[News] Upd: Drouin decides to sit out until trade is completed. Lightning suspend him

[Poe969]

weren't there rumors of Drouin asking for a trade after something happened last year? I thought I even heard it on HNIC that he wanted out from Tampa. It's not like he asked the team Friday and made it public on Monday or something. I think he's wanted out of there for about a year. I'm not saying he's innocent in all of this but even when Cooper says that he has some blame in the situation makes me think that they didn't treat him the best. Who knows though, I'm not going to say that either side is right but I'm not going to say that I think the Flames should stay away from this guy either.

I'm just intrigued to see how this plays out and see what news comes out after it's all done. I'm pretty sure there was all kinds of bad press about Hamilton in Boston too and I'm more than happy to have him on the Flames.

[Poe969]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

After his agent came out and said



Source: http://www.tsn.ca/agent-no-reason-to...tning-1.426194

I hope Yzerman doesn't make a trade until the summer. Or even after the summer. What an entitled little doosh.

Do you know what was said leading up to this or the context of this? Maybe they threatened him and said he was going to rot in the minors and wouldn't get a sniff at the NHL no matter what. It's highly unlikely but maybe they treated him like a POS and him and his agent finally said enough.

[sureLoss]

Chris Nichols @NicholsOnHockey
LeBrun: "They feel that Jon Cooper has never given him a fair chance." Never sat well w/ Drouin from his first pro camp on. #TBLightning

[Split98]

Actually a pretty good read here:
http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/th...trade-request/

I'm sure it came up in the other monster thread, but worth re-iterating here. As much as I'm of the opinion that you work until your hard work affords you a better opportunity, there certainly was some odd and frustrating turns for Drouin. Nothing that other players surely haven't gone through, but his frustration is warranted.

The outcome is not warranted, that does not change. But definitely an interesting read.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Poe969

Do you know what was said leading up to this or the context of this? Maybe they threatened him and said he was going to rot in the minors and wouldn't get a sniff at the NHL no matter what. It's highly unlikely but maybe they treated him like a POS and him and his agent finally said enough.

I would find that incredibly hard to believe. Why would an organization willfully piss away their 3rd overall pick and let him rot in the minors?

Their goal is to get the most out of the player. The player should be smart enough to know this.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

I believe that even with his trade request, the impetus to move him didn't pick up until it became public that he had no intention of re-signing in Calgary.

I may have misremembered the timing, but didn't that come out pretty much at the same time as the trade?

Either way, Sven still kept his head down and did his job with Adirondack. No, he wasn't happy. But he did it. And he got what he wanted in the end anyway.

[Fan in Exile]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

I agree with you that trading him the off-season is not going to get a better return, but I disagree that the sooner Drouin gets moved the better it is for all parties involved. The only party that benefits in my mind is Drouin. I think Drouin's value is as low now as it would be in the off-season. Sitting him would be a good message to future TB prospects that you are going to toe the company line or pay for it.

I don't agree that Drouin won't get a good return for Tampa Bay. And that return will almost certainly help their club in the short term over a disgruntled twenty year old in the minors. Long-term maybe not so much but it's not like they don't have good young talent. They can afford to part with Drouin. I expect it will happen pretty soon and the return won't be too bad at all.

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Bleeding Red

Exactly - Doug Gilmour stomps out on the team and says he will never play for the Flames on Saturday - trade his butt on Sunday and get what you can!!! (even if it is Leeman, who was one year off a 50 goal season. - the rest of that trade was all about money.) Leeman on the ice is better than Gilmour at home pouting and being a distraction.

Nieuendyk holds out for more cash - Hello Jarome Iginla.

Win some / lose some I guess.

I don't think Druin is doing himself any favours, but at some point Yzerman is going to have to do something about his team to put the distraction to bed.

It seems to me as if Yzerman is willing to let Drouin's value tank at this point, in order to send a message. Because no GM in their right mind could ever fool themselves into thinking that Drouin's value will miraculously rise again by the end of the season. So he's willing to bite the bullet in order to... what, teach this punk a lesson? Other than maybe serving as a warning to any other prospective youngsters that enter the organization, I can't see how not dealing him helps out the Lightning in any way possible.

