Lightning Acquire Andrej Meszaros

The Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that they have acquired restricted free agent defenseman Andrej Meszaros from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for defensemen Filip Kuba and Alexandre Picard along with the 2009 1st round pick the Bolts acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the Dan Boyle trade.

Rumors had been swirling for the past two days about Meszaros' future with Senators since Ottawa GM Brian Murray declared an impasse in negotiations to get the restricted free agent resigned. His three-year entry level rookie contract expired this summer, but was unable to agree upon a contract extension with Ottawa. TSN is reporting that it expects Meszaros will sign a 6 year, $24M contract with the Lightning.

“We are very excited to acquire the rights of Andrej Meszaros this evening,” said Tampa VP of Hockey Operations Brian Lawton upon making the announcement. “Andrej is a perfect fit within our plan to rebuild the Lightning into a contender. He has a strong all-around game, he competes, he moves the puck and he can handle big, strong forwards defensively. Perhaps most importantly, we’re pleased to add a 22-year old player with almost 250 NHL games already under his belt; we know Andrej will continue to grow and improve as he matures with the rest of our defense.

“We’d like to thank Filip Kuba and Alex Picard for their service to the Lightning. It’s hard letting go of players that we like, but as we all know you can’t get something for nothing. We needed to move assets in order to bring Andrej to the Lightning and we certainly feel we are a better, more competitive team because of this trade.”