TAMPA -- In the midst of a joyous locker room after the Lightning's 3-2 preseason victory Friday night was one sad figure.
Alexandre Daigle. Dressed neatly in a gray suit, Daigle sat quietly, exchanging words with teammates and friends Vincent Lecavalier and Dan Cloutier. Hours earlier, Daigle learned his days with the team could be numbered. And the final day could be today.
Daigle is one of nine players the Lightning exposed for today's waiver draft. In essence, the Lightning is saying it wouldn't mind losing Daigle to another team. For nothing.
GM Rick Dudley had little comment on the list, other than to point out that the team would have protected any player it was afraid to lose. Coach Steve Ludzik was less diplomatic.
"You get out what you put in," Ludzik said about Daigle.
Simply put, Daigle is not Ludzik's kind of player. Ludzik likes diggers, grinders, hard workers. Daigle is a finesse player with a reputation, rightly or wrongly, for not working hard or caring about the team.
But it's possible no team will want Daigle, and his $1-million salary, for the same reason the Lightning has cooled on him. And, the Lightning has exposed a couple of other players who might interest another team: defensemen Jassen Cullimore and Drew Bannister.
Then again, the Lightning may not lose anyone.
Very few players move through the waiver draft.
Here's how the draft works: Each team can protect 18 skaters and two goalies. Some, depending on age and playing experience, are exempt from the draft. For example, most with fewer than three years professional experience are exempt. The Lightning didn't have to protect young players such as Lecavalier, Cloutier, Pavel Kubina and Colin Forbes.
Then teams choose, if they wish, an unprotected player. But if a team selects a player, it must expose a previously protected player from its list. Expansion Atlanta and then Tampa Bay and the other non-playoff teams from last season get first crack. The draft ends when every team goes through a round without selecting a player.
There are other rules. Any team that lost a goalie in the 1998 and 1999 expansion drafts cannot lose a goalie in this waiver draft. That includes Tampa Bay, which lost Corey Schwab to Atlanta in June. In addition, no team can lose more than two players, and no team may claim a player within its own division in the first round.
Dudley said it was unlikely the Lightning would be active, but there are a few tough guys who might interest him, including Philadelphia's Roman Vopat and the Islanders' Eric Cairns. There are few goal scorers on the list, but one player who might move is St. Louis' Jim Campbell, who topped 20 in two of this first three seasons.
There is another interesting name on the list, a player who has scored at least 20 goals four times. His name?
