NHL Trade Rumors: 3 potential Jonathan Drouin landing spots

Which three NHL teams would be the best fit for Jonathan Drouin?

Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin was sent down to the Lighting’s AHL affiliate Syracuse Crunch. Drouin wasn’t too happy about it this demotion. It turns out that there is a lot that he is not happy about, as it has now come to light that Drouin demanded a trade from the Lightning back in November and that he still wants a trade. His agent released a statement on the matter.

This puts Tampa Bay in a bit of an awkward situation. On one hand, Jonathan Drouin and his agent have minimal, if any, leverage. Drouin is still dirt cheap for one more season after the 2015-2016 season. Even after that, the Lightning control Drouin’s rights as a restricted free agent. They don’t have to move Drouin unless they want to. The Lightning will likely want to keep every skilled forward that they can, especially if they can’t re-sign Steven Stamkos.

On the other hand, this could create a bad environment in the Lightning locker room. Jonathan Drouin’s teammates now know that he does not want to be a part of the team. Hockey teams rely on each other to be one cohesive unit. Drouin’s trade request is clearly adversarial to that. Also, he didn’t mention head coach Jon Cooper by name, but it sounds like some of Drouin’s frustration is at Cooper.

Jonathan Drouin has averaged 1.9 points per 60 minutes at even strength in his career. That’s a small sample size (just over 977 even strength minutes), but of the 318 forwards who have played at least 900 minutes at even strength since Drouin entered the league, he ranks 60th. That places him in the 20th percentile of NHL forwards.

It will take a lot for the Lightning to trade Drouin. They hold all the leverage in this situation. If the deal is right though, they might trade him. Here’s three teams that should make a move for the extremely talented but inexperienced wing.

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