Hockey Wilderness, SB Nation's Minnesota Wild blog, sent a friendly message to fans of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday morning. According to Tom Jones of the St. Pete Times, former Wild GM Doug Risebrough is "very interested" in the Lightning general manager position, but Tampa fans should be wary.
Be afraid of Risebrough, warns HW.
Trades? You want to talk about trades? I'm having a Jim Mora / Alan Iverson moment here. TRADES?
The man traded for CHRIS SIMON! Chris freaking Simon. He traded away draft picks to move up in the late first round. Because as we all know, when you pick late in a round, the difference in talent between one guy and another is huge, right?
He shipped out vets to bring in prospects? When? When did he one time trade a vet to add a prospect? Stephane Villeaux is an energy guy. He was the original Clutterbuck for the Wild. Sure, you need those guys, but I don't know that they earn the GM high praise for bringing them into the system. Willie Mitchell served his purpose, but he is a defensive defenseman. Dime a dozen, in my opinion.
The only trade he ever made that even made marginal sense was trading for Pavol Demitra, and even that blew up in his face.
Let's imagine, as Jones suggests, what [Risebrough] could do with a team that already has Stamkos, Vinny, and St. Louis on the roster. The imagination leaps at the opportunity. He could trade Vinny to the Habs for Pouliot, or even to the Wild for James Sheppard. St. Louis is a UFA after this coming season, [Risebrough] would certainly let him walk for no return. Stamkos is an RFA after next season, meaning that [Risebrough] could offer him an insulting contract and cause a holdout. The Bolts pick 6th in the upcoming draft. Certainly they can move up at the small price of every draft pick for the next five years.
It takes little imagination to come up with how many different ways this team could suffer at the hands of [Risebrough].
For more of this warning, check out Hockey Wilderness. For more on the situation in Tampa Bay, check out Raw Charge.