Speculation: 2024-2025 General Lightning Discussion: Preseason Edition

[Master P]

In another universe we signed Sprong and people are still complaining.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

In another universe we signed Sprong and people are still complaining.

100%. If you think Sheary sucks 200ft, Sprong is somehow worse.

 

[Todd1a]

JBB at least
Give me Tyler Johnson 975 k for 1 year lol

 

[These Are The Days]

Sprong sucks a bag of hockey pucks. I don't understand what people see in him

 

[Stammertime91]

Probably come away with the better "all around" player in Atkinson, but that's still incredibly cheap and only 1 year to buy time for Geekie/whoever in 12 months.

I would've preferred Sprong at 975k in our top 6 and on the PP than Atkinson but some of those defensive deficiencies would probably cost us in tight games so pick your poison.

 

[Felonious Python]

Sprong sucks a bag of hockey pucks. I don't understand what people see in him

Scoring goals is apparently the hardest thing to do in the NHL, and it seems to come naturally to him.

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Scoring goals is apparently the hardest thing to do in the NHL, and it seems to come naturally to him.

Came naturally to Brett Connelly and Cody Hodgson too.

 

[The Gongshow]

Y'all should just be greatful we got Guentzel. That's the offseason move. Sheary isn't going anywhere

 

[These Are The Days]

Y'all should just be greatful we got Guentzel. That's the offseason move. Sheary isn't going anywhere

I absolutely loathe our top 6 right now. Its like there's a f***ing rule handed down from God himself that we can't have more than 5 good players on it and now we have 4 at best. I trust JB but this configuration has me blindingly pissed. Can we roll more than 1 line? It's been like 8 of the last 11 years with this

 

[Stammertime91]

I absolutely loathe our top 6 right now. Its like there's a f***ing rule handed down from God himself that we can't have more than 5 good players on it and now we have 4 at best. I trust JB but this configuration has me blindingly pissed. Can we roll more than 1 line? It's been like 8 of the last 11 years with this

Agreed. Frustrating to think about Atkinson being JBB's top 6 patch.

 

[Meuracas]

I absolutely loathe our top 6 right now. Its like there's a f***ing rule handed down from God himself that we can't have more than 5 good players on it and now we have 4 at best. I trust JB but this configuration has me blindingly pissed. Can we roll more than 1 line? It's been like 8 of the last 11 years with this

One of the reasons why I hated seeing Stammer go - Guentzel may be better but if Stammer was willing to take a pay cut which would have enabled signing, say, Duclair or someone better as well, ehh.

Anyway, what’s done is done and now let’s hope for the best…would be nice to have one of the prospects strike gold but that’s merely a wet dream.

 

[These Are The Days]

Agreed. Frustrating to think about Atkinson being JBB's top 6 patch.

I am good with Atkinson in a bottom 6 role. Put him on a line with Ace and Goncalves. I positively love the potential. Again, I don't hate Cirelli. He just isn't good enough to run his own line and THAT is what I have a problem with. I look at the lineup and that's what I'm seeing

 

[Stammertime91]

I am good with Atkinson in a bottom 6 role. Put him on a line with Ace and Goncalves. I positively love the potential. Again, I don't hate Cirelli. He just isn't good enough to run his own line and THAT is what I have a problem with. I look at the lineup and that's what I'm seeing

That's the problem though. Atkinson is a good signing but him or Sheary in our top 6 is a joke. Couple that with the fact Cirelli is in the top six and it's laughable. Hagel is in for a hell of a year if they keep Guentzel with Point/Kuch.

 

[These Are The Days]

That's the problem though. Atkinson is a good signing but him or Sheary in our top 6 is a joke. Couple that with the fact Cirelli is in the top six and it's laughable. Hagel is in for a hell of a year if they keep Guentzel with Point/Kuch.