Drouingate is now much more of an issue than Stamkosgate. Does Yzerman seriously want to let this issue fester even longer with the team in win-now mode? As someone said, they're winning now. But the very first time TBL hits a skid, it'll be over their heads like a dark raincloud. If I were SY I'd get this kid out of my club as fast as I could before his value decreased, salvage some assets instead of letting him stay in my org for one second longer.

Just a brain-dead decision from Stevie Y. His stupid old-school "coach is the end all be all" mentality along with Cooper's treatment of his players is costing him two of his biggest offensive tools, a franchise player and a top 3 prospect. If this inepitude from him continues - if Stamkos walks for nothing and Drouin is traded for magic beans, I expect both Cooper and Yzerman to be looking for new employment.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Why would you want a player on your team that doesn't want to be there?

Obviously not, I would just be very disappointed. If this becomes a regular and acceptable trend, markets like Calgary could be in a lot of trouble. I think I'm beginning to understand why the Flames rank character so high on the list of things they're looking for in young players. 50% of it is probably trying to avoid situations like this.

Whatever happened to idea of paying your dues and being resilient in the face of adversity?

[Split98]

Does this really affect the teams performance though?

He's a kid that has made little impact on the team in the NHL, and is disgruntled in the AHL. I doubt their day-to-day is affected much more than ours is. To them, it's an interesting story.

[Poe969]

This doesn't affect the Tampa team...unless they start to lose. Maybe the owners start to think that if they traded Drouin for a little help, they'd make a bigger push for the playoffs. Drouin is an asset that isn't playing and they can trade him for help right now and improve their team. I'd think a team in the thick of things is more likely to make a move to help them now instead of "sticking to their guns"

[Gaskal]

Originally Posted by Split98

Does this really affect the teams performance though?

He's a kid that has made little impact on the team in the NHL, and is disgruntled in the AHL. I doubt their day-to-day is affected much more than ours is. To them, it's an interesting story.

When they're doing well, it shouldn't. I imagine they're deflecting any questions from the media with the the usual "Oh, well we gotta find ways to keep winning and we're doing that", end topic. They're riding a big win streak right now and that's a big pressure dampener.

But the moment that the Lightning stumble, or have a really bad blowout loss - especially after a Drouingate update, you bet the media will be all over it "Can you comment on Drouin doing this and that", etc etc. That would get annoying really quickly especially in the context of a losing streak.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by Bleeding Red

Exactly - Doug Gilmour stomps out on the team and says he will never play for the Flames on Saturday - trade his butt on Sunday and get what you can!!! (even if it is Leeman, who was one year off a 50 goal season. - the rest of that trade was all about money.) Leeman on the ice is better than Gilmour at home pouting and being a distraction.

Nieuendyk holds out for more cash - Hello Jarome Iginla.

Win some / lose some I guess.

I don't think Druin is doing himself any favours, but at some point Yzerman is going to have to do something about his team to put the distraction to bed.

You can't possibly be serious.

The Gilmour incident completely threw this franchise off. What was at one time a team that should have been a perennial Stanley Cup candidate slowly began diminishing the minute that trade was made. I never forgave Gilmour for doing that. Simply "getting what you can" usually means you don't get much, and definitely nowhere near the value of the player. Leeman on the ice is nowhere near the value of Gilmour, even if you have to temporarily suspend him in order to get the right trade. It was just ugly all around, and while I don't advocate keeping a guy on the team who doesn't want to be there, it becomes so much worse when the guy decides he's more important than the 20-some other guys and simply walks out on them.

What Gilmour did was petty and childish. What Nieuwendyk did was look for fair market value, and the Flames simply couldn't afford to pay it going forward with the way the economics were for the Flames at the time. They are not really comparable IMO.

Quite frankly, what Drouin is doing is pretty hard to defend. Not everyone deserves to play in the NHL, and he should realize that he needs to earn it, not have it be handed to him.

