A bunch of comments recently (by regulars and others) have been blocked by my anti spam program — they weren’t outright deleted though. They’ve been approved and posted. Apologies to Tommy, MissK, Colleen and others….

…and Vinny does his best poker face about the meeting:

“We had a great meeting today,” Feaster said. “Very very encouraging in terms of Vinny expressing a desire to stay in Tampa and stay long-term and that’s what we wanted to hear. It was very very positive. We discussed a timeline to keep things moving and I’m very optimistic.”

Lecavalier was slightly more guarded.

“We had a 20-minute meeting, just wanted to know where we stood. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do but I’ve got some time to think about it,” he said. “But it went well and I’m glad we met.”

If everyone can remember Vincent Lecavalier’s last contractual negotiation, it can be concluded that it’s not going to be a short process of negotiation as Jay Feaster painted things.

Of course this isn’t anything comparable to the Joe Thornton situation in Boston, (which means that Les Habs fans can stop doing web searches for Lecavalier to Montréal rumors). It’s something to watch though.

Is he the leagues first Capologist? Not exactly sure but the Tampa Bay Lightning announced the hiring of Claude Loiselle as assistant GM.

If not a Capologist, Loiselle’s job is to be through and through farmiliar with the new CBA and help negotiate staff contracts and prospect contract deals.