Guts and Growth: How The Lightning Built A Playoff Team
“The cyclical nature of the salary cap world can’t be outrun or avoided; all incredible runs come to an end at some point. There’s bound to be a redistribution of points in the Atlantic Division this season.”
The above quote was the 2024-25 preseason analysis for the Tampa Bay Lightning by one particular National Hockey League-centric web site, but that skepticism was shared by several followers of the league.
In hindsight, the lesson to be learned is this franchise has won the most playoff games over the past decade (87 victories) for reasons, so questioning its leadership and players’ ability to maintain a high level of success probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do.
“We have a lot of good players doing a lot of good things,” veteran Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said in a press conference following his team’s 5-1 beating of Florida on Tuesday at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning (47-26-8, 102 points) have taken a step forward over the past six-plus months, and they did so for two reasons:
- Team leadership has guts, and
- Those in leadership (executives, scouts, coaches, and training staff) are incredibly gifted in finding talent and developing it.
Despite losing franchise icon Steven Stamkos and talented young defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, somehow the team improved.
In total, Tampa Bay utilized 13 players in double-digit games last season, who aren’t with the club today, which doesn’t include the three players in the trade deadline deal that brought Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand to the club last month.
After registering 98 points and being the sixth-best team in the Eastern Conference each of the past two seasons, Tampa Bay has 102 points heading into tonight’s regular-season final game at the New York Rangers (6 p.m.).
How did this happen? Here is a list of the hows and whys:
Be Bold
Tampa Bay Vice President and General Manager Julien BriseBois didn’t enjoy being one of the better teams in the NHL last season. He acted in the off-season as if the team was a disappointment, and his career was riding on a turnaround.
He allowed Stamkos to walk, despite the uproar of fans, while trading one of the best young defensemen in the league (Sergachev) for – what he believed was – an even more successful future.
Those moves allowed the team to sign forward Jake Guentzel, as well as bring in defensemen J.J. Moser and forward Conor Geekie.
Without question, Sergachev is better than Moser, but Moser is very good and very young. At just 24, he’ll get better over time, and for a long time.
With no disrespect to Stamkos (we all love him), having Guentzel (30 years old), alone, is better – today – than having Stamkos. When you throw in the potential of Geekie (a mere 20 years of age), BriseBois improved this franchise for years to come.
In hindsight, these moves appear to have been no-brainers, but it took the scouts to know the potential of Moser and Geekie, the talent level of Guentzel, and how he would fit in with the Lightning system.
It took the coaching staff of both Tampa Bay and Syracuse to develop Geekie this season, and it took the balls of BriseBois to pull the trigger despite knowing full well the easiest thing to do would be to hold onto both Stamkos and Sergachev and probably score another 95-plus points.
Getting Defensive
The Lightning are much-improved defensively this season, and an obvious reason, again in a stroke of intellect by BriseBois, was trading for veteran Ryan McDonagh, who is arguably this team’s Most Valuable Player.
You could also point to veteran goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy being healthy this season as a reason for the statistical improvement. However, the work of the coaches in developing young players such as Moser, and 24-year-old Emil Lilleberg has also been very impactful.
Lilleberg improved from playing 37 games last year (at a minus 15 overall) to 75 games this season and is break even in plus/minus play.
A season ago, Tampa Bay was utilizing then-32-year-old Calvin DeHaan nearly 17 minutes per game, and veteran Matt Dumba. Lilleberg is better than both – today – and almost a decade younger than De Haan and six years younger than Dumba.
In addition, Lilleberg makes nearly $3,000,000 less annually than Dumba.
Lilleberg is also better (and four years younger) – today – than veteran Haydn Fleury, who Tampa Bay utilized in 24 games a year ago.
Developing Talent
It’s sinful that Jon Cooper hasn’t won a Jack Adams Award for being the top coach in the NHL at some point, because few would argue that he is, indeed, the top coach in the NHL.
However, focusing on the result, which is earning two points on game nights, can cause you to lose sight of Cooper’s work when no one is watching.
Almost every Tampa Bay player is enjoying career seasons in some or multiple categories this year, which is a testament to the coaching and player development staff. When guys come to the Lightning, they get better.
Lilleberg was mentioned, but forward Gage Goncalves has improved, particularly in the second half of this season, seemingly every time the sun rises.
Veteran defenseman Erik Cernak is enjoying the most productive of his seven seasons with career numbers in plus/minus (30) and points (21).
The same could be said for veteran forward Anthony Cirelli, who has high-water marks in both plus/minus (30), time on the ice (18:45 per game), and points (59).
Veteran forward Brandon Hagel has also reached top numbers in those categories while even a veteran like McDonagh is having his best season in terms of plus/minus (he leads the entire NHL with a plus/minus of 44).
Guentzel tallied a goal on Tuesday, which was his 41st of the season and a career-high while veteran forward Brayden Point has improved his plus/minus play by 35 points this season from last year.
This list could go on and on. Nick Paul has improved his plus/minus play by 30 points, defenseman Darren Raddysh (career numbers in goals, assists, points, plus/minus), and even backup goaltender Jonas Johansson has improved his save percentage from a year ago.
“I know that there were a lot of question marks about what this team was going to look like,” Cooper said of the skepticism surrounding his team. “We lost a cornerstone of our organization. I think that there was a ton of uncertainty about how things were going to play out.
“We not only have made the playoffs, but we found a way to get home ice. Our special teams ended up in the top five or six in the league. We went from a mediocre defensive team to one of the best in the league. I could just check a whole bunch of boxes. It’s pretty impressive.”
