Lightning want Fabbri, not Shattenkirk

The Tampa Bay Lightning have stopped talking about Kevin Shattenkirk, but not they want a different Blues player for Jonathan Drouin—most of us don't want to see this rookie go.

Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
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The Tampa Bay Lightning's GM—Steve Yzerman—wants a “young for young” deal. This is why Robby Fabbri's name is being brought up in trade conversatoins.

The Lightning need to save every dollar they have in order to resign the almighty Steven Stamkos, but they also  have several other expensive players whose contracts expire in the next couple of seasons.

Kevin Shattenkirk isn't the "young for young" player they had in mind, but he is getting calls now that his name is showing up after the Ryan Johansen trade.

"Drouin is producing at an insane rate relative to his usage. Gets more points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 than Steven Stamkos but is playing as much as Cedric Paquette. There is an inherent disconnect there, and it's not as though he's getting badly out-possessed or anything like that. Yeah, the goals number is really troubling but — and this is going to shock you — is 3.8 percent. How many more games do you think a guy with his talent level shoots 3.8 percent?

Frankly, these numbers, and plenty of others suggest that Drouin deserves a larger role than "being assigned to the AHL" Just as a frame of reference, the average NHL player with 2.0 points per 60 minutes is typically going to be on your first line; that's a forward getting about 13.5 minutes a night for about 75 games, and scoring 35 or more points at 5-on-5.

It should therefore not shock you even a little bit to learn that 31 of Drouin's 40 career points have come at 5-on-5. And given how he's used in those situations, it should further come as no surprise that Drouin isn't exactly pulling a lot of power play time. He's eight among Tampa forwards in PP minutes per game over the last two seasons. He gets almost 50 seconds per night fewer than Ryan freakin' Callahan. The mind boggles."--Ryan Lambert

Here's what Saturday Headlines had to say:

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P.J. Cox
​@pjcoxx