Bolts Nab Gratton & Hlavac

A lot has happened in the last few days for my Bolts so I feel behooved to mention it here. For the third time, the Lightning have acquired Chris Gratton. We traded a draft pick to get him so I was at least happy to hear we didn't have to lose anybody for him.

I don't know, though. I haven't been following his career since he left the Bolts (the second time) so I can't say with any certainty whether this will be a good thing or a bad thing. It's just a thing right now, as far as I'm concerned. We'll find out this fall how well he meshes with the championship-caliber team. He only played for Tampa Bay when we sucked. Back in those days.

Then we signed Jan Hlavac who's been playing in Europe the past few years. His only full-length NHL seasons — and there were two — were played with the New York Rangers but he's also donned the uniform of the Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes. Maybe we can finally put some scoring lines together outside of Vinny's.

My fear is that Jay Feaster is making these deals in preparation for something bad — like the departure of one of the core guys. Notice I'm not using any names for fear of jinxing it.

Anyway, I think Gratton and Hlavac are nice additions but their forwards. With Cory Sarich likely leaving, I think we could probably stand to pick up a defenseman or two.

But whatever, I'm not the GM. I'll let him do his job and just cheer on my team.