The trade that almost was

From Damian Cristodero from the St. Petersburg Times:

It has been seven years since Lightning superstar Vinny Lecavalier almost was traded to the Maple Leafs, and when I say almost, I mean it. Former Lightning president Ron Campbell, who on Friday was named a senior adviser to the new ownership group spoke at length for the first time about what almost went down in December 2001.

Campbell has been credited with stopping the deal that would have brought Nik Antropov, Tomas Hoglund, Tomas Kaberle and either then-prospect Brad Boyes or a first-round draft choice.

“I didn’t stop the trade, per se,” Campbell said. “I stopped the conference call.”

Read the entire entry from Lightning Strikes here.

Good thing they didn’t make that trade…