With 11 days until the 2012 NHL trade deadline, a bit of Tampa Bay Lightning related innuendo has come to the surface this morning.

Defenseman Pavel Kubina has been kept off the ice at the morning skate "to protect the team's interests", as has been reported directly by the Tampa Bay Lightning Twitter feed. Sources claim that Kubina has spent time in the Lightning front office the past two days, and now the team confirms (via the above linked tweet) that Kubina has been asked to submit a list of teams he would be willing to accept a trade to. Kubina's two-year contract, signed in the summer of 2010, has a limited no-trade clause.

Tampa Bay Times beat reporter Damian Cristodero says Kubina will not play tonightversus San Jose.

Kubina is a plus-1 this season, seeing additional laying time when the Bolts suffered the loss of Victor Hedman earlier this season. He has 3 goals and 8 assists as well.