PHT today talking about the Lightning continuing on after Nesterov trade and just being sellers this year. if they don't start winning some games real soon they'll probably have to. and if it comes to that, i think Yzerman has an opportunity to fix some issues and set themselves up for the next 5-10 years.
issues:
1.
expansion draft - kind of looming over everything with a lot of teams, and the TBL are one of the best examples with all the good, young depth they have. unless they make some trades, they're going to lose a good player to Vegas for nothing. but on the flip side, they could get lucky and be relieved of Killorn or Garrison.
2.
Bishop/Vasilevskiy - the expansion draft is looming, have to do
something here. somewhat problematic that the youngster hasn't been very good this season, but i guess it's not something i'd really sweat. keeping Bishop might simply not be an option given their cap crunch.
3.
RFAs - Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson, and Ondrej Palat, enough said. again, with their cap crunch they might have to make some tough decisions and move people they don't want to. Yzerman should have a pretty big phone bill over the next 6 months.
4.
cap trash - Callahan at $5.8m, Killorn at $4.45m, Filppula at $5m, Garrison at $4.6m, Coburn at $3.7m, Carle's buyout at $1.83m ... Yzerman really needs to put in work and dig himself out of some awful holes here.
they do have a good prospect pool, so it should be possible to wiggle out with some quality moves.
and i would suspect that all of the above means that UFA
Brian Boyle is gone, they should probably sell him before the deadline regardless of whether they start winning some games here. perfect depth center for a contender, should fetch some good assets for the future.
this is a pretty big test for Yzerman here. do it right and the TBL are probably a perennial contender for years to come. but fail, and, well, you know...