Warts and all, Kevin Shattenkirk has been a great value for Tampa Bay. Yet, for every marginal depth defenseman (Luke Schenn, who went fifth in 2008), the Lightning sometimes convince quality veterans to accept pocket change to chase a Stanley Cup. This leaves the Lightning with the amusing distinction of having two Atlanta Thrashers high first-round picks in Zach Bogosian (third in 2008) and Braydon Coburn (eighth in 2003). They must love to jet ski.)īut, either way, free agency for the Lightning mainly boils down to finding scraps, and trying not to lose too many important players. (Even if they’ve basically been wizards at convincing stars to take less money. Overall, Vasilevskiy looms large as a huge part of the Lightning’s foundation.įree agency: scraps, and mainly trying to avoid lossesĪs brilliant as the Lightning are in many team-building areas, they aren’t immune to the salary cap crunch that confounds contenders. At 26, his prime years are ahead of him - although goalies are voodoo, so that $9.5M could still end up looking bad. Paying a goalie that much also flies in the face of “smart money,” yet Vasilevskiy’s been an ace for the Lightning. Before, he was making just $3.5M per year. The Lightning really only started paying Vasilevskiy big money ($9.5M cap hit) this season. That’s because, if you get it right and that goalie develops reasonably quickly, you can save money. Generally speaking, the “smart money” is not on picking a goalie in the first round, but it worked out in a big way for Tampa Bay. If you want to follow some of the most interesting Lightning-related team-building debates, follow the career of Andrei Vasilevskiy.ĭuring a time when teams were timid about picking goalies in the first round, the Lightning snatched Vasilevskiy at 19th overall. Like Brayden Point dangling around helpless defensemen, sometimes the Lightning made their peers look silly in the process. From Alex Killorn to Mathieu Joseph to Cedric Paquette, Tampa Bay outfitted its roster with draft picks. If you want a seventh-rounder, consider Ondrej Palat (208th in 2011). Potential future Selke winner Anthony Cirelli slipped to 72nd in 2015. Louis, mind you.īut either way, the Bolts paralleled the Red Wings dynasty era by finding diamonds in the rough. Not every Lightning draft steal boiled down to different cover songs of finding Martin St. Ignoring height when it came to Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson allowed the Bolts to unearth undrafted gems. After all, the Lightning feasted on old-school obsessions with size over skill and production.įrom Nikita Kucherov (58th in 2011) to Brayden Point (79th in 2014), the Lightning unearthed its top stars by looking below the 6-foot-mark. Yet, you kind of wonder if there’s a defensiveness there. Old-school types feasted on a perceived lack of toughness when the Blue Jackets swept the Lightning. Lightning made huge draft (and undrafted) gains, largely with small players Slater Koekkoek (10th, 2012), Jonathan Drouin (third, 2013), and Tony DeAngelo (19th, 2014) all ended up on other teams, with only Drouin netting the Lightning a big-time return in potential star defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.īut the Lightning are where they are today because of what they did outside of the first round, and sometimes outside of the draft altogether. Of course, the Lightning got this far with Stamkos on the shelf, so they didn’t only live off of being in the right place, at the right time.Īgain, though, the Lightning can feel the Stars’ pain in biffing a few first-rounders. Landing Steven Stamkos (first overall in 2008) and Victor Hedman (second in 2009) was instrumental in turning the Lightning around. That said, they did when it mattered the most. When it comes to the first round, though, they didn’t always find the mark. The Lightning’s reputation for shrewd drafting is well-earned. Two huge first-round stars, but a sneaky-high number of misses
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