The Philadelphia Flyers took on the Tampa Bay Lightning Tuesday night in a matchup that would have been particularly bittersweet for Flyers center Vincent Lecavalier - had he been in the lineup.
"It's not just because it's Tampa," Lecavalier, who spent 16 seasons as a member of the Lightning organization, told Randy Miller of NJ.com. "I just want to play. I said pretty much everything last week. There's nothing to say. Practice hard and be ready mentally if I get a chance to play."
Lecavalier though, has been a healthy scratch for six games - Tampa Bay marks number seven - and that doesn't seem to be on the verge of changing anytime soon.
The 34-year-old Lecavalier is a declining player with a big contract who simply doesn't fit in the Flyers lineup. He lacks the speed to play on the top three lines and doesn't play the type of game necessary to be an effective fourth-liner.
The ill-fated decision of now Flyers president Paul Holmgren to sign Lecavalier is a wrong that general manager Ron Hextall has been attempting to right for some time, but to no avail.
The reason for his continued presence on the Flyers roster is Lecavalier's outsized contract - 5 years, $22.5 million - and Hextall's unwillingness to eat some or all of his ridiculous salary.
"General manager Ron Hextall has been trying to find a new home for Lecavalier, as has the player's agent, but there doesn't appear to be a market for him unless the Flyers take back salary, which Hextall is unwilling to do," writes Dave Isaac of the Courier-Post.
Earlier this month, Bob McKenzie, appearing on an episode of TSN 1050 as transcribed by Shawn Reznik of TheHockeyWriters.com, said that Lecavalier's contract was nearly impossible to move.
"The contract is virtually untradeable. Unless there's a team that would say, 'Okay, we will take his contract, but you have to give us something to take it on.'
"So some of the teams that... basically, you've got cap room. You've got money. And you want draft picks. You want young players. So they're going to say to the Philadelphia Flyers, 'Yeah, sure. Give us Vinny Lecavalier. Give us a second round pick. We'll give you a fifth round pick. And we'll just bury him here.'
"But it's really clear that as long as Craig Berube is the coach, Vinny Lecavalier is not moving up in that lineup."
With Berube certain to keep Lecavalier a healthy scratch, and Hextall unwilling to eat a portion of his salary in order to make a deal, it seems like a Lecavalier trade is nowhere near coming to fruition, and this painful and protracted marriage will, unfortunately, continue.
