Eminger for Welch

The Tampa Bay Lightning have picked up a bit of salary cap space with a deal that sends Steve Eminger to Florida for Noah Welch and a pick.

			2008-2009 Statistics		2009	2010
To Florida	Position	Age	GP/MIN	Points	Cap Hit	Cap Hit
Steve Eminger	D	25	62	25	$1.2 million	RFA
			2008-2009 Statistics		2009	2010
To Tampa Bay	Position	Age	GP/MIN	Points	Cap Hit	Cap Hit
Noah Welch	D	26	23	2	$650,000	UFA
3rd Round Pick

In another non-pool deal today, the Lightning ditched a bunch of salary in a deal that sent one defenseman one way and a lesser d-man plus a pick the other way. This deal did have the look that the Lightning wanted to lighten the load for yet another exciting summer and the Panthers have now acquired another good young defenseman with an offensive upside. With the Panthers keeping Jay Bouwmeester on their roster, their blueline does have a dangerous look to it.