Andreychuk gets call for HOF
A call that Dave Andreychuk said he waited on for eight years finally became a reality this week when The Hockey Hall of Fame voted to induct Tampa Bay Legend and captain of the 2004 Stanley Cup winning team Dave Andreychuk as part of its 2017 class.
HOFer and legendary coach Scotty Bowman has been pushing for Andreychuk to join the hall since he first became eligible. Andreychuk played his first ten seasons in Buffalo, and began his NHL career under Scotty Bowman. Andreychuk had a breakout second season scoring 38 goals and totaling 80 points.
Andreychuk is 15th in NHL history in goals scored with 640. He also holds the all-time record for the most power play goals with 271.
Andreychuk came to the Lightning before the 02-03 season as a 20 year veteran. His locker room leadership and on-ice presence were most beneficial to the young players. Marty St. Louis, Vincent Lecavalier, and Brad Richards all benefited from Andreychuk's leadership. It safe to say the Lightning would not have won the cup had Andreychuk not been part of that team.
Andreychuk becomes the first of what will hopefully be a few more Lightning players going to the HOF from that 03-04 team.
--NHL free agency opens Friday and the Lightning are still in the market for a top four defenseman. The Lightning have not closed the door on signing Kevin Shattenkirk. As you may recall, Shattenkirk was rumored to be heading to Tampa at the trade deadline with Jonathan Drouin going to St. Louis. The Lightning had a 7 yr, 42 million dollar contract extension waiting for him and Shattenkirk nixed the deal for reasons that remain a mystery. Shattenkirk finished the season in Washington with a Capitals team that lost to the Penquins in seven games.
A couple of other names that have come up in these discussions are Dan Giradi of the New York Rangers and Marco Scandella of the Minnesota Wild. Shattenkirk is obviously the big prize as his offensive numbers are very good for a defensemen. Last season he scored 13 goals and had a total of 56 points. The New York Rangers are also competing for his services. Shattenkirk would look good playing next to Hedman or playing with Jake Dotchin on the second line.
Yzerman has about 23 million in cap space to play with, but will need a lot of that to re-sign Ondrej palat and Tyler Johnson.
--The Lightning re-signed Cory Conacher and Gabriel Dumont to contracts today. Both players agreed to contracts worth 650k.
