TB Times’ Smith updates the Lightning’s pursuit of Mike Green: first-round pick no longer a requirement?

The Tampa Bay Times’ Joe Smith offers an update regarding the Tampa Bay Lightning’s pursuit of Mike Green. Smith believes that Green is most likely the next domino to fall in the trade deadline sweepstakes…

What would the price be? Well, Detroit GM Ken Holland told reporters in Detroit today that his priority is acquiring draft picks.

The Lightning has all of their picks for the next three seasons, and a deep prospect pool. Tampa Bay would likely pick late in the first round, though it’s not believed a first-rounder is a requirement in a Green deal.

That’s a particularly interesting revelation…The assumption “out there” is that the Wings are asking for a 1st round pick and a top prospect for Green, but there remains some scuttlebutt about the possibility that 2 2nd-round picks would get the 32-year-old Green and his expiring $6 million contract moving…

Green has a full no-trade clause but seemed intrigued by the Lightning when I spoke to him for our story last week examining whether he’d be a good fit.

“They’re an incredible team,” Green told the Times. “They’ve got all the pieces.”

And Smith notes that the Lightning have other possible options in Jack Johnson and Ryan McDonagh…

Published by

George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.