The Tampa Bay Lightning have suspended forward Jonathan Drouin indefinitely
The Jonathan Drouin situation has take a turn for the interesting. The Tampa Bay Lightning have suspended the 20-year-old for refusing to report to his AHL game in Toronto. He was playing for the Syracuse Crunch, the AHL affiliate of the Lightning. Multiple teams had scouts who wanted to see him play tonight, but he will not be on the ice.
Jonathan Drouin has been suspended indefinitely without pay after failing to report for tonight’s Syracuse Crunch game vs. Toronto.
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) January 21, 2016
This should speed up a Jonathan Drouin trade as Drouin has clearly shown that he does not want any part of staying with the Lightning. Requesting a trade was quite bold of him and his agent and refusing to report to the game takes it to another level. It is likely that Drouin will not play another game in Tampa.
This will likely hurt Drouin’s trade value as well. Drouin is extremely talented, but now teams are likely not going to want to pay as much for him for several reasons. First of all, it’s no longer a secret that Drouin doesn’t want to play for Tampa Bay. Why would any team give up a lot of assets or picks for a guy who they know doesn’t want to play for the team that wants to trade him?
Also, his character has to be called into question at this point. Requesting to be traded is one thing, it’s understandable. To this point, Drouin has handled it like a professional. However, that changed when he refused to report to the Crunch. It is likely that Drouin will be traded very soon.