The Flyers Are “Pushing Hard” for Jonathan Drouin

Jonathan Drouin is currently embroiled in a bit of a controversy with his current team, the Tampa Bay Lightning. The 20-year-old isn’t happy with his role and reportedly has been at odds with the Lightning head coach, John Cooper. Drouin was demoted to the American Hockey League, and he was suspended for not showing up to a game on January 20th.

But, all of that baggage isn’t stopping Ron Hextall from “pushing hard” to acquire the star, though, the Flyers might not want to part ways with some of the talent that will be necessary to get him.

https://twitter.com/DStrehleTFP/status/702953233531150337

Lightning general manager, Steve Yzerman, isn’t in any rush to deal Drouin. But he also is in a rush to find a deal that makes his team better. So he’s asking for a lot.

We’re close to the trade deadline, we’re trying to make the playoffs, if I can trade him and put a player on my team and make us better, isn’t that common sense?” Yzerman said over the phone I’m not going to wait just to wait, but I’m not going to trade him just to trade him. If there’s something in the next four to five days that helps us now, sure, that would be my preference.”
 
But — and there’s always a but — Yzerman will not settle just for the sake of settling. He maintains that he’s only going to trade Drouin, 20, if the deal meets the standard Yzerman has set for trading Drouin. …
 
“I’ve been talking to teams for months, every team knows what I’m looking for, I know what they’re willing to do,” Yzerman said.
 
By now, nobody should question Yzerman’s patience in the matter. Drouin’s trade request went public Jan. 3, and while some people wondered if that might pressure the Tampa Bay GM into a quick trade, guess again.

Yzerman needs to make the best decision for his hockey club, and trading Drouin would definitely net him some premiere talent. It’s just a matter of Yzerman wanting a little too much that other teams might not exactly want to deal away. Then, it becomes an issue of Yzerman keeping a young stud out of the league and damaging his own reputation as general manager for future players. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, but if you see a Drouin on the ice in orange and black soon enough, you better realize that we likely purged some of our best defensive prospects in order to get him.

H/T to Broad Street Hockey