Tampa Bay GM Brian Lawton Explains his role in email to GM’s & Agents

From TSN.ca:

The ongoing saga surrounding the Tampa Bay Lightning took another swing on Thursday afternoon, as all NHL general managers and player agents received a short email message from general manager Brian Lawton establishing his role with the club going forward.

“Please be advised that in order to avoid any confusion over the next couple of weeks, as GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning Organization I am the only person authorized to speak on behalf of the team with regard to player transactions,” the email read.

“No other person is authorized to negotiate player transactions. Any questions, feel free to call.”

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Clearly Lawton is trying to put forth the business as usual message out to the NHL world.  Nothing to see here folks, keep moving along.  The buzz is that Oren Koules is apparently on the same page as GM Brian Lawton and John Ramano of the St. Peterseberg Times points out that:

The talk is that Koules wants to keep Lawton as GM, wants to trade Lecavalier to get out from under his $85 million contract and wants to pare the payroll to the low $40 million range. Barrie is not as solidly behind Lawton, wants to build around Lecavalier and is in favor of signing some free agents to get the payroll closer to $50 million.

Hopefully for the fans in Tampa the organization can get things turned around.  Big day for the Lightning tomorrow as they may have a Lidstrom calibre defenceman in the fold.