Verhaege had a great year in the AHL, and I speculated that Girardi would want to extend cheap for another try at the cup. I figured Tampa wants to keep their core intact as much as possible after last year.

They got to get heavier and tougher to play against, even at a loss of talent, they got to get bigger and tougher from somewhere, nothing too extreme but they need a player or two that adds that

They could have Foote, who´s a giant on the roster instead of Girardi. If they would trade Gourde instead of Miller, that would move a small player. Yanni being only 5´9 tall. They could also add size on the fourth line.

No problem? Congrats you've shifted the '19-'20 cap crunch to '21-'22 and made that year much more difficult. Meanwhile the team is worse than this year's team that went down in history as the worst playoff performance compared to the regular season in any sport.

Okay you made 19-20 work by buying out Callahan which means his 2.67M hits this year and next. Better hope the cap rises more next year because next year you need room for Vasilevskiy's raise, Cirelli and Volkov coming off their ELC's.

I kinda wonder if there’s a point to Detroit blockbuster coming Bertuzzi, Svechnikov, Cholowski, hronek and 2020 first or something along those line, Tb needs the cap and size and det has the cap space and elite talent in point

Couple interesting points here by some welcome fresh new posters ..

1. Tampa certainly needs to get tougher .. even at sacrafice of pure hockey talent .. preach it brother

2. JT Miller will be one of the most coveted trade pieces this off season .. top 3 line versatility.
High FO% .. capable of PP .. mid 20s with good LT contract.. he should draw alot of trade pieces .
I would prefer Tampa keep him and get rid of the 4 shrimps but everything for Tampa needs to be on the table. Did you know Yanni Gourde is 2 years OLDER than Miller?. Gourde was 26 year old rookie and his extension is at a salary higher than Miller and goes to 2026 when he will be 34!!!!.. jeeah but I digress.

3. IF there is "true" mutual respect between Vinik and Yyzerman .. there very well could be some mutually attractive trades for each party.

I think the only trade TB sees with Detroit is the Wings taking Callahan (MNTC that Yzerman would know the details of the no trade list) and draft picks for Trevor Daley and 50% of his salary retained. Gets the Lightning a 3rd pairing d-man for 1 year on a cheap contract (1.583M if the Wings retained 1/2) plus considerable cap relief (more than 4M net with the trade). Detroit would get draft picks for their rebuild and would open a roster spot for d-men prospects that need ice time in the NHL.

Detroit doesn't have to trade Svechnikov because he spent all last year on IR so he gets another year of waiver exemption. An there is no way the Wings with shallow depth in their defensive core trade their two top defensive prospects in Cholowski (2016 R1 P20) or Hronek (2016 R2 P53) both of whom looked like NHL players during their stint with the big club last year.

Callahans cap hit would be only 1.57M 20-21 season. It will probably be a shortened season too, so no worries. Then Tampa would have to start moving pieces like Palat, Killorn and Johnson ext. and make the team weaker. I would personally give this current team one more chance to push for the championship.