TAMPA PUTS ANOTHER CUP IN ITS SIGHTS
Lightning outfoxes NHL rivals by nabbing blueliner Savard from the Blue Jackets
Florida is the worst, am TORONTO
I right?
I don't say this just because the state has spent the past year pretending COVID -19 doesn't exist, with overcrowded beaches and bars. Or because governor Ron Desantis has reportedly given vaccination priority to the “whitest and richest” areas.
Forget about the spring breakers and the anti-maskers and the Donald Trump supporters. Forget about whatever goes on in the warped presidential playground of Mar-a-lago.
Forget about politics, in general.
Florida is the worst because all of its sports teams have suddenly become the best — particularly those playing in the tax-skirting and cap-circumventing city of Tampa.
Move over, Boston. Its reign as the sports city you love to hate is over. From the Rays reaching the World Series to the Lightning winning the Stanley Cup and Tom Brady's Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl, the path to all championships in the past year have been lined with palm trees and maskless fans.
Now that Tampa Bay has acquired David Savard, don't expect that to change anytime soon. While the rest of the NHL heads into today's trade deadline sweating the salary cap and reaching deep into the couch cushions for any bit of loose change required to acquire a 13th forward, the Lightning casually pulled off a three-team trade on Saturday for the most sought-after defenceman on the market.
And they did it by hoodwinking Columbus into retaining 50 per cent of Savard's contract and Detroit into retaining 25 per cent, leaving Tampa Bay on the hook for US$1.062 million of Savard's $4.25 million.
Call it cap circumvention, if you want. But Tampa Bay, which has been a haven for players wanting to take advantage of relaxed state tax laws, just found a way to add a top-pairing defenceman for $62,000 more than the Toronto Maple Leafs are paying Zach Bogosian.
And they didn't have to give up a single roster player in the process.
“The reality is I didn't expect us to be able to pull this off, truth be told,” GM Julien Brisebois, who gave up a first- and a fourth-round pick, as well as a third-rounder in 2022, said on Saturday. “I know we'll be a harder out because David Savard is in our uniform.”
As if Tampa Bay wasn't a hard enough out already.
This is, after all, the team that had the best record in the NHL two years ago and that won a Stanley Cup last year. On Sunday, the Lightning were tied with the Hurricanes for the Central Division lead. They have the best defenceman in the league, the best goalie in the league and an offence that has scored the second-most goals in the league, all without Nikita Kucherov having to dress in a single game this year.
To that championship-calibre roster, the Lightning just added Savard, a six-foot-two and 233-pound shot-blocking specialist who will pair with Victor Hedman on what is arguably the NHL'S biggest and deepest defence.
Savard, who has scored one goal in the past two seasons, isn't going to wow you with his offence. But when he's on the ice, the other team's offence tends to dry up. He matched up against Auston Matthews in last year's playoffs. And now that he's being paired with Hedman, with Ryan Mcdonagh and Mikhail Sergachev slotted behind them, scoring goals against Tampa Bay just got a lot harder — especially with Vézina Trophy favourite Andrei Vasilevskiy in net.
You have to appreciate the degree to which Tampa Bay is gaming the system and going for it again. A year ago, they gave up a pair of first-round draft picks for Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. This year, despite being up against the cap, they found a way to steal Savard away from the possible clutches of Winnipeg, Toronto and any other contender looking to upgrade its defence.
Oh, and when the playoffs begin, Kucherov is expected to be fully healed after hip surgery in December. Talk about great timing.
“I fully expect that he'll be able to contribute come playoff time and hopefully add a little oomph to our team,” Brisebois said last month of Kucherov, whose $9.5-million salary hit hasn't counted against the cap. “I don't know there is anything that any team can do at the deadline that would be as impactful as adding Nikita Kucherov to our group.”
This is how you win the trade deadline. This is how you position yourself as a favourite to win back-to-back championships.
“And some people wonder why some teams win and some teams don't,” tweeted former NHLER Mike Richards. “Smart move by Tampa.”
Indeed, the question isn't why the NHL allowed the Lightning to perform such financial gymnastics to get Savard. It's why other teams are not doing the same.
Why didn't Toronto or Winnipeg do this? Why did Montreal give up a fifth-round pick and a prospect for Jon Merrill when they could have had Savard? Why is Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland telling everyone that they don't have the cap space to add players of significance?
Are other teams simply not creative enough? Or, like Florida's state laws regarding mask usage, did some GMS draw a line in the sand on what is and isn't appropriate under the rules?
For some, it's yet another reason to hate on Tampa Bay and what they're getting away with. And yet, how many fans of other teams wish their GM acted as ruthlessly?
It's a question for another day, perhaps when Lightning are hoisting another Stanley Cup.