK. Vrbata was soft, as are Tanguay and Sykora. V4 and V20 are already defensively challenged so a tough 2 way forward who'll work the corners makes way more sense. We're probably better off giving Downie, Bochenski or Ashton a shot in camp and then make a deadline deal if we're in the hunt. If none of the kids seems ready you can pick up a guy like Taylor Pyatt or someone similar before the start of the season. Our best option may still be a trade, although moving MSL back with the Vinny's and putting Tanguay with Stammer and Malone would not be as risky defensively.

[Marosh]

Not the Marlboro Man,

I AGREEEEEEEEE, because I am upset how many players played here last seasons and how many have remained!

[Marosh]

I dont think we need another czech player to make us better. As for vinnys line i would suggest ALEX T. because he has been good playmaker in his carrer, V4 is more like pure scorer but dont forget who makes his play better - MSL has been always his passer.

PETR SYKORA is not the right player we have been looking for.

If dont get anyone just give a shot to someone from young guns. (KARSUMS, DOWNIE, TYRREL, )

[Not the Marlboro Man]

For the price that they would be willing to offer a has been like Tanguay or Sykora they could sign and keep the young players that will make a difference. Does any one remember Daymond Langkow? Remember how he was jerked around by this organization? We didn't have the money to keep him him and now he's turned out to be a pretty good center elsewhere.

This organization has good players at the developmental levels that they seriously need to concentrate on first before they go handing out ridiculous contracts to has-been free agent money grubbers. If these guys were worth anything they would have already been snagged...you can bet your bottom dollar on that. The last thing this team needs is someone else's problems or identity. Start building a team with our own assets and stop waisting money on someone who is going to spend the season on the bench anyway.

[BrianB23]

Go for Tanguay, PLEASE! Granted, his salary last year bordered on the obscene, but his age combined with his ability make him a far better choice, if a deal can be made. Look, we need "experienced youth" on this club in order to pull ourselves out of this rut, and that description fits Tanguay to a T.

Besides, in a dream world, who knows, if we do well this season, rake in some dough, and he has a good year we might even be able to ship him off at trade deadline for some inexpensive help.

[ZERO]

Heh heh, this must be a refresher piece. Because the only new thing I learned was that Damian has three hands.

[Don in St. Pete]

Pure speculation, but thanks DC for putting something up for us to blog about. I still think a trade is the way to go but I'm not sure it would brink back a scorer as goos as either of these guys. I am anxiously real news about the RFA's that are still unsigned and an assistant coach.