Tampa Times
----------------
Tampa, FL. - With the amount of prospects that have been moved out of Tampa you wouldnt expect to see the GM for Tampa make a move for youth. In the past few months Patrick Eaves, Brandon Bochenski, Marek Schwarz, Jeff Carter, Cam Ward and Jussi Jokinen have all been moved out to bring in veterans. It was apparently clear that GM Joyce was going to take a "Win Now" attitude and that no pick or prospect was safe in the Lightning organization.
That is why the latest deal comes as a bit of a surprise.
Late last night defencemen Dan Boyle was shipped out of Tampa in exchange for young blueliner Keith Ballard and prospect Kyle Chipchura. Boyle was playing very well for the Bolts and was 6th in scoring for defencemen with 4 goals and 23 assists. San Jose also receives a 3rd round pick in 2007.
Surrounded by the local media GM Joyce addressed the media "With the recent call up of Anton Volchenkov and Andrej Meszaros and the way they have responded with stellar play, we felt we had room to move one of our defencemen. Dan will be missed as he has been with this team for awhile now, but with the upcoming changes that are going to be hitting the OTHL we felt that this was a good move for the future of our hockey club. We feel Ballard is going to be a rock on our blueline. If you add Volchenkov and Meszaros to the mix we got 3 real solid defencemen for years to come and probably at the same price it would have cost us to resign Danny Boyle next year."
The GM went on to say "This move doesnt mean that we are going to be dumping our veterans. This move was made to keep our hockey club in contnetion for today and for tomorrow. The salary cap is going down and Boyle is UFA next year. Our recent callups allowed me to make this move and I am very happy with it."