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Who saw this coming? Cory Conacher returns |
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OK, who saw this one coming?
The Lightning brought back forward Cory Conacher on a one-year, one-way contract worth $575,000.
Who saw that coming?
OK, so I'm getting a little carried away with the news, but I certainly didn't think I'd see a day when Conacher returned to the Lightning after he was traded to Ottawa in 2013 in a deal that landed Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop, who has been a Vezina Trophy finalist twice in his three full seasons since the trade.
When Conacher was with Tampa Bay, he won a MVP title in the American Hockey League in 2012, helping the Norfolk Admirals capture a Calder Cup championship after signing an AHL deal as an undrafted free agent out of Canisius College in Buffalo. The next season, after signing an NHL contract, Conacher made the team out of camp to start the lockout shortened season.
Conacher started out on fire, registering points in six of the first seven games including five multi-point efforts to start his NHL career and he looked like he was on the fast track. So when Steve Yzerman went looking for a goaltender and had a stock of young forwards for opposing GMs to choose from, it was easy for Tampa Bay to let go of Conacher to acquire Bishop from Ottawa.
There certainly were plenty of detractors who felt Ottawa won the deal big time, at the time, it hasn't worked out that way.
Bishop has gone on to be one of the top goalies in the game. Conacher, meanwhile, has bounced around the league, eventually leaving North American all together.
From Ottawa, Conacher was claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Sabres during the 2013-14 season. After not signing with Buffalo, Conacher landed with the New York Islanders for the 2014-15 season but was placed on waivers midway through the season and assigned to the American Hockey League before being traded to Vancouver before the end of the season, finishing up with Utica in the AHL.
Eventually Conacher headed to Switzerland, where he signed a one-year contract with Bern SC where he led the team with 22 goals and 52 points in 48 games. Bern was coached by Guy Boucher - who was Tampa Bay's coach in Conacher's rookie year - and included former NHLers Derek Roy, Chuck Kobesew and Andrew Ebbert along with former Lightning players Sean Bergenheim, Trevor Smith and Timo Helbling (remember him?). Conacher had 19 more points than anybody else on the team and picked up a team best five playoff goals as Bern won the Swiss League championship.
Now, he's returned to North America and landed back in the same spot things started. It's come full circle.
So, where does Conacher fit? Does he fit?
The one-way deal was curious, but it's relatively low at $575,000 even if he clears waivers and is sent to Syracuse.
But, at least on paper, Conacher is the 14th NHL forward on the roster (that counts Ryan Callahan who will miss at least the first month of the season following hip surgery.
One has to wonder if this signing is part of a bigger picture. After all, it was penned elsewhere that Steve Yzerman tends to be playing chess when everybody else plays checkers. Is this a move made well ahead of a few more down the road.
Yzerman has plenty on his plate, from trying to get Nikita Kucherov signed to a new deal, working on arbitration cases involving Alex Killorn and Vladislav Namestnikov while simultaneously trying to work on new deals for both. There is also the possibility of utilizing a second buyout window with a large enough arbitration award potentially on the horizon in regards to Killorn, who made $2.7 million last season.
Time will tell whether Yzerman and Co. have more in the works in the near future, but it certainly was interesting to see Conacher return to the organization three years after he was dealt away.
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • 
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