It's a super weird situation to me.
Tampa had a top 5 pick in Drouin who openly and obviously wanted out. He refused to play. Tampa stuck on him, made him play to raise his value and them dumped him. With Ingram, they've banished him to the ECHL bench, all the while no one from any camp is saying anything. You'd think once it got to this point, the agent would come out and make a statement on behalf of his player saying he wanted out or something.
Some quotes and info (ht to
@TampaJay) for collecting these.
Ingram: “We have bosses for a reason. It doesn’t matter what my point of view is, it’s what their point of view is,” Ingram said. “They have our career in their hands, and they decide things like that. It’s not up to us. We just do what we can control."
Joe Smith(@joesmithtb): Agent Blake Evans suggested that this was more of a situation where the Lightning wanted Ingram to be a better pro on and off the ice
From the Agent: “Any young kid, your first couple years, you think you’re working hard in junior hockey and probably are. But working in the American League is that much harder, then the NHL is even more,” Evans said. “You just have to learn how to work hard every day. Obviously, Connor is a huge prospect and his numbers are among the best in the AHL. That’s great, but (the Lightning) want him to become one of the best goalies in the NHL. You’ve got to learn how to work extra hard every day.”
From the Syracuse blog: "BriseBois said he intended to go to St. Louis on Friday but instead swung through Syracuse to try to clear the air with Ingram. Without going into further details, BriseBois said it became apparent by the end of that meeting that it would be better off for everyone if Ingram returned to the Solar Bears for the rest of the season. Ingram declined to comment on Saturday."
