Playoff Post-Mortem, Tampa Bay Lightning

Series Summary

The Devils managed to come out on top of this back-and-forth series, winning games 5 and 6 convincingly to defeat last year’s draft lottery winner. Tampa has to be disappointed to only score a single goal in those final two games after hanging tough with the Eastern Conference winners through four games.

Who Showed Up

Ryan Strome (2G / 3A) led the team in scoring, while Kirby Dach, Alex Tuch, and Phil “The Thrill” Kessel each chipped in 4 points. Thatcher Demko (0.907 SV %) gave the team the chance to win the series, though he wasn’t able to do enough to win it on his own.

Who Didn’t

Marcus Johansson played first line and PP1 minutes the whole series and didn’t score a single point.

Offseason Preview: UFA

Kris Letang is the big name here and most likely candidate to be resigned, and with no major RFAs set to be signed, the only question is how long Tampa wants to be committed to the 35-year-old.

Offseason Preview: Entry Draft

Tampa owns both their own and Arizona’s 1st round picks, which will both likely land in the middle of the round barring a lengthy run from Arizona. Beyond that, Tampa will pick only two more times, once in the 3rd, and once in the 7th.

Offseason Preview: Expansion Draft

7 F: Ryan Strome, Derick Brassard, Phil Kessel, Marcus Johansson, Alex Tuch, Jordan Martinook, Frank Vatrano

3 D: Kris Letang, Chris Tanev, Marco Scandella

1 G: Thatcher Demko

Potentially Available: Josh Archibald, Teddy Blueger, Laurent Dauphin, Cody Ceci, Braden Holtby