Speculation: 2023-2024 General Lightning Discussion - Part 5

[DFC]

It's funny. Even by Lightning standards we are still doing okay. If we really want to get this upset over the last few years I wholeheartedly suggest they review our decade of drafting darkness from post Lecavalier to Stamkos. God I don't even want to bring up Edmonton trying to develop anyone who isn't a 1st rounder.

What we did when Yzerman took over is the stuff of legend that only really happens rarely. If that's all we get and a regression to the norm then hey, it was fun while it lasted

I don't think we need to argue the extremes though. We don't need to draft 3 hall of famers per decade to be successful. But the other extreme shouldn't be "it doesn't mean our drafting is bad if we don't get any NHLers for half a decade."

 

[RussianBum86]

Vatrano has one of the best caphits for performance but that's still a huge package for a rental...

If jbb is trying to win then go for Vatrano. If jbb wants be be a first round exit at best then keep the current roster .

 

[Felonious Python]

We all know the best way to project the future is to just list the guys we have now that are fairly young, and then assume every prospect we have makes the NHL.

We're fine.

 

[Steazy Doo]

we win the cup this year or my name is not stacky doop

 

[Hockeyville USA]

Guys who pan out like that are a little rare to begin with and it's crazy we found that many guys to begin with and we somehow managed to get them on our team. You gotta remember, these are guys no one else would take a chance on. And for a Tyler Johnson, do you bet on yourself on a team like the Sharks? Or do you come to Tampa where you know damn well they're gonna make you pay tribute to Syracuse for 2 years?

As for everything else. Jon Cooper is Who he is. That's why the guys like Verhaeghe and Marchessault got traded. I don't think that's gonna change after 4 trips to the Finals and winning 2 Cups

Yzerman let Marchessault walk because the organization valued JT Brown more than him. Verhaeghe was allowed to walk because they valued Mitchell Stephens (never a big scorer at any level) and Alexander Volkov (huge reach of a pick to begin with and never a big scorer) more than him. Yikes

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Yzerman let Marchessault walk because the organization valued JT Brown more than him. Verhaeghe was allowed to walk because they valued Mitchell Stephens (never a big scorer at any level) and Alexander Volkov (huge reach of a pick to begin with and never a big scorer) more than him. Yikes

That is some revisionist history.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

That is some revisionist history.

It is with hindsight, but Stephens and Volkov never put up huge numbers while Verhaeghe continued progressing in the A. Age bias plus organizational draft/asset bias as well.

 

[DFC]

Yzerman let Marchessault walk because the organization valued JT Brown more than him. Verhaeghe was allowed to walk because they valued Mitchell Stephens (never a big scorer at any level) and Alexander Volkov (huge reach of a pick to begin with and never a big scorer) more than him. Yikes

We would never have had the cap to keep those guys. We won cups after letting them go.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

We would never have had the cap to keep those guys. We won cups after letting them go.

We also didn't have any space for both at that time. Our Top 6 was completely locked down at the time.

 

[DFC]

We also didn't have any space for both at that time. Our Top 6 was completely locked down at the time.

Right. It wasn't JT Brown over Marchessault. At worst, it was Alex Killorn. Marchessault left for the same money because he didn't see a path through the log jam we had at forward. But even if he had stayed and blossomed here, we could never have fit him under the cap. And we won both cups after he left.

 

[Sky04]

JAM is whatever, we had plenty of small skilled forwards at the time and he left like 3 years before the cup. CV is such a miss though, him over Cirelli easily.

 

[Zwui21]

I don't get the criticism to JBB as of now.
All he's done this offseason is making very solid moves that definitely puts us in a better position to keep our window open.
Is there still the need of a 2RW? Yes. Will that be fixed? Not sure, but it's definitely a hard thing to do with our current cap space.

Our retool will be completed at the end of the next offseason IMO

 

[AlwaysSunnyInTampa]

Do you think Panther fan just wakes up every morning and just strolls to HF to complain about missing out on Hyman the way we do this shit with JAM and CV? We went to 3 Finals in a row and won back to back. Let it the f*** go already

 

[Felonious Python]

Do you think Panther fan just wakes up every morning and just strolls to HF to complain about missing out on Hyman the way we do this shit with JAM and CV? We went to 3 Finals in a row and won back to back. Let it the f*** go already

We're acting like keeping CV or JAM wouldn't have forced another difficult decision later. We've been spending above the cap for years.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInTampa]

We're acting like keeping CV or JAM wouldn't have forced another difficult decision later. We've been spending above the cap for years.

It's all hindsight. Both guys were raw and not very consistent at the time and a fresh start for both where they could cut their teeth into another team made sense. On the other hand the Cats let JAM go too. And let Reilly Smith go to the VGK protect some other trainwreck like Yandle or Trocheck who later fell off a cliff. I forget which one. I'm sure bringing that up again is punishable by death over there now that they won a Cup.

Again, maybe we should just let it go. Their success would have just made another hard choice. Just like you said.