2012 Projections: Tampa Bay

An Eastern Conference Finals appearance may have cemented the notion that Tampa Bay will be a good spot to pick players from in the 2012 season, with a couple of potential number one overall picks, a good supporting cast and a goaltender that is getting yet another career revival.

Throwing their hats into the debate for first overall, Martin St. Louis, the cagey veteran, and Steven Stamkos, the blossoming superstar... how do you rate them against some of the league favourites?  I have them quite high, as the magic is rather undeniable, but see below how I rate them among each other.

There has been a little bit of tinkering within the line-up, a couple new faces on the blueline, a new back-up goaltender, but I wonder if the honeymoon phase with the Lightning may be a tad overstated.

Forwards		Defense		Goalies
Steven Stamkos	100	Victor Hedman	35	Dwayne Roloson	80
Martin St. Louis	95	Brett Clark	30	Mathieu Garon	25
Vincent Lecavalier	65	Marc-Andre Bergeron	30
Ryan Malone	55	Pavel Kubina	20
Teddy Purcell	50	Eric Brewer	20
Steve Downie	50	Matt Gilroy	10
Dominic Moore	35	Mattias Ohlund	10
Dana Tyrell	25	Bruno Gervais	5
Ryan Shannon	20
Nate Thompson	20
Adam Hall	15
Tom Pyatt	5
Brett Connolly	30	Michael Vernace	5	Dustin Tokarski	5
Carter Ashton	25
Mattias Ritola	5

Pool Worthy Forwards (Inside the top 160, 40 points)
Personally, I'm a fan of the thinking that Steven Stamkos will out-duel his teammate, Martin St. Louis, in the scoring column in the 2012 season.  Stamkos had a pretty good run at the beginning of the 2011 season, but I would say a combination of his youth and the other teams learning to defend him got the better of the young phenom, something his maturity should be able to overcome this year.

The enigma of Vincent Lecavalier continue to roll into the 2012 season, after a few years of some surprisingly low numbers, I don't see why this trend should change at all.  Lecavalier has not benefited from the emergence of Stamkos, nor has the team found a great deal of depth to help out their former franchise player.

Finally, my expectations of playoff breakout star Teddy Purcell is rather tempered.  I don't think his post-season success will translate into better regular season numbers, but if the Lightning make it deep into the playoffs, I may consider going back to him, but we'll see when we cross that bridge.

Pool Worthy Defensemen (Inside the top 80, 25 points)
The defense wasn't a screaming hell in the scoring department last season and I can't see that getting much better.  Although, there should be some improvement in Victor Hedman, who is coming into his own, while getting some better support from Marc-Andre Bergeron, but there doesn't look to be a strong scoring presence from the Bolts' blueline to start the regular season.

Pool Worthy Goalies (Inside the top 40, 25 points)
Well, if Dwayne Roloson can give the Bolts the same kind of regular season finish in 2011 throughout the whole 2012 season, we should be expecting some good things from him in the points column this year.  I don't think it is out of the question that he'll be posting 35 wins, all things being equal, not to mention a handful of shutouts, so he should turn out to be a pretty good pick-up.

Given the age of the team's lead goaltender and his quality of play in the playoffs, it would be quite wise to give him plenty of time off, which should mean good things for Mathieu Garon, who is signed on to be his understudy for the year.  Garon is more than capable to tally some wins, so I would expect good things.

Pool Worthy Rookies
It looks like there might be a little bit of room for one or two kids to try and make the jump onto the team, but I'm not sold on how effective they might be.  Both Brett Connolly and Carter Ashton may get long looks at camp and they may get some quality linemates to work with.  I don't see the other wing position beside Stamkos and St. Louis locked up, nor a spot beside Lecavalier, but the defense-first approach of their head coach may be the biggest thing they'll need to overcome, so that's where my scepticism comes from.  I like these kids, they have a strong future, just keep an eye on them at camp.

Key Injuries
When we last heard about Ryan Malone and his major shoulder surgery, things did sound promising that he would be ready for training camp.  As of the end of August, Malone has not been cleared for contact drills, but with still a couple of weeks until training camps open, Malone may have enough time to get the last of his healing done.  With a month until the season starts, he should be ready, but I'm not going to make any guarantees on his behalf.