Is Jonathan Drouin making the right decision?

It has been a major story this season surrounding the 2013 3rd overall draft pick for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jonathan Drouin's season has been surrounded by controversy and doubt, after struggling to crack the lineup early in the season it was clear Drouin was unhappy. After being limited to just 19 games because of injury and only five games in November. So in his second season Drouin was sent down to the Lightning's AHL affiliate the Syracuse Crunch to get more playing time. GM Steve Yzerman stated at the time "he's been dealing with a minor nagging injury that is finally healed. With everyone coming back at the same time, it's a good opportunity to get a young player a lot of ice time, get his game right back on top and bring him back at the appropriate time". With that there was no clear date set for Drouin to rejoin the Lightning. 

Most players would look at this as an opportunity to gain more minutes and get back to playing the game that they love. But for Drouin this assignment was beneath him, he looked completely engaged in those games. Reports started to surface that Drouin wanted out and that he and his agent had requested a trade. His agent released a statement saying that back in November they requested a trade, but wanted to keep it under wraps. On January 20th it was announced that Drouin was suspended indefinitely without pay after failing to report to a Crunch game against the Toronto Marlies. According to Drouin's agent the Lightning had informed him that there was a trade that was close to being completed. He proposed that Drouin sit out to avoid any injury that could come to him before the deal was done. The following day Yzerman denied that statement saying that "We’ve never said there was a pending deal or a deal close" and that they were still trying "actively and aggressively trying to find a deal that works". 

Ideas swirled around the Lightning who at the time looked like they also might be trading Steven Stamkos before the trade deadline. A lot of teams showed a lot of interest in the young the player, but nothing gave the lighting back the return that they wanted for him. It's hard to part ways with the number three pick in any draft class, and there is no doubt that Drouin's skill will translate at the professional level. So on trade dealing day all eyes were on the Lightning seeing if they would pull the trigger to send the young player packing. But they didn't and it seemed like he would remain with the team for the rest of this season, and the next one with a year left on his entry level contract. 

But it broke late Monday night that Drouin has decided that he will not be returning to the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is an extremely interesting move by the young forward deciding not to return to the Lightning after this entire fiasco. Drouin and his agent are trying to play power cards in order to get him back to the NHL where they feel he belongs. But Steve Yzerman and the rest of the Lightning's higher ups don't seem to agree with the talent evaluation. 

Most of the blame for this getting out of hand has to fall on the shoulders of Jonathan Drouin himself. Instead of being a professional about being assigned to the AHL he decided to treat it like a punishment and looked completely uninterested. That’s not a great look for a player that many thought could develop into a player like Steven Stamkos and could hopefully one day help the Lightning win the Stanley Cup. While Drouin is only 20 years old and still has a lot of growing up to do, it is clear that he and his agent have an idea of where he should be by now. They seem determined to get him back to the NHL level so he can potentially gain more and more money. The way he has handled himself during this entire event wasn't that of a professional, but that of a child who has been told no for the first time. 

Instead of going down to the AHL playing his heart out and trying every single night to help the Crunch win, he decided to be lackadaisical just waiting to be called back up. That shows that Drouin isn't passionate about the game of hockey. A good pro would put on a face that made it look like everything was ok even if they were upset that they were sent down. Max Talbot is the perfect example of this when I spoke to him about being sent down to the Providence Bruins. He said that "I am happy to be getting more ice time here, and to have a consistent spot where I know I will be playing night in and night out". It's going to be interesting to see who this whole thing pans out with Drouin and the Lightning, but one thing is for sure this story isn't going away anytime soon.