Free washer | Acquisition of Andrei Vasilevskiy: a big thank you to the Wings!

With each save of Andrei Vasilevskiy, imperial in the second round against the Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning can thank the Detroit Red Wings. How did the Lightning get their hands on the best goaltender in the world?

Mathias Brunet
The Press

Despite a surprising place among the four aces under the impetus of coach Guy Boucher in 2011, Tampa still considers itself in reconstruction the following season, at least considering it crucial to amass assets in order to improve long-term team.

The Lightning will miss the playoffs in 2011-12 and several players are on the market before the trade deadline, including Dominic Moore, Pavel Kubina and Steve Downie.

The top two will earn second-round picks. Avalanche general manager at the time, Greg Sherman, is interested in Downie who, at 24, is coming off a season of 28 points in 55 games in addition to a lot of checks and punches .

Lightning GM Steve Yzerman is keen on getting a first-round pick for Downie, but Sherman no longer has his in 2012, having traded him to the Washington Capitals a year earlier for goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

But Yzerman got wind of his former Red Wings colleague Ken Holland’s interest in Avalanche defenseman Kyle Quincey, drafted by Detroit in 2003 but lost on waivers in 2008.

Quincey, now 26, had had time to develop and already had 23 points in 54 games on the clock with the Avalanche, in addition to playing an average of more than 22 minutes per game.

Once the deal between the Lightning and the Avalanche was complete, Yzerman called Holland back to tell him the news and offer him Quincey.

Holland wanted to add muscle on defense heading into the playoffs and sacrificed his first-round pick, 19^e in total, to get Quincey. Detroit lost in the first round to Nashville that year, but was able to retain Quincey for four more seasons. But Quincey never rose above fringe defenseman status in Detroit.

The Lightning had their own first-round pick, 10^e rank, and that of the Red Wings at 19^e. On the eve of the draft, Vasilevskiy had been targeted by Tampa scouts, led by Al Murray.

Still, Peterborough Petes defenseman Slater Koekkoek was selected, 18 points in 26 games in the Ontario Junior League tenth. Koekkoek was never able to establish himself as an NHL regular.

“They (the Lightning scouts) were convinced that Vasilevskiy would still be available at 19^e rank”, confided to us Tuesday evening a source close to the file.

Vasilevskiy was even ranked ahead of Koekkoek on the Lightning list, and among the top of the class in this vintage including Nail Yakupov, Alex Galchenyuk, Morgan Rielly and Filip Forsberg, among others.

After going through the exercise of guessing the picks of the 17 other teams to choose from, using an internal mock draft concocted by Tampa scouts, it was concluded that no club would be interested in a Russian goaltender before the 19^e rang.

The Lightning and Vasilevskiy are now eight wins away from winning a third straight Stanley Cup, the first since the New York Islanders in 1982

Evander Kane: a profitable acquisition!

Many rolled their eyes when Oilers GM Ken Holland acquired controversial forward Evander Kane in January. And we can understand the reaction. Kane had cheated to evade COVID protocol in the American League. His addiction to gambling is known, Kane even declared bankruptcy this year when he was rich with a contract of 49 million. The San Jose Sharks didn’t end their deal with him for nothing.

But Kane may have figured out that the Oilers could be his last chance to play NHL hockey. He scored two more goals Tuesday night in a 5-3 win to give Edmonton a three-game series lead against the Calgary Flames. It was his fifth goal in the last two games, his twelfth in eleven games since the start of the playoffs. He now finds himself seven goals from the record held by Reggie Leach and Jarri Kurri. The presence of Connor McDavid, now 25 points in just 11 games, obviously doesn’t hurt…