from Sean McIndoe at Sportsnet,

Tomorrow marks the start of February. More importantly for hockey fans, it also marks four weeks until the trade deadline. With more teams than ever hanging around the playoff race, we could be in for a wild month.

Or maybe not. This is the NHL, after all, where most of the league’s GMs have proven very adept at coming up with reasons to stand pat. You can already hear the well-worn excuses being dusted off — the cap makes trading too hard, the market wasn’t quite right, we just couldn’t find the right deal. Most of these guys will probably figure out a way to tinker here and there and then call it a day.

And for some teams, that will make sense. Others, not so much. So this week, we’re going through the league team-by-team to figure out which GMs are under the most pressure over the next four weeks. Yesterday, we covered the Western Conference. Today, it’s onto the East....

Steve Yzerman, Tampa Bay Lightning

What the heck is happening in Tampa? It wasn't that long ago that the Lightning looked like the best young team in the league, and once Yzerman was able to get Steven Stamkos back in the fold, there were plenty of fans figuring it was a question of if, not when, the Stanley Cup would return to Tampa.

Instead, the team is dangerously close to last place in the East, and at serious risk of missing the playoffs altogether. With a looming cap crunch on the way, Yzerman is watching what seemed like one of his team's best chances at a championship slip away.

So what can he do about it? He doesn't exactly have a track record of making major deals (with the exception of the Martin St. Louis trade, which was forced on him), and he didn't do anything at all at last year's deadline. But it will be tough to stand pat, given the talent on this team right now. Windows only stay open for so long, and this core can't stay together forever. Their time is now... or at least, it was supposed to be.

Even if Yzerman does decide to take a knee, he still needs to deal with the Ben Bishop situation. So one way or another, he has his work cut out for him.

Pressure rating: 9/10

the rest of the Eastern Conference GMs...