The Tampa Bay Lightning make their first move heading into the NHL Trade Deadline by acquiring right wing Stefan Fournier from the Arizona Coyotes.
The Tampa Bay Lightning has been relatively quiet when it comes to trades heading into the 2017 NHL Trade Deadline. There have been plenty of rumors making their way around the Bolts Nation, combined with a couple of potential real deals in the making, but nothing has come full circle…at least until now.
Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman announced this evening via a press release on the Lightning’s official site the organization has acquired right wing Stefan Fournier from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Bolts prospect Jeremy Morin.
While the Tampa Bay Lightning are still fighting tooth and nail for a spot in the postseason, the Syracuse Crunch finds themselves in a much brighter position. Right now, the Crunch is in first place in the North Division, having gone 27-17-5-5 this season, acquiring a total of 64 points thus far.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Lightning prospect Jeremy Morin, who is now a member of the Arizona Coyotes organization, was signed by the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 1st as a Free Agent, just as the off-season kicked into high gear. Since then, he has been playing with the Lightning’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
Morin has been having a pretty decent season with the Crunch. The 25-year-old Auburn native has played in around 43 games with the Crunch this season. In this amount of time, he has managed to bring home nine goals and 12 assists for a total of 21 points.
On the other side of the ice, Stefan Fournier has spent most of this season with the Tucson Roadrunners, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Arizona Coyotes. The 24-year-old Quebec native has played in a total of 29 games thus far for the Roadrunners, in which he has scored two goals and two assists for a total of four points.
While Fournier’s assets may not necessarily translate to the scoresheet as players like Cory Conacher and Matt Taormina do, he still provides a very necessary function for the team. He is what one could easily consider the J.T. Brown or Cedric Paquette of the team. He provides a certain amount of grit needed to keep a team’s opponents in check.
As you can see in the video below from YouTube user hockeyfightsplus, Fournier is never one to back away from a good fight and has no issues in dropping the gloves and getting down to business.
Unfortunately for the Crunch, the insane amount of injuries the Lightning has been forced to deal with this season has kind of wreaked havoc on the Crunch’s lineup. The Bolts have constantly been in need of forwards, which has led to many players making the trip from Syracuse.
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It’ll definitely be nice for the Crunch to get someone in their lineup reminiscent of a Gabriel Dumont back in their lineup as they make their way towards the postseason. Hopefully, it won’t take much time for Fournier to get adjusted to his new team and surroundings and he can be a real part of the Crunch’s current playoff push.