from Martin Fennelly of the Tampa Bay Times,
Everything he touches seems to turn to gold, and we don’t just mean those two Olympic medals Canada won when Stevie Y ran things.
Take Jo Drouin. Please. Puck’s bad boy, a precocious talent, went to the brink with Yzerman. Drouin wanted to go back to Montreal, his hometown. Yzerman eventually made the deal. In return, the Lightning picked up 19-year-old Mikhail Sergachev. Drouin and the Habs are struggling. Sergachev has more goals than Drouin and more points than anyone on Montreal. He looks like a generational offensive defenseman. Only Yzerman could deal a guy to where he wants to go and still make a killing. Classic Stevie Y.
"You try to make decisions," Yzerman said. "I rely heavily on our scouting staff on all the decisions we make. We were looking for an offensive defenseman, a puck-moving defenseman. Those players are hard to find. We gave up a good young forward to get what we thought was going to be a good young defenseman. We watched (Sergachev) in junior and felt like he was going to be a good pro player. And he is."
This is the same Yzerman who replaced Ben Bishop, the best goaltender in Lightning history, with Andre Vasilevskiy … the best goaltender in Lightning history, league leader in wins. This is the same Yzerman who turned what could have been an offseason tempest into the summer of love. Like the signing of Nikita Kucherov in 2016 to a three-year, team-friendly deal. Kucherov, in turn, has been astounding this season. The 24-year-old leads the NHL in goals and points. He looks like the league MVP to me.
Create an Account
In order to leave a comment, please create an account.