NHL and Hockey Rumors for June 23, 2009

According to the St. Petersburg Times, there is a power struggle going on between the principle owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Oren Koules and Len Barrie. Koules and Barrie are scheduled to have a meeting Tuesday with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to determine which one of them will have the authority to make decisions for the franchise. Writer John Romano is quoted as saying that "The talk is that Koules wants to keep Lawton as GM, wants to trade Vincent 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." Brochu's take: Whoa, where did this all come from? Basically, tomorrow could decide the fate of Lecavalier, and what happens to this franchise. Romano reports that Koules has been getting on the bad side of personnel in the Lightning offices. Source

Writer Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province reported on his Twitter account that Minnesota Wild forward Marian Gaborik has bought a house in Vancouver. Brochu's take: Not much of a rumor, but I bring it up because it is eerily similiar to last year, when Markus Naslund was rumored to be showing Pavol Demitra around town, which led to Demitra signing with the Canucks. Also, Gaborik is a close friend of Demitra, so put 2 and 2 together. Source