The Meszaros RFA Situation

[Vesa Awesaka]

Just curious to what actually happened with Anderj Meszaros. I was fairly young at the time and remember think that the first was going to Tampa's ( turned out it was sharks) and i was stoked to get what i thought was a top pick. Can any Tampa fans enlighten me on what happened or their thoughts on the situation? Im a sens fan btw

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[These Are The Days]

There is no nice way to say this but I will try.

We forked over big for Andrej because at the time he was about as dynamic of a defenseman as we could ger our grubby hands on. But as soon as he got here it was very apparent very quickly that he was not the player we traded for. To our discovery, he was the beneficiary of one of the leagues best and deepest offenses, good and sometimes great goaltending and never being asked to play in the top pairings. He was even +30 something one year. An average at best player looked phenomenal.

He came here and was asked to be the man, a job he could not handle. He was lazy, slow, gave absolutely zero ****s about what he did unless he was on the bench, made terrible passes, couldn't run a PP andscored more goals for the other team than he did for us because whenever he successfully blocked a shot it would deflect the puck, change the angle and go into our net. He had a knack for simultaneously screening our goaltender in the process. His mediocrity was absolutely uncanny.

Needless to say he lost his spark and got lazy when we lined his pockets and never cared a day in his life in the Lightning sweater. It showed on the ice every night. He was never a bad player, but when he Alex Daigle'd it for 2 years the fact we got a 2nd rounder seemed like turning piss into wine. If you make him a 2nd pairing defenseman he will do fine. But when we brought him here to be the player we knew he could be he just mailed it in.

 

[Vesa Awesaka]

There is no nice way to say this but I will try.

We forked over big for Andrej because at the time he was about as dynamic of a defenseman as we could ger our grubby hands on. But as soon as he got here it was very apparent very quickly that he was not the player we traded for. To our discovery, he was the beneficiary of one of the leagues best and deepest offenses, good and sometimes great goaltending and never being asked to play in the top pairings. He was even +30 something one year. An average at best player looked phenomenal.

He came here and was asked to be the man, a job he could not handle. He was lazy, slow, gave absolutely zero ****s about what he did unless he was on the bench, made terrible passes, couldn't run a PP andscored more goals for the other team than he did for us because whenever he successfully blocked a shot it would deflect the puck, change the angle and go into our net. He had a knack for simultaneously screening our goaltender in the process. His mediocrity was absolutely uncanny.

Needless to say he lost his spark and got lazy when we lined his pockets and never cared a day in his life in the Lightning sweater. It showed on the ice every night. He was never a bad player, but when he Alex Daigle'd it for 2 years the fact we got a 2nd rounder seemed like turning piss into wine. If you make him a 2nd pairing defenseman he will do fine. But when we brought him here to be the player we knew he could be he just mailed it in.

I understand that he played poorly but was did tampa fan think of the potential offersheet? Was it ever really a possibility? I mean it would have been pretty terrible had they gone through with offer sheet instead of the trade and lost hedman.

 

[Rschmitz]

Of course it was a possibility with the Cowboys running the show. Luckily it didn't happen

 

[Stammer Time*]

The offersheet we were going to offer required our 1st, 2nd and 3rd but we did not own our 3rd which was held by Pittsburgh iirc. We tried to acquire it back but Pittsburgh wanted nothing to do with an offersheet so we were forced to make a trade with Ottawa instead. Good thing too because an offersheet would have included the Hedman pick.

Edit: Pittsburgh owned our 3rd due to the Malone/Roberts deal.

 

[LightningStrikes]

The offersheet we were going to offer required our 1st, 2nd and 3rd but we did not own our 3rd which was held by Pittsburgh iirc. We tried to acquire it back but Pittsburgh wanted nothing to do with an offersheet so we were forced to make a trade with Ottawa instead. Good thing too because an offersheet would have included the Hedman pick.

Edit: Pittsburgh owned our 3rd due to the Malone/Roberts deal.

Oh boy just imagine that. Giving up Hedman for Meszaros.

Our other two picks ended up busting though: Our 2009 2nd rounder was traded with another pick to Detroit so we could acquire Carter Ashton with their 1st rounder. Detroit drafted Landon Ferraro with our 2nd rounder, who only played 4 NHL games. Pittsburgh went on to trade Ben Hanowski with our 3rd rounder, who only played 16 NHL games (with Calgary).

 

[Vasilevskiy]

I would not say yet that Ferraro is a bust...

 

[LightningStrikes]

I would not say yet that Ferraro is a bust...

You're right. "Had no impact yet" is probably the better description.

 

[These Are The Days]

At the time though Meszaros appeared like a mortal lock for at least 35 points a year and the -15 in the Cup year didn't really deter me as a fan that much because Meszaros got a lot of PP time and you don't earn + points with goals scored on the manpower advantage. I was wary of how much we gave up for him but the potential for a #1 defenseman who could possibly score up to 45 points was there. That was considering we still had Vinny, Marty, Prospal and had just signed Ryan Malone back when he was good. But like I said, Meszaros got the contract and I can't even say he crumpled under the pressure of being "the guy" he outright didn't even try.

The whole Cowboys in charge era was the most disgraceful time I've ever had as a sports fan. Even more when our baseball team was still the Devil Rays. If you recall, Vesa that 1st from San Jose came in exchange from the most brutal trade in Lightning history when Len Barrie forced Dan Boyle to waive his NTC and told him to pack his **** and go to the Sharks. We sent the 1st in exchange for Meszaros and ironically, we traded for Matt Carle from the Sharks, who we sent to Philly after like 3 weeks and got Steve Downie. The irony is that now after all this time Carle is finally playing for us. We then trade Downie for Kyle Quincy from the Avs, trade him to Detroit and get a 1st rounder that turns into Vasilevskiy.

Absolutely nuts when you think about it. It goes to show the skill Yzerman has as a GM to rectify trading (at the time) the best offensive defenseman in the league for young defenseman who was still a project at the time and then trade him for a grinder in Steve Downie who had some offensive upside and a temper only Rick Tocchet could tame. You blow the 1st round pick you get in part of the trade for one of the worst defensemen in Lightning history (Meszaros) and sign him to a ridiculous contract only to have him traded later for a 2nd round pick. Yet somehow while being left with only Downie out of it and take the last remaining shred of the Dan Boyle trade (through association) and turn it into the best goaltending prospect in hockey.

Yzerman literally turned vinegar into wine. I blew a gasket when we traded Downie but I have since gotten over it when we finally found a goalie that wasn't a fluke.

 

[FinnLightning26]

Don't forget that Yzerman traded Ty Wishart, who we got from Boyle trade, for Roloson who in turn helped us make that 2011 ECF. Without Roli we're nowhere near Conference Finals that year. It just goes to show how well Yzerman has cleaned up the mess left to him by the previous owners and Brian "The Hair" Lawton. I shudder at the thought of losing the Hedman pick in that offer sheet. For once I am thankful to Pens that they wouldn't trade our third back.