Tampa Bay Lightning: Steve Yzerman Remains Steadfast In Drouin Saga

Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman remains steadfast and calm in the wake of the Jonathan Drouin suspension.

There has been a great disturbance in the force here in the Bolts Nation as of late, and it all seems to revolve around one person, and one person alone…Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Jonathan Drouin. By now, most of you are well aware of the bombshell that dropped last night when Jonathan Drouin refused to report to the Syracuse Crunch as they faced the Toronto Marlies.

As you can imagine, this is not acceptable behavior for someone who is under contract with a team until the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. There is a reasonable expectation that the player under contract continue to do their job until the contract comes to an end or said player has been traded to another team. As neither of these situations apply to Jonathan Drouin, Yzerman had no choice but to suspend him indefinitely without pay.

Never one to back away from a controversy or to resist throwing napalm on an already burning blaze, Jonathan Drouin’s agent Allan Walsh released a statement on his client’s behalf stating their side of the story and how they planned to proceed.

Allow us to sum it up for you. It says Jonathan Drouin is not happy with the situation that he’s been presented. Rather than take the ice with his teammates and continue to play as his contract states until a reasonable trade agreement can be found, Drouin has decided that he is not willing to take “the risk” of getting injured and plans to take his skates and go home until Yzerman succumbs to his wishes.

Earlier today, Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman spoke to the media and candidly answered questions about the ongoing drama with Jonathan Drouin and how he planned to move forward in light of Jonathan Drouin’s most recent decision.

We here at Bolts By The Bay certainly have to give Yzerman a ton of credit. We’re not entirely sure we could have been this calm and collected after everything that’s transpired. This is probably the reason why he’s the General Manager and we are not.

The first thing that should be noted is Steve Yzerman is not going to be bullied into rushing into a trade that is not beneficial to the Tampa Bay Lightning. No matter what kind of stunt Drouin and his agent think they can pull to get Yzerman to move any faster, they are going to be sorely disappointed.

When this whole drama began, Yzerman released a statement promising everyone here in the Bolts Nation that his sole intention was to “act in the best interest” of the Tampa Bay Lightning. As Yzerman answered questions from the media, he remained true to his original statement. Yzerman also stated that he currently has no timeline in which a trade should be completed.

One thing that we find particularly interesting about the last statement is that in the statement released last night by Allan Walsh (on Drouin’s behalf,) Walsh stated that “A few days ago, the Tampa Bay Lightning advised that a trade involving Jonathan was moving closer to completion.” According to Yzerman, no such promise had been made at any time to Drouin or his agent.

"“We never said that there’s a pending deal or anything like that,” Yzerman said. “We never said that. “"

There is no denying Steve Yzerman is being cautious in the way he handles this situation. Not only does he have the career of a 20 year old player in his hands, but he has to be cautious of what kind of precedent he sets for other players who may come after Drouin and not give them an opportunity to pull the same stunt as Drouin and his agents have.

If Yzerman allows himself to be bullied by a player, who for the most part has not yet paid any sort of dues in his career or performed to the standard of an NHL player, Yzerman will open the door for any player who doesn’t like his current deal to repeat this course of action. As you can imagine, that would cultivate a toxic atmosphere in the locker room and would hinder and forward progress the Tampa Bay Lightning have made.

The one thing it seems Jonathan Drouin does not understand at this point and time is that as much as he would like to believe otherwise, he is not special. There are plenty of players on the Syracuse Crunch who are quite capable of making their way to the NHL and playing him right out of his position.

Case and point, Jonathan Marchessault. Marchessault has only played five more games on the Lightning’s main roster than Drouin has this season, and Marchessault has brought home six goals and five assists for a total of 11 points. This puts Marchessault four goals ahead of Drouin.

Judging by the comments that have been made by both Drouin and his agents, it seems as if Drouin feels he hasn’t been given a fair chance to succeed by the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’s pretty safe to say there are plenty of players in the locker room right now, both here in Tampa Bay and in Syracuse, who would beg to differ with him. The real problem here is the way in which Drouin has carried himself throughout this ordeal.

There have been plenty of players who at one time or another have been sent from the Tampa Bay Lightning’s main roster down to the Syracuse Crunch. Whether it has been a rehab and conditioning stint after an injury or simply to work out some aspects of their game with more ice time, they have all worked through it and become better players…except Jonathan Drouin.

"“I think if you ask every single player in that locker room, at some point they’ve been frustrated by their situation and they’ve persevered through it,” Yzerman said. “Every player in the league, for that matter. Is there a handful of players in the league at some point that haven’t gone through something and had to persevere, be frustrated, want more ice time, and want this or want that and they stick with it and they play.”“I feel that as an organization in the five and a half years that I’ve been here, Coop’s in his 3rd year now with the team as a coach – 3rd full season – came in late in the lockout year. From Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal to Nikita Nesterov to Andrej Sustr on defense, to Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Cedric Paquette, Vladdy Namestnikov, a lot of young players have come up and spent time in the minors, have been healthy scratches, have been whatever. They’ve come through Norfolk, through Syracuse, through Tampa. I think we’re doing a reasonable job of developing these young players into good players. There’s a group of them on our team now.”“There is not an exact progression for every single player. It’s different. I know Jonathan wanted to play more. He’s stated he’s not happy with how he was used, I understand that. Jon Cooper’s doing a good job, I’d like to think we’re doing a pretty good job of bringing these young kids along, so we’re gonna stick with that plan.”"

Just look at how far some of these aforementioned players have come since following along with Yzerman and Cooper’s guidance and what they’ve come to achieve. Take Vladislav Namestnikov for example. He’s spent more than his fair share of time in Syracuse, and after being brought up to the Lightning’s main roster this season, he’s elevated himself to fourth place on the team in overall points.

In fact, on January 15^th, against the Pittsburgh Penguins of all teams, Namestnikov registered a hat trick. In addition to that, Vladdy’s third goal turned out to be the game winner. If this doesn’t prove a point, we don’t know what will.

Unfortunately, it seems as if Jonathan Drouin has allowed his success with the Halifax Mooseheads to go to his head and develop an abnormally large ego. Unfortunately, Drouin has not found the kind of success in Tampa Bay on the main roster or down in Syracuse that he did in the AHL. He feels he deserves more. This has led him down the path he is on now. The bad news is, he may have damaged his career beyond repair.

Set aside all of the talent he has and what he could potentially become as a player should he actually decide to put in the hard work. If you were a scout for any of the other 29 teams in the National Hockey League, would you really give a shot to someone who stomps their feet and causes a media frenzy when they don’t get what they want? No…you wouldn’t, because it’s bad for business.

Yzerman did say in his press conference today that the door has been left open for Jonathan Drouin to remain on the Tampa Bay Lightning and progress like a normal player, but we here at Bolts By The Bay can’t see any conclusion to this matter where Jonathan Drouin stays with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is not the kind of toxic attitude we need in our locker room, plain and simple.

It is pretty clear fans in and around the Bolts Nation have not heard the last of this seemingly never-ending drama. The truth of the matter is, this is not going to cool down until Yzerman is able to find a team willing to pay a fair price for Drouin’s contract. Unfortunately, as Yzerman said in his press conference, when Drouin made his intentions public, it completely changed the course of the game. There is no telling where it goes from here.

Next: Drouin Continues To Prove What We Suspected All Along

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