blood gin
Registered User
- Jan 17, 2017
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Esposito addressed that Gratton saga in his book. I think he would admit that the "smudged fax" was basically a hail mary that he didn't expect to come through.
Esposito was in a tough spot at that point in 1997. The franchise was put on sale for a year with no buyers, and thus had next to no financial support from the mystery Japanese group which owned it. Tampa had made the playoffs in 1996 (and missed by 3 points in 1997), so perhaps Esposito's ego/competitiveness thought that he could get them back in 1997-98.
So he made the short sighted decision that he needed some players in return for Gratton rather than just take the draft picks. In the book, Esposito also makes some dubious claims the Flyers owner Ed Snider went over Esposito's head for the Renberg/Dykhuis trade and Esposito was forced to take it. If I recall correctly, Esposito said that the original trade was supposed to include Rod Brind'Amour as well.
Were the Lightning ever owned by the Yakuza?