This Man Won An Award That Goes Out to People Who Are Good At Their Job.

I'm going to assume he was the only one who cared enough to vote.

Jay Feaster was the Lightning GM from 2002-2008. He was their GM in 04 when they won and as soon as they started to tank (2008), he retired

These days, he's putting together logic puzzles for children.

Shortly after the 2006-07 season ended in another first-round playoff exit for the Tampa Bay Lightning, I began receiving calls from Predators GM David Poile offering to solve our goaltending problem by trading Tomas Vokoun to us.

Sounds like David Poile knows a thing or 3 about a thing or three. Clearly, Holmqvist wasn't getting the job done. Maybe Tampa'd like a top notch goalie to help them along.

Poile had been told to slash payroll and was looking to move high-dollar contracts. He suggested that our cross-state rival, the Florida Panthers, might also be in the hunt for a No. 1 goalie and if we didn’t make the move we could find ourselves facing Vokoun six or eight times a year in our division.

David Poile: Soothsayer. Genius.

Also, just for p00pz and ROFLs, since joining Florida, T-Vo has a .915 save percentage in 13 games against the Bolts (33.6 shots per game, will someone please play some defense?). Not saving the rubber off the puck, but respectable.

While we had goaltending problems in Tampa at the time, we were not interested in Vokoun. Our pro scouts were not sold on Vokoun’s ability to win a championship and thrive under big-game pressure and his contract was too rich for us, both in real dollars and available cap space.


Blood....boiling...need...to...settle....down.

Deep breath. OK. Go.

I'd love to meet these "pro scouts" so they could explain to me their rationale behind the claim that Vokoun hasn't the ability to "win a championship and thrive under big-game pressure". Maybe his contract was more than the Lightning were willing to pony up and that's fine, but what about Khabibulin? The man who goaltended the Lightning to a title in 2004. What exactly gave anyone any kind of indication he was a "big-game" goalie in 2002?

In 11 career playoff games, Vokoun has a 2.47/.922, both better than his career regular season numbers.

Khabibulin's playoff totals prior to joining Tampa: 2.75/.916.

Oh, but look at this.
Score Under Playoff Pressure Ostensibly Since And Before Last Year (SUPPOSABLY)
T-Vo: 52.1
Habby (circa 2002) 88.8

Good call, scouts. I guess that's why they are pro scouts and I'm blogging in my hockey coach's basement, because they know who is going to play lights out for 23 consecutive playoff games.

Vokoun was traded to the Panthers on June 22, 2007 and has been the top netminder there for the past three seasons, including the current campaign. He has yet to carry his team to the post-season and last year, when new coach Pete DeBoer really needed him to elevate his play, he faltered, stumbling badly enough that DeBoer handed the starting reins to backup Craig Anderson down the stretch.

For starters, Anderson was pretty good last year, too. It wasn't like Vokoun was playing so terribly, that they started suiting up guys who, like, design web pages or install your cable.

For middlers, he's played two whole seasons, one on a team that scored 216 goals, 10th from the bottom. Last year they were in the middle of the pack and missed the playoffs by ZERO points. Only due to a stupid season head-to-head tie breaker (they should just play a one-game playoff like baseball does) and the Rangers luck (-8 goal differential last year) did the Panthers miss out. Meanwhile, the Lightning and/or their goaltenders since 2007, have won 2 Stanley Cups, 2 William Jennings trophies, 2 Vezinas, and had 7 different starters where Stanley Cups means tee times, William Jennings means top 2 picks in the draft, Vezinas means seasons of 40+ worse goals against than Florida, and had 7 different starters means had 7 different starters.

For enders, what exactly constitutes "down the stretch"? Sure, Craig "The Oogler" Anderson played 4 straight in late March/early April, but Vokoun started 9/13 in February, 11/15 in March and 4/5 in April. Not quite handing "the starting reins", says I.

Anderson signed with Colorado this past summer and is leading a resurgent Avalanche team. The Panthers countered by signing former Devils No. 3 goalie, Scott Clemmensen. Just as Anderson carried the Panthers last season, Clemmensen was the go-to goalie for the Devils when Martin Brodeur missed most of the season with an injury and the putative No. 2, Kevin Weekes, once again failed to live up to expectations. Clemmensen saved the day in Jersey and Florida did well to land him after losing Anderson.

Anyone dumb enough to believe there were actually any type of expectations for 33 year-old career-backup KEVIN WEEKES is dumb enough to like not trade for Vokoun when given the chance. Clemmensen did a bang up job on a good team. You know who performed better last year? Starts with a T and ends in omas Vokoun. Vokoun's GAA was .10 higher, but he saw 3 more shots/game, including 11 games over 40 (!) and 3 over 50. Clemmensen saw 40+ shots once last year.

Unfortunately, Clemmensen has been away from the team dealing with personal/family matters recently, which has resulted in Vokoun carrying the load. Not surprisingly, Vokoun has faltered and the Panthers find themselves desperately needing help from their backup goalie yet again. The only way for Florida to climb back into the hunt is for Clemmensen to do for his current squad what he did last year in Newark, and time is of the essence.

Mr. Feaster, meet my brother from another mother, Small Sample Size (nee Tremendousson). It's been FIVE games. Here is a list of a few of the goalies who've been worse than T.V. Dinner thus far this year:

Roberto Luongo
Mikka Kiprusoff
Tim Thomas
Martin Brodeur
Nikolai Khabibulin
Pekka Rinne
Carey Price
Jonas Gustavsson
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Quick
MIKE SMITH
Ray Emery

Trade 'em all! But not to Tampa!

Imagine how history might have changed had we agreed to the deal with Nashville. The Panthers gave up a second round pick in 2007, plus a first- and second-rounder in 2008 for Vokoun. Had we done that deal, that first round pick in 2008 could have been our overall first pick and Steven Stamkos might now be skating in Nashville!


Except, you know, you might've gotten better goaltending than Johan Holmqvist's very clutch and big-game worthy 3.01/.890 or Kari Ramo's championship-calibre 3.03/.899. Stamkos could very well be skating in Nashville. I'm going to assume the reason he isn't is because you retired and Stamkos' pending demands to play for a GM who isn't a complete moron was eliminated (opinion of Brian Lawton notwithstanding).

Some of the best trades remain the ones you never make.

As do all of the worst.

Here are a couple of statements from his post-retirement press release:

"For the past two weeks I have watched from the sidelines as (vice-president of operations) Brian Lawton (and owners) Len Barrie and Oren Koules executed to perfection the gameplan they shared with us prior to the NHL draft in Ottawa," Feaster said in a release.

"During that time it became apparent to me that this new ownership group did not need my advice or expertise, and I came to the conclusion that it was time to move on."

No kidding.