[Split98]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

When they're doing well, it shouldn't. I imagine they're deflecting any questions from the media with the the usual "Oh, well we gotta find ways to keep winning and we're doing that", end topic. They're riding a big win streak right now and that's a big pressure dampener.

But the moment that the Lightning stumble, or have a really bad blowout loss - especially after a Drouingate update, you bet the media will be all over it "Can you comment on Drouin doing this and that", etc etc. That would get annoying really quickly especially in the context of a losing streak.

I can see that. So not really Drouin himself, as I can't see anyone on the team caring too much about his feelings.

But the media? Yeah, I can see that being a distraction now.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Chris Nichols @NicholsOnHockey
LeBrun: "They feel that Jon Cooper has never given him a fair chance." Never sat well w/ Drouin from his first pro camp on. #TBLightning

And there's the rub.

Aw the coach never gave me a fair chance as a rookie. Yet instead of proving the coach wrong, he proves the coach right over the next 2 seasons by not producing, and then whining and taking his ball and going home.

there are players that cry that they never get a chance, or the coach hates them or whatever, and then there are players that get pissed about it and earn their spot and prove that coach wrong.


I guess with Drouin It should be given and never earned.

The above quoted comment is going to resonate with a lot of GM's looking at this kid. If they bring him in and he's not ready is he going to bristle at being sent to the minors to work on his game?

[CroFlames]

Drouin needs to look no further than his own teammate Tyler Johnson. Nothing was given to that young man, yet he proved everyone wrong.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

And there's the rub.

Aw the coach never gave me a fair chance as a rookie. Yet instead of proving the coach wrong, he proves the coach right over the next 2 seasons by not producing, and then whining and taking his ball and going home.

there are players that cry that they never get a chance, or the coach hates them or whatever, and then there are players that get pissed about it and earn their spot and prove that coach wrong.


I guess with Drouin It should be given and never earned.

The above quoted comment is going to resonate with a lot of GM's looking at this kid. If they bring him in and he's not ready is he going to bristle at being sent to the minors to work on his game?

Here's even more evidence to back Jon Cooper: They win more without Drouin in the lineup or playing a significant role. They were one of the top teams last year when Drouin had essentially 3rd line duties. This year they struggled most of the year, but a soon as they sent Drouin down they started playing well again and have gone on quite a run.

If I'm management, I talk to Cooper to find out why Drouin feels the way he does and maybe work to avoid these situations in the future, but other than that, I'm backing my coach 100%. Team results are more important than how a single individual is handled.

[SuperMatt18]

And does Drouin really have a leg to stand on when you look at that roster and all the young talent they introduced the last couple years. It's not like they are favoring old player over young talent.

Guys like Palat, Johnson, Kucherov, Killorn, Namestikonov etc are all young guys under 25 that worked their way into the lineup, earned their ice time, and have proven to be better players than Drouin at this point.

Drouin was given opportunities to play top 6 with Stamkos, and it has always turned out that the team was better when he didn't play that role. (His top 2 linemates for TOI are Stamkos and Callahan)

He can look at it like the coach was holding him back, but the results show that he never truly earned it, and it didn't work when they tried it.

[Bleeding Red]

I think a key factor in the Drouin saga is that if he plays 2 more NHL games he is eligible to become UFA a year earlier. More control to the franchise.

(not to rehash the Glimour trade, but I think that when comparing hockey players they both have to be actually playing. You could say that Drouin is a great hockey player, but right now the fourth line guy for the Crunch is a better hockey player then Drouin by merely skating around the rink.)

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

It's interesting that in player - owner disputes, be it player versus team or NHLPA versus NHL, there is a slight tip in opinion towards favouring the owners and questioning the dedication / attitude of the players.

The NHL acts as a cartel and players such as Drouin have very few rights. I think he should be free to do whatever he thinks is necessary to maximize his short career. He asked for a trade, which is not illegal. He's now trying to protect the vehicle for his success, his health, and seems to be accepting the consequence of his actions and has kept his mouth shut.

I don't see a whiner; I see a guy challenging the system. I'm reading more whining from those who ask him to submit to a system that severely limits his rights as an employee.