With the NHL entry draft and the beginning of unrestricted free agency a not-so-distant memory, Guy Boucher sat down with CL Sports recently to give his thoughts on all things Lightning.
One of the bigger question marks that came out of the Boucher hiring was whether he would would bring his assistants from Hamilton with him. While he would not hint as to where that search was, he did give a time line on when he hoped the search would be complete. "I would like to have them filled as soon as I can," Boucher said. "I have not had much vacation over the past three years and my family is waiting for me, so if I can have all the main things done before August 15, it would be good for me to get everything settled with the assistants, the coaches, the staff, what we want to do with the room, the few changes we want to make in the room, thats what I would want to do."
The past few weeks have been a lot more active then many predicted. Boucher talked a bit about where the roster is and mapped out the areas the team plans address before training camp in September. "We would be ready (to go to camp) but as Steve has said, we are working now with forwards. We have our goaltender, we've got our defenseman, and we are working at filling some spots at forward. We are looking at filling maybe two or three different spots with the forwards."
It's realistic to think that Lightning General Manager Steve Yzerman will be able to bargain shop with what is left on the open market. It is widely believed that the team would be looking for a scoring winger and a 3rd/4th line grinder. Two names that are very intriguing for the rolls: Paul Kariya and Arron Asham.
This article appears in Jul 8-14, 2010.