Steve Yzerman Will Act ‘In The Best Interest’ Of Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman will act “in the best interest” of the Lightning regarding the Jonathan Drouin situation.

It seems as if there is quite a bit of disturbance in the force here in the Bolts Nation today. Just as the Tampa Bay Lightning start to overcome the near unbearable injury situation they were forced to deal with this season, a whole new series of issues has been dropped squarely in the lap of Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman.

As most of you know by now, Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Jonathan Drouin was assigned to the Tampa Bay Lightning’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, on Saturday afternoon as the Lightning prepared to finish off their six-game home stand against the Minnesota Wild.

While Yzerman stated Drouin understood the reasoning for his assignment to Syracuse, it seems as if Drouin didn’t take the news quite as well as some people initially thought. This information was all but confirmed earlier today when Jonathan Drouin’s agent Allan Walsh decided to issue a statement declaring Jonathan Drouin had requested a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning back in November.

It seems rather curious Drouin and his team would wait until now to release this information to the public. It was obviously originally intended to be a closed door meeting between the two sides, but now that Drouin is not pleased with his assignment, despite having valid reasoning or not, the Drouin camp has decided to go public with the information.

Could this be a ploy by Drouin’s agent to gain some sort of leverage over Steve Yzerman by swaying public opinion in his client’s favor? If this is the case, it is most certainly not working towards his advantage. In fact, it’s pretty safe to say it’s backfired all around.

The Tampa Bay Lightning spent most of their day on a plane on the way to Calgary to take on the Calgary Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Tuesday night, kicking off a four-game road trip for the Lightning. Thanks to this, Yzerman has not had an opportunity to adequately respond to the situation at hand.

Now that the team has safely landed in Calgary, the Lightning’s General Manager finally has something to say about the information leaked to the media today by Jonathan Drouin’s agent Allan Walsh. Yzerman’s statement comes courtesy of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s official site.

"“We acknowledge, via communication from his agent, Jonathan Drouin’s request to be traded. Moving forward, my sole intention is to act in the best interest of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club. In the meantime, Jonathan has been assigned to our American Hockey League affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, and we expect him to report for practice with the rest of his teammates this Tuesday morning.”"

While this is a very simple statement from the Lightning’s General Manager, it is also a firm one. Yzerman concluded his statement with “we expect him to report for practice with the rest of his teammates this Tuesday morning.” Basically what Yzerman is saying here is, you have a job to do, and we expect you to continue to do it.

It is certainly understandable that Jonathan Drouin is not entirely pleased with the situation. No one likes it when their boss tells them they are not performing up to standards and the player (or employee) ultimately gets demoted to a lower position. At the same time, on top of being one of the best sports in the world, the National Hockey League is also a business. In any business, the main goal is to succeed; or in this case, to win games.

The responsibility of ensuring the Tampa Bay Lightning continues to succeed and makes their way through the regular season and finds themselves in a favorable position when said time comes lies squarely on the shoulders of people like Steve Yzerman and Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper.

The previously stated responsibility makes Yzerman’s opening comments so important. “Moving forward, my sole intention is to act in the best interest of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey club.” As has been said many times before, it’s not about the name on the back of the sweater, it’s about the name on the front. Yzerman’s sole loyalties lie with the Tampa Bay Lightning and its best interests.

If Jonathan Drouin reports to the Syracuse Crunch as expected, continues to work on his game, and can prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he belongs here in Tampa Bay, then he will more than likely find his way back to the main roster sooner rather than later; however, if he fails to perform and does not prove himself to be a valuable asset to the team, this story may have a very different ending.

The truth of the matter is that Jonathan Drouin’s destiny is in his own hands. If he gets the job done, then he’ll be rewarded. If not, well…as we said, this story will have a much different ending; especially with the trade deadline looming in the near future.

Whether or not Drouin’s agent used this as a veiled attack on the Tampa Bay Lightning, or whether he is simply doing what he feels is in the best interest of his client, there is one thing that remains a guarantee. Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman will not be bullied into making any sort of a rash decision, and when he is ready to make said decision, a decision will be made.

What does this mean for the future of Jonathan Drouin? Furthermore, what does this mean for the future of the Tampa Bay Lightning? We’ll have to wait and see how this situation plays out over the course of the next few weeks. The one thing we know for sure is, despite the outcome, it will be in the best interest of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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