Matthew Wuest of the [i]Halifax Daily News[/i] has written an interesting feature on Acadia forward Kevin Baker, who is one of the 41 prospects in camp this week. Baker, a former Kings draftee who played professionally with Lowell and St. John a few years back, just wants a chance to get back into professional hockey. He's getting that this week with the Lightning. Also in the feature, Lightning scout Darrell Young, who lives in Halifax, states the Lightning have spent approximately $100,000 this week to bring in players they think may be able to contribute somewhere in the organization. Young tells the [i]Daily News[/i] the organization is in search of offense, "and [Baker's] shown he can provide it." "We think with the rule changes, [Baker] has a chance," Young says.

Two things: If meritocracy is truly alive in the Lightning organization, Brian Woolger and Torrie Wheat continue their tryout at Traverse City. I've been to 3 of the 4 games and they've (along with Fuller) have been in the top 2 lines performance wise each game. Tonight the dominated: shots, scoring chances, the scoresheet,possesion time in the offensive zone and they play hard in all 3 zones. Woolger rung up 2 with wheat helpers. The second one was a one-timer blasted so hard you could hear the Feaster suite gasp, then chuckle. Woolger listed at LW, has centered all week. I outlined what I specifically wanted to focus on tonight and this line was one of them since they were productive collectively the first two games, but I could not identify what made them so successful. I was taken with Wheat's play from the first shift and Woolger kept popping up everywhere he needed to be. Fuller is a solid complement, but these two make the line. Towards the end of the game though was a defining moment from Wheat. He had carried the puck 1 on 3 just across the blueline and stopped right in front of the door where the lightning enter the rink from the locker room to wait for help. Our boy Quick lined him up and destroyed him. His upper body snapped backward into the bench probably at about 75 degrees bent back. His head then snapped right and hit the glass seperating the seats from the bench. He went down in a heap & the Lightning brass rose a bit to see how badly hurt he was (looked horrible - never seen a spine bent back that sharply). He was up in a few seconds (didn't pop-up) went up and down the ice a couple of times and finished his shift with a scoring chance about 6 feet to Ramo's right that a D'man jumped in front of. Needs 20 lbs. of muscle, but he's a Productive player tools or no.

In quite impressive fashion, [url=http://www.hockeyarchives.info/top.htm]hockeyarchives.com has released their ranking of the top 250 European club teams.[/url] The rankings are based on both the 2005-2006 season as well as previous seasons' performances in both league play and interleague play. The rankings help paint a portrait of which Lightning prospects are playing for top level franchises and which have latched on with lesser clubs: The top 10 are: 1. Metallurg Magnitogorsk (RUS) [b]2. Ak Bars Kazan (RUS), Dimitri Kazionov[/b] 3. HV 71 Jonkoping (SWE) 4. Karpat Oulu (FIN) 5. Frolunda Goteburg (SWE) 6. Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (RUS) 7. Avangard Omsk (RUS) 8. Slavia Prague (CZE) 9. Farjestad (SWE) [b]10. Linkopings (SWE), [url=andreas-holmqvist]Andreas Holmqvist[/url][/b]

Erik Erlendsson of the [i]Tampa Tribune[/i] reports today that negotiations are not going well between the Lightning and restricted free agent winger Evgeny Artyukhin. "I'm not sure what his thinking is right now," Lightning General Manager Jay Feaster told the [i]Tribune[/i]. "Some of the things his agent has told us are very inconsistent with his role and bargaining position." "R-2," or "Arty" as he's called by his teammates, is projected to have a significant role in the Lightning's future, but struggled at the end of last season and saw his minutes fall considerably. He finished the year with four goals and 13 assists in 72 games. In the playoffs, Artyukhin was up to just over 8 minutes a game and added a goal. Artyukhin is the only member of the Lightning yet to be signed, and it doesn't appear that will happen any time soon. Of note: The article also lists cap hits for every player currently under contract with the Lightning and expected to make the parent club.