When Martin St. Louis left the Lightning this year and headed to the New York Rangers, a new age was ushered into the organization. St. Louis was the last member of Tampa's Stanley Cup team and like Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier before him, was another great player to leave the Lightning. But now, a new group of stars are shining in Tampa's rebuild.
The Lightning have drafted well over the past few years. Getting Steven Stamkos in 2008 and then Victor Hedman in 2009 was a step in the right direction for this struggling organization. Stamkos has had more goals (210) than anybody else in the NHL since 2010, a stat that is made even more impressive considering he was out for the majority of this past season but still stayed ahead of Alex Ovechkin who's coming off a 51 goal season. Hedman had a breakout season this year with 13 goals, far surpassing his previous record of 5 in the 2011-12 season and 42 assists, also surpassing a record of 23 in the 2010-11 season. These two will certainly help to lead the way for Tampa in the next few seasons. Stamkos could easily have another 60 goal season like he did in 2011-12 season and if Hedman continues to play as well as he has he could be a top five defenseman in the next few years.
With Hedman and Stamkos settling in well and leading the way for the Bolts, Tampa will now turn to their young and upcoming stars like Tyler Johnson, Kristers Gudlevskis and Radko Gudas. Tampa has a promising group of defenseman in players like Radko Gudas and Andrej Sustr. Gudas led all rookies this season with 273 hits and isn't afraid to drop the gloves either. Gudas may not have been big as far as scoring goes, but he certainly can fire a rocket and his physicality is just what Tampa needs. Andrej Sustr may need more time to develop, but is certainly the right size. The 6'8 defenseman has a promising future and could be of great help to the Bolts in year to come. Mark Barberio is also promising but needs some time to mature before he's ready to play a full season and not 49 games like this season.
Tampa also has a successful young offensive core. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat are the posterboys of rookie success. Johnson who went undrafted had 50 points this season and Palat, drafted in the 7th round of the 2011 NHL Draft, lead the Lightning with 61 points and had the most point of any rookie after January 1st. The Bolts also have other young players who pitched in when needed like Nikita Kucherov and JT Brown. Alex Killorn who's playing in his second NHL season was a valuable 2nd line player and put up 41 points.
Aside from the young group already on Tampa's roster, many more coud find themselves there in future years. In a ranking of all the NHL propects not playing for an NHL team, the Hockey News ranked Jonathan Drouin as being the most promising. Drouin was selected by the Lightning 3rd overall in the 2013 NHL Draft. Many thought he would be a member of the Lightning this year but they sent him back to the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL so he could mature more. Drouin worked hard this season and came out with 29 goals and 108 points in the 46 games he played with Halifax. But Drouin wasn't the only promising player the Bolts got last year. They also picked up Adam Erne in the second round, 33rd overall. Erne scored a few times for the Bolts in preseason games and brings a certain amount of physicallity to whatever team he's on. Erne recently signed with the Syracuse Crunch, Tampa's AHL affiliate. More promising players are coming up through the ranks like Vladislav Namestnikov and Cedric Paquette and things look set for Tampa Bay in the offensive zone.
On the blue line Tampa also has prospects throughout the minors. The biggest may be Slater Koekkoek. The 20 year old Canadian defenseman has had troubles, struggling from shoulder problems that never seem to end but as these injuries fade into the past, Koekkoek should prove to be a promising defenseman in a few years. He's logging plenty of ice time and is young enough that he doesn't have to worry about losing time while he's in the minors. Other young blue liners may prove to be key in the future for Tampa as well.
Tampa is also set for problems it may experience in the goal crease. They have two goaltenders that could provide a solid net presence when their time comes. The first is Kristers Gudlevskis. He played well in the ECHL and AHL this year and put on quite the performance in the Olympics, stopping 55 of 57 shots for team Latvia in a narrow 2-1 loss to Canada. He made hsitory as he is the only person to appear in the ECHL, AHL, NHL and Olympics in one season. He helped the Bolts to a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets and seeing as how he was selected in the 5th round of the 2013 NHL Draft. The other goalie the Bolts are interested in is Andrey Vasilevskiy. The Bolts signed him to a three year contract less than two moths ago and was slected by the Lightning, 19th overall, in the 2012 NHL Draft. In the three World Junior Championships he's been in, he's won two bronze medals and one silver and this year with Russia in the World Championship, won gold.
Over the next few years the Bolts will have some familar names like Stamkos and Hedman leading the way, but just like this year, will also have players that the hockey world may have never known about before they came to play for Tampa Bay.