Follow @johnpgove

Although they were winners of their last game, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been experiencing a 2016017 regular season to forget. Once favorites to win the Stanley Cup, the Bolts find themselves at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Mathematically speaking, the team still has a shot of making the postseason. However, the reality of that actually happening is quite small. It would benefit the organization to begin looking through the lens of "sellers" as the trade deadline approaches, in hopes of a better 2017-18 season.

One name, Ben Bishop, has ruled the trade waves in regards to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Still, there are other players on this roster that Steve Yzerman could consider shopping around. One of those players is most likely Tyler Johnson.

Johnson is in his fifth year with the Lightning and is set to become a restricted free agent this summer. Although his production has proven to be inconsistent throughout his career, Johnson is still a valuable piece to this team.

In a perfect world, the Bolts would love to hold onto him. However, the front office has some big decisions to make this offseason with not a lot of cap space to work with. Johnson is not the only player set to become an RFA. Both Jonathan Drouin and Ondrej Palat will be RFA's as well which puts the Lightning in a bit of a pickle.

The likelihood of Yzerman being able to bring back all three of these gentlemen is small, to say the least. Drouin will be the one on the top of the list to re-sign and I believe that Johnson is the most tradeable. He is a valuable second or third line center that teams in need of depth at that position would love to have.

The Lightning will at least test the waters to see what kind of return they can get for Johnson. I do not think that they will just trade him away because they know it will be difficult to re-sign him this summer. However, if they can fill a more pressing need, such as a top-four defenseman, by dealing him, I'm sure Tampa Bay will take advantage of that opportunity.

Join the Discussion: » 296 Comments » Post New Comment

» A realistic approach to following Calgary's upcoming prospect camp

» Flames stuck in neutral as season draws closer

» What about goaltending?

» Should we be concerned about the defense?

» Premature "Hot Seat" Talk