How the current Tampa Bay Lightning roster was assembled.

[Five Alarm Fire]

Calculate cap hit on players based on what they take home after taxes so no one has a salary cap advantage.

It's that easy eh?

 

[DFC]

Honestly, I had no idea how many "insignificant" moves turned out to be key pieces later on. Forgot Cirelli was one of the picks we got, indirectly, for MSL, and how we more/less turned Steve Downie into a franchise goalie. Great, great article, which makes pretty clear how masterful Yzerman was when building this roster.

The one thing the article hints at, but doesn't address directly, is Yzerman's tendency to "pump and dump" players. Two easy examples are Namestnikov and Conacher, players "sold" at the peak of their value to return much better players.

 

[BoltSTH]

My favorite part was learning the team gives away 50k every home game to a charity. That's awesome.

Vinik also donated during the lockout, when the team would have played. He said "Just because there is a lockout doesn't mean local charities have to suffer". Also, it is not the big charities, but local ones like food banks, education assistance, homeless etc.

 

[islesfan186]

Magic/wizardry. How you can have a roster with that much talent and depth AND still be under the cap is incredible.

 

[DFC]

Vinik also donated during the lockout, when the team would have played. He said "Just because there is a lockout doesn't mean local charities have to suffer". Also, it is not the big charities, but local ones like food banks, education assistance, homeless etc.

The single biggest part of TB's success has been Vinik. Beyond Yzerman, Stamkos, Hedman, Kucherov, and whoever else you want to put in. You can't replace an owner who turns himself into a beloved community leader. Every single good decision the franchise has made in recent years has stemmed either directly or indirectly from great ownership.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Thank you Steve Yzerman!

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

damn who would've thought that a team that drafted the first overall pick and the second overall pick would be good. absolutely insane.

I mean, there's a bunch of teams who've had multiple top 5 picks and haven't done squat with it. So it's not exactly as easy as picking high a couple of times and you're guaranteed to be a powerhouse.

 

[Hoek]

Toronto has even lower taxes than Tampa, that's the only reason we weren't able to sign Tavares. So unfair!

Also absolutely none of our draft picks would've signed with us, they all would've held out and gone to KHL if they had to pay more taxes. Whew we we're lucky.

 

[The Macho King]

damn who would've thought that a team that drafted the first overall pick and the second overall pick would be good. absolutely insane.

TBF, how many of the last ten drafts can you conceivably say Tampa got the best player (or top 3 player) out of? 2011 clearly. 2009 clearly. 2014 arguably. 2008 either the 2nd or 3rd best player.

Is there any other team that's close to that?