NHL Trade Rumors: Would Mike Green Be A Good Fit For The Lightning?

The NHL Trade Rumors have been flying, but the Tampa Bay Lightning has yet to make a move. Would a player like Mike Green be a good choice as the NHL Trade Deadline approaches?

The Tampa Bay Lightning has been all quiet on the trading front up until this point, and with the clock ticking away until the Deadline passes and all trading about to come to an end, some of us here in the Bolts Nation are left to wonder if the Bolts even have a trade in mind.

On the bright side, it seems as if the Lightning won’t be making any rash moves as the pressure of the deadline mounts. Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman said that the Lightning won’t be making a trade simply to make a trade.

There are a number of us here in the Bolts Nation that believe that at least one move is necessary.

Just about everyone here believes that Yzerman needs to make a move to add another veteran defense to the Lightning lineup.

Right now, the Tampa Bay Lightning has to proceed toward the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs without two of their top line defensemen; Radko Gudas and Matt Carle. Carle may be back in the next two weeks or so; however, it will be much longer before we will get to see the Czech defenseman back on the ice.

While the Lightning have plenty of people in the developmental system who can step up in the Lightning’s time of need, like Syracuse Crunch defenseman Nikita Nesterov and Luke Witkowski. Both have been performing well since coming up to the main roster, but there is no denying that a little more veteran presence would be a welcome change.

Unfortunately, the player that has been regarded as one of the best candidates that could have made their way to the Sunshine State has been scooped up by another team. The New York Rangers have acquired defenseman Keith Yandle from the Arizona Coyotes in a rather large trade.

The good news is that there are still quality defensemen on the market that would be of great assistance to the Tampa Bay Lightning as they make their push for the playoffs. One of those players is defenseman Mike Green of the Washington Capitals.

Acquiring Green would cost the Lightning about $6 million in cap space along with a pretty decent trade to the Capitals, as someone like Green doesn’t exactly go for cheap.

So far this season, the 29 year old Canadian defenseman has played in 55 games with the Capitals in which time he has scored 5 goals and 31 assists for a total of 36 points to accompany a plus-9 rating.

If there is one thing that the Lightning have been struggling with this season it has been the Power Play. The Lightning have only scored 39 goals on the Power Play this season out of a whopping 224 opportunities. This gives the Bolts a Power Play Percentage of just 17.41%. This puts them in 20^th place in the NHL.

If you take a closer look at Mike Green’s numbers, out of the 36 points he’s scored this season, 15 of them have come on the Power Play. As of right now, Green is second among defensemen on the Capitals and third overall on the team in terms of Power Play Points.

This is exactly the kind of Power Play captain we could use here in Tampa Bay. Someone like Green could very well be the spark that the Lightning needs to get back into the game. Let’s be real here, if we can get our Power Play rolling at maximum capacity, then we would be near unstoppable heading into the end of the regular season.

The question now becomes, who the Lightning could move in order to make this kind of deal could happen? We all know that Yzerman is the master of collecting draft picks, so we imagine that at least one of our picks would be involved in a move like this one. Unfortunately, there will still be a player move involved here.

We would imagine that they would look to move someone like Brett Connolly or J.T. Brown in a situation like this one. With a little moving and shaking, this could potentially open up an opportunity for someone like center Vladislav Namestnikov to return to the main lineup.

There has been plenty of speculation as to what Yzerman may or may not do when the final second ticks off of the clock and the NHL Trade Deadline comes to an end, but at this point there is only one person who truly knows what lies ahead and that is Steve Yzerman.

Do you think Mike Green would be a good fit for the Tampa Bay Lightning? If not, who would you like to see Yzerman acquire before the deadline? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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