Lightning Go Shopping NHL Style

The 2010 NHL Entry Draft will be held tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The new regime in Hockey Bay USA prepares to roll the NHL dice for the first time. Tampa Bay has eight picks in the entry draft:  The number six pick in the first round, the number 63 (From FLA via LA*), 66 and 72 (From ANA**) in the third round, the number 96 and 118 (From SJ***) in the fourth round, the number 156 in the sixth round and the number 186 in the seventh round.

Notes:  * Florida traded its third round pick in the 2010 draft to LA for Columbus’ fourth round pick in the 2009 draft and St. Louis’ fifth round pick in the 2009 draft. LA traded RW Teddy Purcell and Florida’s third round pick in the 2010 draft to Tampa Bay for C Jeff Halpern. (3/3/10)

** Anaheim traded LW Drew Miller and its third round pick in the 2010 draft to Tampa Bay for RW Evgeny Artyukhin. (8/13/09)

*** San Jose traded D Matt Carle, D Ty Wishart, its first round pick in the 2009 draft and its fourth round pick in the 2010 draft for D Dan Boyle and D Brad Lukowich. (7/4/08)

On Thursday, Lightning GM Steve Yzerman stated that he has no intention of trading the number six pick, even though the phone has been ringing. “There has been some interest in the pick, and our debate has been, first off, there are some players at the six spot that we like,” Yzerman said. “So, for us to trade back, we would have to get something that, first, would make us real confident that how far we are trading back we would get a player we want. The more you move back, the less certain you are getting a player you would want. So, we would consider it, but the idea of going way back, there is just too much uncertainty because, around six, we can get a pretty good player.”

“We feel there are good players in and around six. So, to trade it just because it’s the sixth pick, I don’t know if that’s the thing to do. At four, five, six, seven and eight, there is a group of players in there that I don’t think anybody predict which one is necessarily better than the other, and I’m sure teams have them in a different kind of order, but they would be happy with any four of them.”

It seems the consensus of the “experts” is that the Bolts will select a defenseman with the sixth pick. Cam Fowler, Erik Gudbranson and Brandon Gormley are the young stars most often mentioned. I am of a different opinion.  I look for Steve Yzerman and the Lightning brass to pick a talented forward like Brett Connolly, Nino Niederreiter or Ryan Johansen. The biggest need of the Lightning minor league system is a scoring winger and this is where the Bolts should focus their first round attention.

The crapshoot that is the NHL Draft begins tonight at 7:00 on Versus in the United States.