Pool Outlook for Tampa Bay

Losing in the Stanley Cup Finals is always going to be a disappointment for a team, no matter the situation or the opponent that a team faces in the end.  The +Tampa Bay Lightning ran into a playoff tested Blackhawks team, which got the best of the Bolts in six games, a series that finished on Monday night.

The disappointment that the Lightning will feel for losing in the Finals is only in the now, as their future is bright and they have a great core of players, which should lead them back to significant playoff runs, if not finishing them off properly.

Tampa GM Steve Yzerman has done a fantastic job building a team, which is not only exciting to watch, but has an element of toughness to it, which helped aid its journey to the Stanley Cup Finals and has also emerged as a great option for us poolies.  In the regular season, the combined total of hockey pool points from their end of season roster was ranked 2nd to the Rangers, behind by only 2 points.

The depth in Tampa Bay was a blessing to the pool, but that started at the draft, where there were 13 Bolts taken to start the season and by the end of the year, 16 Tampa players had been touched by the pool, two had been dropped because of injury and retirement, but players were picked up at the Waiver Draft, because it was an exciting place to get points from.

It's back-to-back years for Ben Bishop, atop the Lightning scoring for the hockey pool, as their number one keeper flexed his muscles and came up with another huge year, winning 40 games and picking up 92 points this year, good enough for 3rd overall in pool scoring, which made him 3rd among goalies as well.  The big keeper was a pillar of strength through to the Finals, but his torn groin muscle was definitely hampering his efforts to be that same pillar of strength, when it mattered most.  Bishop emerged as a strong candidate for a high pick, possibly even 1st overall, in next year's draft, thanks to his big regular season and even bigger playoff run.

During the regular season, the Tampa forwards were pretty darn good.  Steven Stamkos may not have led the team in overall points this year, but he still managed 43 goals in his 72 points, which led all forwards, followed closely by Tyler Johnson, who had 43 assists in his 72 points.  They finished 26th and 27th overall in pool scoring, both in the top 15 in forwards.  Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat, Ryan Callahan and Valtteri Filppula were all in the top 100 in the forward group, while Alex Killorn and Jonathan Drouin were each deemed pool worthy, much deeper in the rankings.  The Lightning are young and deep, which makes them scary for years to come.

On defense, they had a pool-worthy trio in Anton Stralman, Victor Hedman and Jason Garrison, but two out of the three had some injury problems in the year, which limited their ability to really put up some points.  Hedman was working at an incredible pace early, but was hurt and that really slowed him, as he only finished with 38 points in 59 games.

Behind Bishop, the Lightning started the year with Evgeni Nabokov, but that relationship fell out of favour and Andrei Vasilevskiy took over as the back-up.  With the split in the season, neither keeper finished as pool-worthy keepers in the overall rankings, but Vasilevskiy wasn't a bad option in the last third of the season, as Bishop did see some rest before the playoffs.

2016 Pool Outlook

The Lightning are likely one of the most exciting teams looking forward through these posts, as their entire lineup of pool-worthy players are signed on for next season already, so their core will be intact and ready to rock and roll next season.  It will quickly be a question of where to take these guys and whether or not their numbers will get better or not.  I would have to believe that Ben Bishop's stock is now going to shoot to the moon.

It's going to be very difficult for a rookie to breakthrough this Lightning roster now, especially given how young this roster already is.  I would imagine that the Tampa management team will be looking to help their core group become a better playoff group by complimenting their youth with some quality veterans, so it could be very tough.  Andrei Vasilevskiy may still qualify as a rookie, having only played in 16 regular season games, short of the maximum of 25, so he may be the team's best option.

Free Agency and the Salary Cap

With a lot of their depth heading to free agency, it may be wise to start the discussion with the actual salary cap number that the Lightning are potentially looking at.  I currently have this team with 33 players signed on for next season, running their cap total at $78.1 million, which, of course, is well over the projections for next season's ceiling, but with that being said, they'll be already working with their core group of players next season and they'd be able to strip away the minor-leaguers to help build this team up properly.

Depth forward Brenden Morrow is the highest-profile UFA to head to the open market, while Vladislav Namestnikov is the most interesting RFA for the Summer.  Otherwise, there isn't much there to either lift of drop this team from their finishing spot in the standings.

Needs at the 2015 Entry Draft

The Lightning don't have their own 1st round draft pick, but they do have the Rangers' 1st round pick, which ended up being the 28th overall pick, two spots better than what they would have had, if they managed to keep their own pick.  With the team's best line in the playoffs being so smallish in stature, but huge on the scoresheet, I think the Lightning would do well to help their overall size average out, possibly picking up a winger with a bit more size, but still having the scoring capacity.  Brock Boeser, coming out of the USHL, may need a bit more time, but it sounds like he has the skill and patience is exactly what the Lightning have at this time.  This looks like a great fit for this organization.

What I Said Last Year, At This Time...

If Tampa Bay does go through a bit of that sophomore jinx phase, which strikes a number of young players in the second full year of their career, like I have a feeling might happen to a few players, the team at least has that influx of new blue chip talent coming in, not to mention their developed talent already in the line-up to keep the jinx from wreaking too much havoc throughout. The turnover on the roster should all be looked after and the team shouldn't hit much of a speed bump in the 2015 season. I am leaning towards a slight improvement on their 101-point season in the standings, but surpassing the Boston Bruins for the Atlantic Division title may still be a year or two away. The playoffs are all but certain, possibly having some real success in the 2015 Spring Dance. All of these are real possibilities.

Well, other than my misjudgment on the Boston Bruins for the 2015 season, the Tampa Bay Lightning saw that real success this year and they raised the eyebrows of many.  The sophomore jinx didn't really hit a lot of their players, maybe because there was a great group of veterans to help them through and a few of those sophomores were going through the same growing pains at the same time.  Nevertheless, their success was definitely on the cards at this time last year and they certainly exceeded my expectations.

Thanks to a lack of free agency concerns, the Tampa Bay Lightning are on track to keep the same core group of players into the 2016 season and that can only mean good things for this club.  You could even argue that the need for change isn't even all that needed, but I'm sure a little bit of tinkering will be done.  There is going to be a strong push for a division title in 2016, as Montreal will still be a tough team to play against and Detroit may still feature in the playoff hunt, but this side really has their engines fired up.  If this side remains intact through to the playoffs, I would expect much of the same result, since it was the injuries to Bishop and Johnson, their two shining stars of the playoffs, which maybe cut their Cup dreams short.  Staying healthy is always job number one, but something you can't predict a year away.