The story of Jonathan Drouin and the Tampa Bay Lightning, and whatever tension lies between player, coach and general manager, boils down to one thing.
Opportunity.
Look at some of the most intriguing figures in these playoffs. Ask Matt Murray or Reilly Smith or Thomas Greiss or John Torchetti—names foreign to the casual hockey fan in October—about opportunity. You can earn the thing and prepare for it, sure, but it requires luck, and often arrives at the expense of someone else.
If you’re a forward, the math is simple. More opportunity—power-play use, skilled linemates, ice time—equals more points.
We scanned the game logs.
In Drouin’s 2014-15 rookie campaign, he played a minimum of 15 minutes in 15 games. He had points in 10 of them.
This season, he had nine games at 15 minutes or more and produced in six of them.
Last spring he got into six playoff games but never saw 15 minutes of action in any of them. No points.
In Round 1 of these playoffs, seeing 17-plus minutes in the top-six, Drouin set up four goals in five games and helped the Lightning become the first club to advance to Round 2.
The kid stewed and begged out when his opportunity grew cold this winter, and seized it with fervor when it reappeared, by a stroke of black magic, this month. Slick passes to Nikita Kucherov, bloodied mouth, and enough jam to challenge Dylan Larkin to a fistfight.
Drouin couldn’t get into the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, and it ate at him like a hate. He had 32 points as a rookie. Not bad, but this was a 2.3-points-per-game junior phenom who was supposed to run away with the Calder Trophy.
“Would you rather play more minutes on a team that might not make the playoffs, or play less minutes on a team that’s in the playoffs?” Lightning coach Jon Cooper told me last March.
Cooper pointed out Drouin’s high assist total. Called the kid “explosive,” “dynamic” and “outstanding.” The Lightning had more than its share of outstanding forwards in 2015, however. Best offence in the league.
“You don’t control the coach’s decision,” Drouin said at the time. “Whatever you’re told, you gotta go with it and prepare the right way to make sure you’re ready if you ever get your chance.”
The hard truth: Drouin wasn’t necessary to get Tampa within two W’s of a Stanley Cup.
Now he will be.
The Syracuse Crunch did not qualify for the AHL playoffs, so where would Drouin be right now if Steven Stamkos didn’t have a blood clot in his arm?
Zip back to September. Stamkos and Drouin, both about to embark on their most scrutinized seasons, formed a dangerous partnership at training camp. Drouin put up eight points alongside Stamkos in the pre-season, good for third overall. Watch this:
But the pair that seemed so promising in fall split. Drouin got injured. Now Stamkos is.
For Stamkos, his stolen opportunities open up ones for those close to him. Break a leg, give Martin St. Louis his gold medal. Undergo surgery at the most painful time of year, hand Drouin an opportunity to either up his trade value or possibly take the captain’s place in Tampa’s top six for 2016-17 on.
Round 1 reinforced to Cooper, Yzerman and Bolts fans the importance of re-signing RFA Kucherov and stud goaltender Ben Bishop (UFA, 2017), while Stamkos was unable to make his case.
Drouin’s holdout and trade demand, which came close to being met in February, was not about money.
If Drouin proves to be the elite NHLer Tampa forecasted him to be, he will get paid, regardless if he hits free agency at 26 or 27. Steve Yzerman had no issue recalling the kid with two games left in the regular season, just enough to burn the second year of his entry-level deal.
Maybe it was a sign of good faith, a baby step in repairing this relationship. Yzerman could’ve just as easily waited one more game out of spite or to prove a point.
“The one thing that gets missed in all of this is we never, ever gave up on Jonathan,” Cooper said this week. “I’m unbelievably proud of the way he’s handled himself with our team, our staff. He deserves this.”
Some hockey men snickered at Cooper’s comment. Tampa did try to deal the guy, after all.
But the Lightning room stood by him publicly, even at his most stubborn and impatient. They all tapped their sticks when he returned to practice.
Brian Boyle: “We loved him in here. Write it down. I think he’s a great kid, on and off the ice. He’s not a selfish kid.”
Victor Hedman: “He’s such a great kid. There have never been any issues inside the locker room. He’s a great teammate; he works hard. It’s been a tough year for him now being hurt a lot. We never felt anything in the locker room. He kept it to the outside.”
Until the Lightning are eliminated or showering in champagne, Drouin will try to push all the noise, good and bad, to the outside. Make no mistake: This is still a sensitive topic within the organization and within Drouin’s agency.
“Right now the only thing Jo is focused on is helping his team win hockey games,” says agent Allan Walsh, who went public with the trade request in January. “Nothing else matters right now.”
Yzerman says the door is not shut, and after this roller coaster Drouin should be open to all possibilities.
If any GM in the league can empathize with Drouin, oft painted as a petulant architect of his own troubles this winter, it’s Yzerman.
As a player, Yzerman was coming off six straight 100-point seasons when the Red Wings brought in Scotty Bowman to coach in 1993. The superstar immediately butted heads with Bowman, who wanted him to play better defence, and saw his point total plummet from 137 to 82 year over year. He never reached triple digits again.
Things got so bad between player and coach, they stopped talking to each other, and Yzerman was nearly traded.
Instead, the player and the coach won three championships together.
Relationship repaired, opportunity seized. Anything’s possible.