*hammers whiskey*

*belch*

At this point I'm praying Paul gets put with Kucherov and Point and Hagel at least gets to be with Guentzel while Cirelli can get all his goals wiped off for interference and every deflection go into our net with both being because he was an electron out of place

JB is absolutely making another trade for a top 6 player at the deadline. These first 3 months are gonna kill DistantThunderRep via liver failure

 

[Crunchrulz]

One of the reasons why I hated seeing Stammer go - Guentzel may be better but if Stammer was willing to take a pay cut which would have enabled signing, say, Duclair or someone better as well, ehh.

Anyway, what’s done is done and now let’s hope for the best…would be nice to have one of the prospects strike gold but that’s merely a wet dream.

IF Stamkos was willing to take a pay cut he would still be here and not Nashville.

 

[Sky04]

Yeah I hate a top 6 with the leagues leading scorer, 2 40 goal scorers and Hagel in it too.

Give me the ES ghost Stamkos and Nick Paul like we had last year.

 

[JTBF81]

While Sprong may have been better in one facet, JBB was likely never seriously interested because he is.very weak defensively. They could still make moves to address the potential "hole" in the top 6, but he may be betting on at least one of Atkinson or Sheary bouncing back. Paul may get some chances in the top 6, bug as was expected, Tampa has 5.quality top 6 F with one spot being a bit of a question mark. It's really nothing surprising and the team is still definitely improved overall going into next season in areas that JBB clearly identified were weaknesses. Tampa was allegedly in on Henrique until the very end, and while some of that allotted money went to Atkinson, it's certainly possible that JBB has a trade or two yet to come to address F further (Sheary and maybe Perbix out, better top/middle 6 F in).

 

[These Are The Days]

Yeah I hate a top 6 with the leagues leading scorer, 2 40 goal scorers and Hagel in it too.

Give me the ES ghost Stamkos and Nick Paul like we had last year.

Cool. Let's stack them on 1 line and stick the other with Cirelli. Then 40 minutes a game can be nothing else happening and we can pray line 1 scores 3 times a night. That's been working GREAT for the last 3 years. It was also fun watching us losing the Stanley Cup twice with the 1 line strategy too. All we had to do was hope Johnson didn't break his wrist one year and Point didn't get hurt the other

 

[b0lthed]

I know this place has a reputation for overreactions, but wowwww …

Hard to believe anyone watched the Bolts last season and came away thinking, yeah we need LESS defense, in fact we need to add one of the instinctively worst defensive players in all of hockey. Thats Sprong. Theres a reason he signed for the minimum in spite of his offensive production. Theres a reason he ends up on the fourth line of every team he’s been on.

Im not trying to tell anyone how to feel, but we got Jake Freakin Guentzel! Yknow, the No. 1 free agent on the market this summer? We will score. Plenty. We will have a top echelon PP again. But now we will be balanced, harder to play against and able to hold a gollderned lead in the 3rd period for cripes sake!

 

[Stammertime91]

Yeah I hate a top 6 with the leagues leading scorer, 2 40 goal scorers and Hagel in it too.

Give me the ES ghost Stamkos and Nick Paul like we had last year.

ES Ghostkos had more ES points than Cirelli. More than whoever goes into 2RW.

Paul certainly benefited from PP production for his projected clip of what's average for a 3M player, but he's just as good offensively at half Cirelli's cost.

Our top line isn't an issue. Nobody is arguing that so you're strawmanning his take. The glaring issue is a lack of a second scoring line. Hagel is great, no complaints. It's Cirelli who is average and a lack of a true RW on the 2nd line. There's a lot of hope that Atkinson, Eyssimont, Chaffee, Sheary, Geekie, or Groshev somehow fill the gap and produce.

You made a sarcastic post but nobody is disagreeing with 4/6 of our top 6. It's the 6M 40pt center and roll of the dice RW. That's a problem.

 

[Stammertime91]

Cool. Let's stack them on 1 line and stick the other with Cirelli. Then 40 minutes a game can be nothing else happening and we can pray line 1 scores 3 times a night. That's been working GREAT for the last 3 years. It was also fun watching us losing the Stanley Cup twice with the 1 line strategy too. All we had to do was hope Johnson didn't break his wrist one year and Point didn't get hurt the other

Exactly. We just witnessed the "leagues leading scorer" and two 40 goal guys get bounced in 5 games. Lol. And that was with Duclair.

