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Bolts GM Feaster Willing To Listen

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 20, 2008

OTTAWA - Jay Feaster might have the easiest job of any of the league's 30 general managers tonight when the NHL entry draft kicks off in prime time.

Barring a knock-your-socks-off trade offer before 7 tonight, Feaster will walk to the podium at Scotiabank Place and use the first pick in the draft to select Sarnia Sting center Steven Stamkos.

"Lots of tire-kicking, but nothing really of substance," Feaster said Thursday of talks with other teams about a possible trade involving the top pick. "I report everything we get to the new ownership, but certainly if it wasn't for the fact that we have new ownership, it's nothing that I would even bother to tell team president Ron Campbell about.

"And while we intend to select Stamkos, we never said never. We didn't say that we wouldn't listen to offers, and that's pretty consistent in what we have been telling teams, that we will listen."

Though Stamkos is center stage, it appears the team also has made significant progress in discussions to extend the contract of center Vinny Lecavalier, with the hope of keeping him in Tampa for the rest of his career.

Feaster wouldn't comment on a report that surfaced Thursday night on French television station RDS. Lecavalier is coming off consecutive 40-goal, 90-point seasons and enters the final year of a deal that will pay him $7.167 million next season.
Lecavalier said that the report was ''very, very premature. It's understandable that both sides are optimistic, but there's nothing more."

In the meantime, Feaster has been working the phones in an attempt to acquire additional picks, namely a second-round selection to replace the No. 32 pick sent to Florida last summer in exchange for Chris Gratton. As of Thursday, Feaster had come up empty and indicated the odds of acquiring a second-round pick looked slim.

Before the draft begins tonight, there is more business to take care of.

Feaster said he will meet this morning with incoming owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie, along with the team's pro scouts, to discuss a strategy for free agency when it begins July 1. They also likely will discuss the vacant coaching position, although Barry Melrose appears to be all but officially hired pending the closing of the sale.

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