An excerpt from the Hockey News article by Ryan Dixon :

It’s not like the people in Tampa are directly throwing gas on the fire. Lecavalier hasn’t said anything even close to “I want out” and Lawton has stated the team is absolutely not actively shopping its best player.

But Lawton did happen to mention no player is untouchable. And Lecavalier did acknowledge whether or not he is moved is beyond his control and, if it were to happen, Montreal would be on the short list of places he’d like to play.

Is that the kind of thing people who want no part of a deal say?

From the other perspective, there’s a myriad of reasons Montreal should be running up Lawton’s phone bill.

Start with the roster players rumored to be part of the deal – Chris Higgins, Tomas Plekanec and Josh Gorges.

Show me the deal-breaker there and I’ll show you a Habs fan who drastically over-values the team’s players.

None of those names carry the weight of Mike Komisarek or Carey Price, both of whom were lumped into trade speculation during another round of Lecavalier rumors last spring.

Habster:

The Lecavalier rumor mill continues Hab fans, whether we believe the denials or not.

It hasn’t quite hit the prolonged and drawn out Sundin saga just yet but it certainly has a similar feel to it, doesn’t it?

If I were Tampa, I wouldn’t trade away my biggest star unless I got a huge, outlandish deal that was very one-sided for my organization and would maintain my fan base interest while improving my team’s future success.

Seems like an impossible task from a Montreal perspective especially if your Bob Gainey who is conservative by nature and always calculating in every move he makes.

It can be downright frustrating to be a Canadiens fan with Gainey’s conservative ways, but in this situation, I’m glad he isn’t a “knee jerk” reaction type of person. He won’t sell off the future success of the Canadiens regardless how much pressure surrounds him.

The days of a Canadiens GM/president being driven by the Montreal media (hello Rejean Houle and Ronald Corey) are behind us and thank god for that!!

Can you imagine how many more potential berths to the Stanley Cup our Habitants would have made if media puppet Rejean Houle and the self-righteous, Habs imagine consultant, Ronald Corey had simply sat down with Patrick Roy and let cooler heads prevail.

I have complete faith in Bob Gainey’s thinking process to make the right decision whether that involves Vinny in a Canadiens uniform or not……..Hey Bob, we need a top four defenseman, but don’t let me alter your mind set!!