Meszy in Tampa

So over the weekend the Tampa Bay Lightning signed Andrej Meszaros to a six year deal reportedly worth about 5 million per season. The signing came AFTER Tampa traded Ottawa Alexandre Picard and Filip Kuba for Meszaros on Friday. Earlier reports were MOSTLY correct in that Tampa had threatened to sign Meszaros to an offer sheet and had apparently gone as far as to attempt to reclaim one of their necessary draft picks from Pittsburgh before Ottawa agreed to come to the table and negotiate.

So... fantasy impact.

I find Tampa's lack of faith in Carle... disturbing. They are already facing serious salary cap trouble and paying $2,950,000 per year to Carle to run the powerplay. Now they've added an additional $5,000,000 for another puck moving defenseman. You can't get enough of those in today's NHL but I ask you , what would be better... Boyle at $6,600,000 per or Meszaros and Carle at 7,950,000 per? This year I think Boyle.

Meszaros is good, and he WILL be the powerplay guy in Tampa. However, Meszaros is NOT defensively responsible. His +34 rookie season came when his defensive partner was Zdeno Chara.

All of that said, Tampa now has three defensemen between the ages of 20 and 23 on their roster who are valued for their offensive game, Carle, Meszaros and Ty Wishart (the other young 1st round draft pick acquired in the Boyle deal with San Jose). But I have to wonder, with two 20 somethings making more then $2 million on their roster already is Tampa just acquiring the young guys that other NHL GM's regret overpaying for?

Complaints aside, Meszaros' value stays steady as a number 1 powerplay defenseman on a scary good powerplay. He will likely have more PIM with Tampa then he would have in Ottawa, unless "The Mullet" sheds that reputation from 13 years ago as a players coach. He should be a Plus but a minor one.

This is NO good for Carle though. I would still draft him, but much later. He'll see second unit time for sure but Meszaros' arrival jeopardizes his time with the first unit. PP units in Tampa probably now look like:

St. Louis
Lecavalier
Prospal
Malone
Meszaros

Stamkos
Vrbata
Jokinen the Lesser
Recchi
Carle

That's not an awful second unit but the first unit is going to get the majority of the ice time... obviously.

The other thing that this deal does is perhaps free up some ice for the aforementioned Wishart. Carle, Meszaros, O'Brien and Ranger will all definitely see time with the big club, but this move significantly effected Tampa's depth at the position. Expect Andrew Hutchinson, Matt Smaby and Ty Wishart to compete for those remaining two spots.

What about the players that went to Ottawa? Well Ottawa is now without a powerplay qb, but I don't think Picard or Kuba fit the bill. Expect that to go to Volchenkov or Schubert unless Brian Lee really stuns in camp.

This feels like a warmup move for Ottawa. They've got depth at D now they just need that one great defenseman and a goaltender... and a second line... and...