Projecting the Tampa Bay Lightning's Opening Night Roster

We're now less than two weeks from the start of the NHL season. Teams are finalizing their rosters and signing their RFAs, and players are beginning their training camps and gearing up for pre-season action. As we saw with Colorado, the salary cap is starting to catch up to the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's somewhat of a non-issue, considering the two Stanley Cups Tampa has hoisted in the last 15 months, but it is proving a challenge for this team to hang on to all the pieces that made those championships possible. Just this summer the team lost Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman, Tyler Johnson, David Savard, Luke Schenn, and Curtis McElhinney. McElhinney retired and the rest were lost with basically no return coming back to the team. Johnson was exchanged with Chicago for Brent Seabrook, who also proceeded to retire from the NHL. The Lightning are beginning to bleed talent, and it's going to affect their roster. Let's look at the changes they're going to have to make to their lineup, starting with the forwards:

Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov

Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Steven Stamkos

Matthieu Joseph - Ross Colton - Corey Perry

Pat Maroon - Alex Barre-Boulet - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

Gabriel Dumont

Taylor Raddysh

Charles Hudon

All those player departures are felt in this forward group. The depth is a shadow of its former self, and while this team is still competitive based solely on its top players, the bottom 6 is a significant downgrade from what the Bolts iced last season. This is most noticeable at centre, where the lack of both Yanni Gourde and Tyler Johnson have left the Lightning with a ragtag group of players that, while still talented, may be forced to play above their skill level in this lineup. The addition of Corey Perry certainly helps the issue, he's been a contributor to every team he's played on since leaving Anaheim. This is still a good team, probably even a playoff team, but the depth that helped the Lightning win its last two Cups is strikingly absent in this new group. The stars will need to carry more of the load this season to make up for it.

The same power shift is seen in the defensive group, which is still strong but hampered by player departures:

Victor Hedman - Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak

Mikhail Sergachev - Cal Foote

Zach Bogosian

Fredrik Claesson

The right side is a noticeable downgrade from what Tampa had to work with last season. That's not to disparage Cernak or Rutta, both are good players and have played well in the past, but both rely heavily on their elite partner on the left side to help balance out their pairings. Losing both Savard and Schenn will have an effect on the third pairing. Sergachev is still trapped on that pair as well, although his contract is due up in a couple years, whereas McDonagh still has 4 years left on his, so more upheaval is likely on the way for this defence group down the road.

In net there is little cause for concern, as Tampa is still leaning on one of the NHL's best netminders and finding success in doing so:

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Brian Elliot

Maxime Legace

The absurdity of Vasy's play continues to be a point of pride in Tampa Bay. Since he arrived full-time in the NHL, the "Big Cat" has never seen his save percentage drop below .917. He's won back-to-back Stanley Cups with matching GAAs of 1.90 in 23 and 24 playoff games respectively. It's been a long time since the NHL has seen numbers this good appear this consistently from the same goaltender. As such, it isn't a huge factor who the Lightning run as their backup. This year it's Brian Elliot, who will serve the purpose just fine. Should he get hurt, Max Legace only played one NHL game last season with Pittsburgh, and he earned himself a shutout. Now if Vasy gets hurt it's a different story, but so long as he stays healthy the Lightning have no concerns in the goal crease.

What do you think about this Lightning roster, and what would you change?

Photo credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports