Latest according to Adam Proteau (who broke the story yesterday), Shero refuses to facilitate an offer sheet, and thus has refused to trade the pick back to TB... time will tell if he's serious or playing hardball... TB is also looking to acquire Mesz in a trade, but, IMO Murray isn't going to be too receptive... other than the draft picks, they don't have much that would interest us (Lecavalier for Meszaros? heard it here first ) that they'd be willing to give up

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/17692-Multiple-sources-confirm-Meszaros-to-Lightning-deal-in-the-works.html

  moxie, 110%, this makes no sense...
although, with krazy Koules and bonkers Barrie in charge it seems anything could be possible

Tampa has 3mn in cap room according to nhl numbers. They are so top heavy in terms of salaries as well that their only tradeable assets are pretty average players like jussi jokinen and chris gratton (unless they move one of their big ufa signings). Their blueline needs more help than mez can provide anyway.

But these figures are based on them dressing all 17 forwards they have signed. Presumably, some of these guys will play in the minors, and I believe Jeff Halpern will start the year on injured reserve, so that clears the cap space right there, albeit just barely.

I know Tampa has the wacky new unpredictable owners, but this move doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me... they've already got 2 reasonably good young offensive defencemen... seems to me they need guys to play in front of their own net, and, as we all know, Mesz ain't that guy

Let's keep in mind that this will open up some cap space for a possible trade, namely with CHI for Khabibulin and/or Barker/Seabrooke.

Yes, but in every trade rumour I've heard with Chicago, Mesz was supposed to go the other way... so A) his cap hit would be irrelevant and B) we have some bait to get those guys

Although I've been Meszaros' biggest critic the past 2 seasons, and he is most certainly not worth 5 mil, I'd be loathe to let him walk for a possible 30th overall pick...

who knows, maybe playing with Jason Smith, he might start learning the finer points of playing in his own end... at the very least, Smith ought to be able to cover his mistakes better than Redden did... he could be worth 5 mil in a couple of years...

i'm not at all happy with the timing of this... not much time to replace him... I hope Murray gets on the phone with Bryan Burke before making a decision

I would be OK for 3 mill as long as it was long term....Based on this years free agency. It could turn out to be a steal in 3 -4 years.

Sorta like the Phillips and Volchenkov signings are.

I agree. I've been Meszaros' biggest critic the past 2 seasons, ask anyone who lives within 5 blocks of me. I'm sure they hear me screaming at him 20 times every game.

Still, the kid's only 22, he's still got time to shore up his game, and he does have enough skill that if he can get the basics of the game down, he can be a top 2 defenceman. Give him a chance under Hartsburg and next to Smith, maybe he'll lose some of the bad habits and develop some good ones. It's too early to give up on the kid, give him his 3-3.5 mil contract for two years, and if he's still looking like this in 2 years, I'll be the first to cut him loose.

If he's not willing to sign that kind of deal, well it's his own fault... he won't find takers for any more than that

That said, I'd still rather have Seabrook.

back on topic, I thought I'd read that he had come over for the Sens rookie camp this year, and there was some hope of convincing him to come back to North America for this season... anyone else hear this?

I hope he does sign there... it'd be nice to see he and jacques reunited, maybe he'll even rediscover his game with his old coach around

more importantly, I still like Redden, and some of the teams I've heard rumoured interested are teams I can never bring myself to cheer for (i.e. Philly, Toronto), so Florida sounds like a nice compromise

Seems to me that the Sens had their best success when there was a sound defensive system in place, and the offensive skill was used around that framework... isn't that the opposite of tortorella's 'safe is death' mantra...???

I don't like Hartley either... why aren't these rumours mentioning Pat Burns, i'm starting to worry...

I tried last year to dont shave as other players in playoffs...NEVER MORE!!!

there's the one... it seems like everyone else stopped theirs during the skid or long ago, but you stopped after last year's playoffs... simple solution, stop being so selfish and don't shave until july  (only smiley with a beard) 

i've had many superstitions over the years, including drinking 1 beer per period (finishing at the buzzer), wearing the sens logo on gameday ONLY, and not changing the channel during good spells (because channel change means momentum change)... over the last month, I've tried all of these and more (including wearing sens logo on every NOT gameday) and i think i'm over superstition and ready to just say that i have faith they can go far and if they don't, i've done all i can... i'll be wearing my jersey everyday until then... unless i get superstitious again...

i say...

neil-spezza-heatley
stillman-vermette-mcammond
lapointe-robitaille-donovan
schubert-bass-mcgrattan/foligno

redden-phillips
volchenkov-meszaros
commodore-richardson/lee


Our lineup looks pretty crappy so we need to do the best we can. We need to try to establish a 1-2 punch(heat-spezz,verm-still) and compliment them with role players. Hopefully the other 2 lines can just do play to the best of their abilities and chip in the best they can until we get some bodies back.

Vermette and Stillman do have chemistry... Kelly was working well with them until injury

Remember, Binghamton is a longshot for the playoffs, if they lose once or Hershey wins, they're out... (final game is Bing v. Hersh, each has 3 games left)... unfortunately they don't play until friday (BvH is Sun... the AHL sched seems really messed up)

either way, i might say f-them and bring up a potential scorer, i.e. Nikulin or Zubov, and put them on first or second line...

I don't understand the Richardson/Lee thing, I think Lee's earned his place, I'd put it Meszaros/Richardson(/Nycholat)... oh, and here's a novel idea, if things go wrong, what about trying Heater and Spez with others? (Obviously they start together)

heatley-spezza-lapointe
stillman-vermette-nikulin/zubov (futureisnow)
donovan-mcammond-neil
schubert-bass-foligno/mcgrattan

phillips-lee
volchenkov-commodore
redden-meszaros/richardson/nycholat

to be honest, i'm at a loss for defence pairings... i suggest what i do with trepidation... i'm almost more concerned with who's there than who's with who... I've lost confidence in meszaros... richardson is slow, pens are fast... nycholat isn't big but he's quick enough, and i've liked what i've seen of him...

don't get me wrong, i'd love to see binger make the playoffs, but i'd prefer to see Ottawa win, and we may need some of theirs to get us through our injuries