Drouin only hurting himself in public spat with Lightning
Jonathan Drouin isn't making things easy for the Tampa Bay Lightning, but he's doing far more damage to himself.
The 20-year-old forward might be diminishing what the Lightning eventually fetch in a trade by demanding one and refusing to play further in the AHL, but that pales in comparison to the hit his reputation is taking and the pressure that's mounting because of this very public dispute.
Drouin and agent Allan Walsh may be trying to force Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman's hand, but defiant acts of this magnitude will do more to scare off future employers and hurt how he's perceived league-wide.
Related: Yzerman denies telling Drouin's agent that trade was close
Earlier this week, Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray called it "amazing" that Drouin requested a trade while on an entry-level contract. Is Murray alone in that assessment? Either way, his comment was telling.
Drouin is no stranger to pressure. He helped the Halifax Mooseheads win the Memorial Cup in 2013 and the Lightning made him the third overall pick about a month later.
The pressure of being a lottery pick is nothing compared to the scrutiny he'll face now.
The questions will dog him wherever he ends up. For the rest of his career, Drouin will be forced to justify asking out of Tampa Bay and refusing to play for an AHL affiliate.
He'll need to play at a high level for an extended period of time to make this saga disappear from public discourse, and while a change of scenery could facilitate that, he'll be under the microscope every night.
Drouin is already dealing with high expectations, but his latest move raises the bar exponentially.
The winger has struggled to find consistency early in his NHL career, with six goals and 34 assists in his first 89 games, but he's still only 20 years old and racked up 77 goals and 242 points in 128 games over three seasons with the Mooseheads.
The Lightning will be fine without Drouin in the short term. They're riding a six-game win streak, with Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Vladislav Namestnikov carrying the offensive attack. Tampa Bay has risen from the playoff fringes to second place in the Atlantic Division.
Drouin will face an uphill battle if he's given a new home, and his bold tactics might not even expedite his departure. What they will do is make the rest of his career much more difficult than it should have been.
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