Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Lightning to buy out Vinny Prospal

Since the Coyotes have already taken 1 bad contract off of the Lightning, ahem Vrbata, the Lightning were not able to move Prospal to another sucker team and has instead offered to buy out his contract. Prospal has 24 hours to accept the buy out and become a UFA or be put on waivers and see if he is claimed by another team. The cap hit to the Lightning will be 1.67 over the next 6 years.

I'm not thrilled about paying for players that don't actually play, but it looks like the Lightning office is trying to get rid of their bad contracts, definately a step in the right direction. I know that Prospal can have his good years...but he had a terrible year last year, and he's a journeyman that really has not shown consistency from year to year. This has been his 3rd time that he signed with the Lightning after all.

Does this mean that the Lightning are trying to free up cap space for Tanguay? We'll have to see what Lawton tries to do, but I wouldn't be surprised if we sign a few more defencemen, I believe we have like 8 or something...we need a good 10 more to last through the year.

2 comments:

  1. I wonder how hard Lawton really tried to trade Prospal. His agent said he was never even approached to waive his no-trade clause; which means they were never close to a deal or didnt even try.

    Im really shocked they didnt move him for ANYTHING. They could have traded him for a late round draft pick... anything. But now, he'll be showing up on the cap for the next 6 years. If they were insistent on getting rid of him before the season started, then I'd do whatever it takes to swing a trade before I even considered a buyout. Even throw in a mid-level prospect. If you dont agree, just remember... he'll still be hitting the cap in the 2015-2016 season. Thats a looooong time.

    At the end of the day, did the ownership just want to save a few bucks? If they dont sign another player with the extra money (like a desperately needed top6 forward), then its nothing more than a cost cutting move.

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  2. I don't see any team taking on his contract right after the terrible year he just had, not even for a bag of pucks. I also don't think Lawton cares what happens in 2015, most likely he won't be the GM there any more.

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