Lightning Getting Better in the Back

The Lightning have again been one of the busier teams in the off-season, going crazy for picking up some fresh faces to help re-vitalize the team that won the Cup in 2004. A lot of work has gone into making the defense a lot stronger, going out and getting Mattias Ohlund, Matt Walker, David Hale and Kurtis Foster for their blueline and Antero Niittymaki for between the pipes. That alone should at least make them a little bit harder to play against, although Mike Smith is still understandably the number one goalie going into 2010.

The forward lines have been improved a little bit as well in July, as they've picked up Stephane Veilleux from the free agent market and Todd Fedoruk from trade, which should add a little bit more grit to their line-up in the Fall.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Martin St. Louis	Mattias Ohlund	Antero Niittymaki
Vincent Lecavalier	Lukas Krajicek	Mike Smith
Steven Stamkos	Andrej Meszaros
Ryan Malone	Matt Walker
Vaclav Prospal	Paul Ranger
Stephane Veilleux	David Hale
Jeff Halpern	Kurtis Foster
Evgeni Artyuhkin
Todd Fedoruk
Adam Hall
Ryan Craig

The team should be better defensively, but that doesn't necessarily translate into more scoring or points for the fantasy pool. Nevertheless, the line-up for the Lightning is pretty sound and very economical as well. The 20 players that are signed on for next season should come in with a cap hit of $46.2 million, which is pretty good shape. The Lightning may also add Victor Hedman to the mix and his plus-size cap hit, which would potentially make their defense stellar for the year. Stay tuned to that.

As for RFAs, the Lightning have a fair number of them left, but only Matt Smaby, who played 42 games last season, comes in with any numbers close to recognizable. He'll have an arbitration hearing next week to decide his fate.