Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Yzerman steals from the Wings, signs Verbeek to scout for Lightning

Steve Yzerman

Tampa Bay Lightning’s new vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman answers questions during a hockey news conference Tuesday, May 25, 2010, in Tampa, Fla. Yzerman has spent the last 27 years as a player, captain, and executive with the Detroit Red Wings. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

AP

While new Lightning general manger Steve Yzerman has made it clear that he’s not going to go over the top in taking people from the Red Wings organization, he’s certainly happy to snag people he knows well, as Damian Cristodero of the St. Petersburg Times tells us.

So much for not raiding the Red Wings. Reports out of Detroit say the Tampa Bay Lightning has hired Pat Verbeek as a pro scout. Verbeek spent the past four years as a scout in Detroit. It is the first hire for new Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman, and it could preface another if Yzerman can convince the Wings’ capologist Ryan Martin to come to Tampa Bay.

Verbeek is forever known as the “little ball of hate” thanks to a stellar pro career that saw him score as many big goals as it did see him fight people. Verbeek was also a teammate of Yzerman’s for a short time in Detroit from 1999-2001. Bad timing for Verbeek as he missed out winning a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings there. I don’t know that Stevie Y feels like he owes Verbeek one, but with a track record like what Verbeek has, perhaps Lightning enforcer Zenon Konopka better watch his back while roaming the halls in Tampa.