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Lightning Ink a Pair; Fire Head Scout Jake Goertzen
Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune is reporting that the Tampa Bay Lighting have signed free agent defenseman and power play specialist Andrew Hutchinson to a two-year, one-way contract late Monday evening. The team also received word that winger Evegeny Artyukhin has signed a two-year, $1.9M deal and has sent it to the Lightning to be finalized.
Erlendsson also reported that long-time head scout Jake Goertzen was fired on Monday after 17 years with the organization. Best of luck from BoltProspects to you, Jake, as you begin the next era in your career. We'll miss you and we hope you won't be a stranger.
The return of Artyukhin had been publicized for weeks, and had been waiting on July 1 before the contract could be officially announced. Since July 1, the official confirmation had been delayed while the league office confirmed that Artyukhin was free of any commitments to an RSL team.
The signing of Hutchinson likely indicates that the Lightning have been unsuccessful in their attempts to sign free agent defenseman Jason Smith. Last season the 28 year old, 6-foot-2, 206-pounder had 18 goals, 64 points and 66 penalty minutes in 67 games for Hartford (AHL). The one-way contract indicates that Hutchison will be among a seven-man defensive corp that includes Matt Carle, Filip Kuba, Paul Ranger, Shane O'Brien Alex Picard, and Janne Niskala. This signing seems to push blueline prospect Matt Smaby and Mike Lundin down to Norfolk.
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Not His Fault
There's a lot of people who are going to be less than gracious about Jake's departure around the internet, but as I've said before and I'll keep saying he did amazing work considering the lack of top-60 picks. I would've been very interested to see what he could finally do with all the top-60 picks we're going to have next season, but it just wasn't in the cards.
It was probably inevitable once OK Hockey took over, but it's still tough to see members of the Lightning family go away one by one.
I would think Hutchinson and Niskala will battle for one spot in camp and that maybe Jason Smith isn't completely out of the picture yet.
both of them have 1-way
both of them have 1-way contracts though, so I think that Smith is out of the picture as they would have to send one of them down and risk getting claimed on waivers.
Do you really think someone
Do you really think someone is going to claim Hutchinson off waivers? I don't. Niskala maybe, but not Hutchinson.
Why Not
Hutchinson led the AHL in points by a defenceman last year. Any team that wants a strong offensive defenceman with NHL experience would take him in an instant (which is almost anybody)
Andy Delmore was AHL
Andy Delmore was AHL Defenseman of the Year in 2005-2006 and earned a 1-way contract with the Lightning and no one touched him when the Lightning sent him down to Springfield to start the season. Remember, anyone who gets taken off of waivers is full price and has to be carried on the NHL roster. Teams don't necessarily like to throw away money for one-dimensional defensemen.