Former Lightning Gritty Forward Still A Free Agent
Will this former Lightning forward find a new home?
Video Transcript
Is Tampa Bay, are they still in their window, Mike?
Okay, they're, they're still in a window, but that window is rapidly closing, Ryan.
And I, I agree with you.
It is a team that is getting a little longer in the tooth.
The other thing to consider is Darren Raddysh, who was making basically nothing this year, becomes a UFA, and if Tampa Bay l- lucks out and is able to re-sign him, that's another big salary guy that's gonna take a bit of the cap away from, you know, signing some depth players.
So you're right, that, that championship window closes every single day, every single year.
The other thing to consider is what is Jon Cooper's future?
And I say that knowing that Jon Cooper is, you know, arguably the best coach in the NHL, if not the world.
But he's been there, what, 13 years?
I think his first year was 12, 13.
So, you know, eventually every coach has a shelf life.
I don't care who you are.
You could be Toe Blake or, you know, Scotty Bowman.
Eventually, your time comes, and Tampa Bay might be looking at a coaching market where you've got Bruce Cassidy still unsigned saying, "Okay, if we are gonna make a move, do we make that move now and start saying to ourselves, 'We're no longer that running gun offensive team.
Let's bring in a defensive sort of specialist in Cassidy and try to win with Vasilevskiy in net,'" and not that many goals from, I guess, Nikita Kucherov in the playoffs.
Yeah.
