OHL Hockey News

After facing over forty shots per game in their first three games (all losses, one in overtime) the Tampa Bay Lightning today decided to address the lack of experienced defensive depth on the blueine corps, signing former New York Rangers defenseman Marek Malik to a one-year, $1.2 million pro-rated contract.

Malik was an unrestricted free agent who’d been unable to land a contract during the summer with another NHL team after two rough seasons with the New York Rangers where he was pretty much booed out of town.

As predicted by many observers – myself included – the Lightning’s defense corps is currently too young and inexperienced to handle the workload after management traded away Dan Boyle and Filip Kuba during the off-season, leaving them without veteran depth and leadership.

Malik actually posted up decent numbers during his years with the Rangers, including an impressive plus-minus of +32 in 2006-07 but too often he became the whipping boy of the Rangers fans for a preceived lack of effort in his game resulting in bad goals against the Blueshirts.

It remains to be seen if Malik will help provide the stability the Lightning’s defense desperately needs, but at this point it’s clear they need all the help they can get.

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