Lightning year in review

[yave1964]

Aaaannd finally....

 

PRESEASON OUTLOOK After having a regular season for the ages and then being swept in four straight in a stunning first round against Columbus, the team resisted the urge to blow it up, returned the whole team adding Shattenkirk and Maroon to the mix. Quite frankly they were picked to win it all by many and anything short of a deep run would have been the end for the coach and likely the GM

 

FINAL RECORD 43-21-6 2nd in the Atlantc. Knocked off the hated Jackets in 5, sent the Bruins back to beantown in 5, held off the surprisingly tough Isles in six before wearing down the Stars in six games to win it all.

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR Hedman had some of the biggest home/road splits of any defenseman, home (10-27-37 plus 17 with 24:22 minutes a night) he was arguably the games best defenseman but on the road (1-17-18) he was ordinary. 

 

LOW POINT OF THE YEAR They started with a hangover, after losing to the Capitals on December 21st they were an uncharacteristic 17-14-3, treading water and whispers were their confidence was ruined the year before by Columbus.

 

HIGH POINT OF THEYEAR, Well obviously the Stanley cup, but really from that loss to the Caps on the team went a league best 26-7-3 including a 22-2-1 stretch. the offense which had been meh to start the year caught fire scoring seemingly at will  In one ten game winning streak they outscored opponents 53-17 (!) they clearly found their mojo.

   The other high point was the trade deadline, they wanted to be sure of winning the 2-1 grinding games in the playoffs  not just the blowouts. So to go along with tough guy Maroon who had come over after winning a cup with the Blues, they added Bogosian, resurecting his career from the dead after he was bought out in buffalo, and Goodrow was brought over from the Sharks most importantly Blake coleman came over from the Devils. Suddenly a bottom six and bottom pair on defense which had been young and inexperienced became a strength.

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT Again, the cup. Kucherov was brilliant all around. and could have been a Hart winner in some years. Brayden Point has become arguably the best forward on this team surpassing even  Stammer and Kucherov. He led all players in playoff goals. Hedman was brilliant in the regular season and upped his game in the playoffs. Stamkos had 66 points in only 57 games. Killorn had a career year. Palat was great, Cirelli took on a big boy role and was great. Vasilevskiy was the best goalie in the game bar none-period. Shatty came back from the dead. Sergachev bounced back and was fantastic. Hell,i havent even gotten into guys like Maroon, Cernak, Verhaege, Paquette and a few others who were solid contributors in limited roles. The team was stacked, found their game in the second half  So much went right it is hard to catch it all.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG Tyler Johnson has lost his game, still a contributor but no longer looks like top six performer. Gourde had an off year. Mcelhiney was McDud and they need a backup goalie who can give Vasilevskiy an occasional day off. Coburn aged this year, McDonough saw his offense fall to nothing. Most of these are quibbles however, Johnson and Gourde were down because their roles changed, same with Mcdonough even. The slow start was scary for a team in need of a fast start but wow did they recover nicely.

 

FREE AGENTS Lots of veteran spear carriers, Shatty, Maroon, Luke Schenn, Bogo are all UFA's and it may be impossible to sign any of them. of biggest concern is Cirelli and Sergachev who are both RFA and will need to be paid top dollar.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTION MARKS Likely to lose a handful of veteran free agents, but they will have Goodrow/Coleman all year. These are the questions i think must be answered:

 Can they sign Sergechev and Cirelli? As RFA's the team has some control but they would like to trade one of Palat/Killorn/Gourde/Johnson to clear cap space. All have NMC or at the least LNMC, so dealing one of them is difficult at best. 

  The next question is this, if the veteran core moves on can the talented group of kids step up and take their place? This is a deep talented organization and i think the kids, Mitchell Stephens, Verhaeghe, Paquette, Cernak, Katchouk, Raddyish and Foote are all capable of stepping in next year.

  The other question is backup goalie. McBackup failed but has another year on his deal. Because of cap issues they may be froced to return him.

 

Hell of a team. Best organization top to bottom in the game. Hots off and kudos.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Just a matter of "re-loading" and going for it again.

Bolts STILL have plenty of manpower to grab themselves another Cup with this main core, but it will come down to what the supplemental players will do....which stay, which go....and probably most important, who the Lightning have in their system that can step in and start playing some support roles (I am thinking guys like Alexander Volkov, Taylor Raddysh, maybe even Cal Foote being ready to join the big club).

No doubt the Lightning will lose a good player to the Seattle expansion draft....hopefully they can find a way to sign and hang onto Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak, and Mikhail Sergachev, as I feel those three are the most important RFA's they have.

And yes, someone may have to be moved, and sadly, looking at the contracts and factoring in cap hit plus clauses, it looks like Alex Killorn may be it.
I say "sadly", because he really is a part of this leadership group, and my preference would have been to try and trade either Tyler Johnson or Ondrej Palat, but both of those guys have NMC clauses as opposed to Killorn's M-NTC.

Who don't I expect back?
Probably many of the vets on defense, except maybe one.

Shattenkirk will likely want a bigger payday now...something the Bolts given their cap won't be able to to.
Zack Bogosian may also be looking for a significant raise and while I don't think he would be too expensive, I don't really like his overall game to keep him on anymore than the one year he was with TB.

I'd actually bring Luke Schenn back on a team friendly deal....he made 700K last season....I think a 2-3 year, 975K- 1M AAV deal should be a nice enough raise and keep the 30-year old happy playing on a winner, and I think his size and improved defense helps the Bolts.
So he'd be the one I'd keep.

Jan Rutta can walk, plain n simple. He is average at best...and a liability at worst.
He was paired with Victor Hedman in the Finals at times, and Hedde made him look a LOT better than what he is, but I don't feel it's fair anchoring a guy like Hedman with someone like Rutta...not when you can have Cernak play that role, or even bring up a younger defenseman for Hedman to help mentor.

Back to back titles, are of course, very difficult to come by in the NHL.
But certain elite franchises have pulled it off and now we will see where the Lightning really stand in the context of past great franchise accomplishments from teams like the old Edmonton and NY Islanders, and more recently, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

An offseason question mark i forgot to mention is the Stamkos situation. According to the Bolts his sports hernia will be healed enough to allow him to be ready for the next season but his history of injuries is becoming a concern. In the last 7 years he has missed 132 games or an average of 19 per year. He has 4 years remaining at 8.5 million per. 

 

  The reason it is not a bigger concern is the Bolts won the cup more or less without him. Yes it was awesome to watch him score what turned out to be the GWG in the one SCF game that he appeared in, but i dont believe the outcome was in doubt at any point even without him on the ice which is remarkable, take Malkin away from Pittsburgh, Benn away from the Stars, Backstrom away from the Capitals, you get the idea. A player of his incredible caliber out of the lineup usually spells doom, but the Bolts are so damn deep from top to bottom that they never missed a beat.

 

 So yeah, Stammer is a huge concern but not a vital one. If they rest him at times in the regular season to keep him fresh for the playoffs, nobody could blame them. Still, the injuries are piling up and becoming a concern.