Tampa Bay Lightning 2024 Draft Review – Part 1

GM austin757’s inaugural RHL draft saw the team make four selections in the first round and an impressive eighteen selection in all. Given that initial high bar, it was always going to be difficult for 2024 to measure up. In fact, with only three draft picks in 2024, the only real path to a more impressive draft was a lottery win. Fortunately (for the fans) or unfortunately (for the scouts), the Tampa Bay Lightning overachieved a fair bit in 2023-24 and ended up with the 10th overall pick in the draft.

The Lightning started draft day with just three selections: 10th , 42nd, and 74th overall, and the confidence that they would be able to get one of their top thirteen prospects at 10th overall. The Lightning scouting staff was very insistent that there was a clear top thirteen this year followed by a sharp drop off in quality for the rest of the top round, so it wouldn’t make sense to target late 1st round picks in trades, and the real question that would swing the day would be “who ends up there at 10.”

As the clock ticked down toward 10th overall and the #2 prospect on their board continued to fall, the feeling at Tampa Bay’s draft table was nervous but hopeful. An 11th hour call to Edmonton was unable to get a deal done, and with Levshunov and Lindstrom coming off the board at 8 and 9 overall, GM austin757 made the tough call to pivot. The 10th overall pick was traded to Florida for 13th overall, Cayden Primeau, Erik Brannstrom, and Florida’s 2025 2nd round pick. When the dust settled, Tampa Bay ended up selecting potential superstar Zayne Parekh at 13 after watching Beckett Sennecke, Sam Dicksinson, and Konsta Helenius go off the board with picks 10-12.

When reached for comment on the selection, austin757 said, “We were hoping to get a top forward this year but when it came down to it I felt that Primeau, Brannstrom, and a 2nd were enough to move off of Sennecke and roll the dice to see who fell. I think it worked out great in hindsight – Parekh is an elite talent who may struggle to translate his game to the NHL, but if he can pull it off, he projects as a 70+ point a year player. Primeau is just scratching the surface, he already looks like a potential starter or at worst a top backup. Brannstrom will get a new chance to prove himself this year. He certainly has the talent but hasn’t put things together yet. Adding a 2nd round pick is always big. If Sennecke ends up a star and Parekh busts we will look pretty foolish, but I think Parekh is the better prospect today.”

While the rest of the league focused on completing round 1 of the draft, Tampa worked on adding a pair of 2nd round picks. First up, 50th overall was acquired from San Jose for 74th overall plus Tampa’s 2025 3rd round pick. Next, 57th overall was acquired in exchange for prospect Lukas Dragicevic, a player that GM austin757 had selected at the end of round 1 last year.

This pair of trades gave the Lightning three 2nd round picks to work with: 42nd, 50th, and 57th. The spirits at the Tampa Bay draft table were understandably high going into round 2. However, the mood steadily changed as Tampa’s scouts watched in awe while the eleven picks leading up to 42 all ended up being top targets, a truly stunning development. This led to a bit of a scramble at the draft table and a tough debate between scouts around who to take. In the end, Stiga and Gridin were passed over for Leo Sahlin Wallenius, a solid puck moving defenseman out of Sweden who led all J20 defensemen in scoring this season.

Next up the Lightning ended up taking another Swede in Linus Eriksson at 50, a projectable two-way centre who wore the C for Sweden’s U18 team this year on three different occasions (Hlinka, U18, and WJAC-19). With their final selection of the round Tampa went for some size, opting for Adam Kleber over Ben Danford. Kleber is stand out skater for 6’6” and excels on the defensive side of the puck with enough puck moving ability to project as a future #4 Dman.

When interviewed at the end of round 2, GM austin757 had the following to say: “The Dragicevic trade was a correction for a mistake last year. I think his projection is too risky and he didn’t take the steps I had hoped this year, although he could still prove us wrong for giving up on him. By turning that pick into Adam Kleber, we are adding a player with a unique size/speed combo instead of a pure puck mover. Eriksson is a guy who doesn’t have a lot of star potential but plays like an NHLer and looks like he can stick at C. He looks like a 3C with upside for more.”

“I was a little shocked we didn’t end up with a player higher up our list than Sahlin Wallenius at 42, but the eleven picks preceding were all guys I had circled and another player I liked, Nabokov, was ineligible! What are the odds… Anyway, Sahlin Wallenius is quite the consolation prize, and looks like a future top 4 offensive defenseman. Those other guys are probably all busts anyway.”

A likely story…

-Tampa Bay Times
July 22, 2024