It was the summer of 2019 and after 13 seasons and 963 games with the San Jose Sharks, Joe Pavelski was a free agent being courted by teams all across the league. One of those teams was the Tampa Bay Lightning. We even got the “I saw Pavelski having dinner with Julien BriseBois!” Tweet:
YALL. We’re at a restaurant in Hyde Park and freaking JBB AND JOE PAVELSKI JUST GOT SAT DOWN ACROSS FROM US THEY’RE MEETING RN!!!
In the end, Pavelski spurned Tampa Bay and chose the Dallas Stars. His reason for going to Texas was pretty sound,
“I liked the goalies here.