Tampa Bay Lightning Trade Adam Wilcox To Florida Panthers
The Tampa Bay Lightning make a rather interesting move late on Deadline Day as they send Syracuse Crunch netminder Adam Wilcox to the Florida Panthers.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has been much busier than anyone could’ve possibly expected heading into the NHL Trade Deadline. Last season, you could almost hear the crickets play heading into Deadline Day. This season, Lightning fans are seeing a polar opposite.
Tampa Bay Lightning fans have already sat back and watched as some of their favorite players have made their way to new homes over the past couple of days. Some have made more sense than others, but at the end of the day, the result is the same when it comes to the hearts of the fans who loved them dearly.
As time continues to tick off the clock, we get closer and closer to the NHL Trade Deadline, who is looming off in the distance, just a few hours away. Unfortunately for Lightning fans, it doesn’t seem as if Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman is done just yet.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Lightning General Manager announced in a press release on the Lightning’s official site the team has traded Syracuse Crunch goaltender Adam Wilcox to the Florida Panthers in exchange for goaltender Mike McKenna. Unlike some of the trades which have come before, this one, in particular, is a little puzzling.
Adam Wilcox has had a pretty decent season guarding the space between the pipes for the Syracuse Crunch this season. In the 34 games he’s played in, Wilcox has gone 18-9-2-1 with a Goals Allowed Average of 2.87 and a Save Percentage of .895.
While these may not seem like some of the most stellar numbers ever known to the hockey world, allow us to point out the Syracuse Crunch are currently sitting in First Place in the North Division in the American Hockey League and in prime position for a solid postseason run.
On the other side of the ice, which is now the Tampa Bay Lightning/Syracuse Crunch side of the ice, we have Mike McKenna. McKenna’s numbers look slightly different from those of Adam Wilcox. In the 26 games McKenna has played in this season, he has gone 9-10-7 with a Goals Against Average of 2.83 and a Save Percentage of .907.
While McKenna definitely has the upper hand when it comes to his Goals Against Average and his Save Percentage, the win/loss column looks very different between these two guardians of the goal. Of course, this could potentially have a little more to do with the team in front of them and not their own personal skills.
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Another major difference between these two is NHL experience. Adam Wilcox has yet to make his NHL debut, while McKenna has quite a few under his belt, including a 15 game run with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2008-09 season. Surprisingly enough, McKenna was one of five goaltenders to take the ice with the Bolts in this particular season.
Whatever the reason for McKenna’s arrival may be, we are sure it is for the betterment of the Tampa Bay Lightning, as well as the Syracuse Crunch, as both of these teams forge their paths to the postseason and hope to build on the adversity of the 2016-17 season to make the 2017-18 season that much better.
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At the same time, we here at Bolts By The Bay would like to wish Adam Wilcox the best of luck as he makes his way to the Lightning’s in-state rivals. We’ll always be rooting for you, well…except when you play the Lightning. (At least we’re honest.)