The Jonathan Drouin situation has certainly heated up. Drouin has been indefinitely suspended by Tampa Bay without pay. This is in response to Drouin pulling himself from the Syracuse Crunch lineup citing injury risk as the reason.
Drouin's agent Allan Walsh had this to say:
Allan Walsh statement on Jonathan Drouin pic.twitter.com/mBA4txQIJN
— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) January 21, 2016
There are going to be a lot of opinionated takes on this situation.
Here are some facts:
Jonathan Drouin quietly asked for a trade months ago. It was so quiet that nobody had any clue about it until Allan Walsh leaked that information just recently. This is an important part of the dilemma to remember as people attempt to bash Drouin's character.
Restricted free agents in the NHL have very minimal leverage by design. They can't pick the team that drafts them and if unhappy the only way out is to ask for a trade and then potentially force one if the under the radar request isn't executed. Drouin is not happy and has taken pretty much the only path he can to try and go elsewhere.
We discussed the idea of eliminating the NHL draft and restricted free agency back in March on the Hockey Hurts Podcast (Even includes yours truly joking about the Oilers winning the draft lottery for Connor McDavid). You can find that podcast here
By the time an NHL forward is allowed to hit unrestricted free agency his prime is about over (age 26).
Jonathan Drouin is an NHL caliber player. He has a career points per 60 of 1.88 at even-strength. He has a Score-Adjusted Fenwick of 54.8% and relative to his Tampa Bay teammates that is +1.67%. Considering that Tampa is one of the better teams in the league that is impressive for a young player. One might argue a player like that is worthy of being drafted high.
Steve Yzerman and the Tampa Bay Lightning technically don't have to do anything about the Drouin situation right now. They could just let him rot for a while, but I fail to see how that helps the organization.
McKenzie: Drouin "trying to put some leverage on the #TBLightning to trade him, by making himself, effectively, a diminishing asset."
— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) January 21, 2016
Drouin is a player with value which can be traded for useful player(s) to help Tampa Bay win games now. Tampa Bay is in what many consider a Stanley Cup window (barring a poor resolution to the Stamkos situation). Sitting on Drouin for a long time won't help Tampa Bay. It is a general manager's job to make moves that help the team compete at the highest level. Jonathan Drouin is not going to help the Lightning on the ice at this point. The quicker a resolution to this situation can be found the better it is for both parties.
Steve Yzerman has had to deal with some delicate situations which involve some of his more prominent players lately. He traded away Martin St. Louis in 2014 and that resulted in Tampa Bay signing one of their worst contracts with Ryan Callahan's six year 34.8M deal.
It remains to be seen what will happen on the Stamkos and Drouin front but if Yzerman isn't careful he may find himself messing up what was once looking like the most promising situation in all the NHL.
All eyes will be on Yzerman and Tampa Bay as he tries to navigate through this sticky situation.
Thanks for reading!