![]() His contract, with an $8.5 million cap hit, runs through 2023-24. ![]() 91 surely will hang in the rafters in Tampa when his career comes to a close. The team is playing well without him but would be much better with him in the lineup. Starting next season, his no-trade clause becomes a modified no-trade. He has been reasonably affordable relative to his role on the team with a $4.45 million cap hit. One of three remaining draft picks pre-Yzerman, Killorn has been a career Bolt and an absolute force in the playoffs (48 points and 18:27 average ice time over 81 games). You need a combination of luck and strong scouting to hit in the later rounds, but as you'll see, the Lightning have done more damage in the second and third rounds than they have in the first. (Stamkos and Hedman were earlier.) Most Round 1 selections have been largely disappointing but effectively spun off in other trades. Still, only one of the players Yzerman selected in the first round during his tenure remains with the team: Andrei Vasilevskiy. And each franchise cornerstone was a Tampa Bay draft selection. Every center on the team is a homegrown talent. The Bolts' top-six is entirely constructed through the draft or undrafted free-agent signings. Being aggressive yet selective about going after undrafted free agents has also been crucial. 2 (Victor Hedman) in consecutive drafts, but there has also been a great deal of finding value late and not shying away from second- and third-year eligible players. It started with the fortune of picking No. The key to Tampa Bay's sustained success is building its core through the draft. Note: All salary figures are courtesy of. So how do you build a team for sustained success? Here's a player-by-player look at how Tampa Bay built this contender. Tampa has had a wide-open Stanley Cup window for the last several years, and it should stay open a few more. But you still have to build something players want to come back to. Tampa Bay may have some helpful advantages, like core players taking less of a cap hit while not sacrificing too much money, thanks to the fact Florida has no state income tax. Being as consistent as the Lightning have been, save for the elusive Cup, might be even harder. Much of that core was built by Yzerman or just before he came in during the 2010 offseason, but BriseBois has put his stamp on this team, filling gaps that have been exposed in past postseason failures.īuilding Stanley Cup-winning teams is hard. The core has carried a lot of the load, with injured captain Steven Stamkos not yet suiting up for a single game. This postseason is unlike any in the history of the game, but the Lightning have looked locked in, beating the Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins through two rounds. But for whatever reason, the franchise hasn't won it all during this stint of regular-season dominance. Tampa Bay has been close, going to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015, and this year marks its fourth Eastern Conference final in the Cooper era. They've been compared to the San Jose Sharks and the pre-Stanley Cup Washington Capitals for not being able to get it done in the postseason, even though they have the second-most playoff wins in the NHL since 2013-14 with 46, including this postseason. They have scored 1,797 goals - 57 more than the next-closest team over that span - for an average of 3.20 per game while also allowing the fourth-fewest goals per game at 2.64.ĭespite that regular-season success, the NHL's ultimate prize has eluded this era of the Lightning. ![]() Since Jon Cooper's first full season as the head coach in 2013-14, the Lightning have led the NHL with 343 regular-season wins and a. From a Steve Yzerman-engineered rebuild to the team's continuation under Julien BriseBois - who has the top job after years as a loyal lieutenant - the Lightning have fielded one of the most, if not the most, complete rosters in the game. How the Tampa Bay Lightning built a perennial contender, player by playerįor nearly a decade, the Tampa Bay Lightning have been among the most consistently entertaining and successful teams in the NHL. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser
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