Snow should bid for Radulov

The fabled KHL season in Mother Russia has begun. Nashville Predators exile Alexander Radulov has already started collecting his rubles. But by several accounts, Radulov has indicated an interest in returning to the NHL (perhaps not until next season). What's more, Nashville may understandably want to trade him rather than take him back as a prodigal son who screwed the franchise at its most vulnerable moment in time.

It won't happen now, it probably won't happen during this season, but at some point, Radulov's rights are likely to be on the NHL trade market. If I'm Garth Snow, I check in on that sale early and often.

Judging by his first two seasons -- and the Predators brought him along carefully, perhaps lowering his stats -- he's a proven scoring talent superior to anything the Islanders currently possess (including Kyle Okposo's ceilling). He also might occasionally injure your captain during an overzealous playoff celebration. Hey, every star carries baggage.

He's entering the third and final year of his entry level deal. So pending the results of IIHF arbitration panel (which could, don't forget, rule Radulov was somehow free in the IIHF world to do what he did), and depending on the NHL's reaction, he could enter next season with either one year left on his deal or with team-controlled rights as an RFA.

Either way, you have a guy who bailed on his team and the NHL for the rubles -- so who knows, he might bail again -- but who's in a position to make enough cash on his next NHL deal to keep him happy and on the sunset side of the Pacific. He's also owned by a team that, presumably, wants to be rid of him before he plays another NHL game.

So, those are the factors that enter into his trade value, into the leverage you bring into trade talks with Nashville. It's too early to anticipate what Nashivlle would want for him, much less what the trade market would bear for him (a similar prospect? No dice; we have none. An offensive defenseman and a couple high picks? Maybe.) But talent-wise and age-wise, the 22-year-old Radulov is precisely the type of player that Isles GM Garth Snow should be looking at to advance his youth rebuild.

In a proper youth movement, you hang on to your assets and you plan for the long-term. But the one long-term boon that's worth giving up some of your future prospects for is a young, certain talent who gives you something you don't have in your system.

Someone like Radulov.

What is Tampa Bay doing?

As the down time before training camp drags on, we turn our thoughts to other teams, any teams...

Have you asked yourself this offseason what, pray tell, the Tampa Bay Lightning are doing? I sure have. Forget for a moment the scent of irregularity that surrounds their new ownership group. And forget about hiring the coach who's been doing TV for the past decade-plus.

I'm thinking about their philosophy for building their team. Defense seems to have been forgotten; goaltending is an unproven gamble; money is stashed in some interesting areas. As I recall, offense was not why they finished 30th overall last year, yet they spent the summer throwing around money and term (seven years to Ryan Malone?!) around at forwards and ... offensive defensemen.

Honestly, if the Lightning do well, I think it's good for the league. It's a good market that shows up for its team, and Barry Melrose is a character who even casual, SportsCenter-watching Americans know. If he comes off looking good, feeling cocky, dropping silly or blunt quotes, it would be the kind of attention the league needs south of the border. Plus, any team that excels on the basis of offense-first will be a marketer/televiser's dream.

But I'm not sold on The Plan, such as it is.

Admittedly, when it comes to team-building, I'd trend toward the conservative, asset-accumulation model. I'd stockpile my younger assets (check) and be wary of the free-agent route to instant gratification. I'd be frightened by the exchange rate-aided rise in the salary cap (i.e. NHL revenues) and would choose very carefully before committing 2008-cap-level cash on several future years of: a) a power forward (Malone) who took a long time to peak and is likely to decline by the second half of his deal; b) a young offensive defenseman whose defense, reportedly, leaves much to be desired when not paired with Zdeno the Giant.

Not to mention shafting defensive leader Dan Boyle and replacing him with the hardly equivalent Matt Carle, plus the gratuitous addition of Gary Roberts, who appeared last season -- particularly in the playoffs -- to be running on Angry Veteran Fumes.

It's not just that Andrei Mezsaros is a somewhat questionable (if consistent) commodity; it's that the Lightning don't appear to have the kind of partner -- like Chara -- who can bring out his max value. It's not that Mezsaros is now overpaid for his potential contribution, it's that the Lightning handed him max value when he was still in his cost-conrolled, RFA years. I understand that is arguably the trend these days -- but it should only be a tactic for hanging on to your can't-lose assets (Vincent Lacavalier, Alex Ovechkin, etc.). If you're tossing away your leverage for third-year non-star RFAs, what category of player (who matters) will you ever have contract leverage over?

In goal -- and I cannot believe how any contender wannabe would scrimp on this position (yet there, too, are the Sens) -- the Lightning have Olaf Kolzig, whose career has become a Greek tragedy: all those great years loyally wasted on a subpar team, and now that the Caps are good, last season he could no longer carry them. More importantly they have Mike Smith, who is a defensible gamble -- but unproven! And should Smith falter, they have to rely on Kolzig, because they don't have the cap room to acquire someone like Nikolai Khabibulin. And of course, it was the abject neglect of this position, letting the Bulin Wall walk, that originally spiraled them from Cup winners into last season's mess.

Naturally, I may be wrong (Their season will be entertaining either way). Maybe Smith is the real deal, Mazseros just needs a stable partner, Malone continues to grow, Carle rises to a new level, and Melrose defies the critics who think he is not prepared to coach the 21st-century game. In a way, I kind of hope I am wrong.

But if I were a Lightning fan, I wouldn't bank on it.