Waiting for three lines to give Kucherov a breather so he can zip cool, sick passes to Guentzel and Point seems to be the arousal around here. Just wait until Hagel does everything right but doesn't score for +10 games and people will bitch about him while Cirelli's mom keeps making excuses and calling him quality. It's hilarious.

 

[JTBF81]

Since Cirelli did improve last year, albeit minimally in terms of offense, there's plenty of optimism that his ceiling hasn't been reached. He's closer to a 50 point player now and with one more step, he has 55 or more point potential. As long as he keeps playing well defensively while taking the toughest matchups, all while getting minimal pp time, even a small offensive improvement is fine. Tampa has 5 established and quality top 6 F, just as they did last year. Whether JBB tries to add another now, at the tdl, or they get that contribution from someone already on the roster remains to be seen. However, as expected,.the team's.solid 2C remains a large part of the team's core.

JBB improved team defense, the.blueline especially, and they'll have a healthy Vasy to begin the year. There's very little to be doom and gloom about based on the fact that JBB recognized what they had wasn't working the last two years and made significant changes in an attempt to make the team better. On paper, they are. Whether it translates to on ice success remains to be seen, but full credit to JBB for not just making a couple minor changes and hoping part 3 of the mediocre production of the last two years was going to be vastly different.

 

[CupsOverCash]

Since Cirelli did improve last year, albeit minimally in terms of offense, there's plenty of optimism that his ceiling hasn't been reached. He's closer to a 50 point player now and with one more step, he has 55 or more point potential. As long as he keeps playing well defensively while taking the toughest matchups, all while getting minimal pp time, even a small offensive improvement is fine. Tampa has 5 established and quality top 6 F, just as they did last year. Whether JBB tries to add another now, at the tdl, or they get that contribution from someone already on the roster remains to be seen. However, as expected,.the team's.solid 2C remains a large part of the team's core.

JBB improved team defense, the.blueline especially, and they'll have a healthy Vasy to begin the year. There's very little to be doom and gloom about based on the fact that JBB recognized what they had wasn't working the last two years and made significant changes in an attempt to make the team better. On paper, they are. Whether it translates to on ice success remains to be seen, but full credit to JBB for not just making a couple minor changes and hoping part 3 of the mediocre production of the last two years was going to be vastly different.

I think the depth is where people have pause with this team. If you look at other competing teams it's more and more of a issue now days across the league with the flat cap over the past while. I think an encouraging thing is that the division didn't really improve. Only maybe a few teams actually got that much better on paper in the offseason. I think we got better but is it enough to get by some teams that were in front of us last year. It's not easy to say because we did make some pretty big changes. It's just still a question of whether we can get a good amount of scoring outside the first line and the power play. It's still also a question of whether vasi is back to being himself again. If so and we actually did improve overall 5v5 play we should be better but will it be better than fl, boston, or tor a likely first round opponent? Let's start there.

 

[Todd1a]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1814794052555964786

 

[Sky04]

Cool. Let's stack them on 1 line and stick the other with Cirelli. Then 40 minutes a game can be nothing else happening and we can pray line 1 scores 3 times a night. That's been working GREAT for the last 3 years. It was also fun watching us losing the Stanley Cup twice with the 1 line strategy too. All we had to do was hope Johnson didn't break his wrist one year and Point didn't get hurt the other

Ok so you're mad and upset like we have the worst top-6 in the league with a topline of Guentzel-Point-Kucherov? at worst the Hagel-Cirelli line is going to have a 60 point winger, 40 point center and not get scored on but continue to cry like that's bottom of the barrel.\

As for the bolded, I'm not sure what you're trying to say? That every team would prefer it if their number 1 center wasn't hurt during a run? Obviously. Yeah all Edmonton has to do is hope McDavid doesn't get hurt too or Barkov for Florida, Mackinnon for the Av's