Tampa Bay Lightning 2017 Season Preview: Draft Utopia

Tampa Bay Lightning 2017 Season Preview

Steven Stamkos missed 65 games in 2016-2017. Him staying healthy is huge if the Tampa Bay Lightning are gonna have success in 2017-2018.

Chris Ransom follow @DraftUtopia Posted on 9/9/2017.

Tampa Bay Lightning Line 1 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Ondrej Palat	Left Wing	75	5-foot-11-inches	174-pounds	17	35	52
Steven Stamkos	Center	17	6-foot-0-inches	190-pounds	9	11	20
Nikita Kucherov	Right Wing	74	6-foot-0-inches	165-pounds	40	45	85

Tampa Bay Lightning Line 2 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Alex Killorn	Left Wing	81	6-foot-1-inches	196-pounds	19	17	36
Tyler Johnson	Center	66	5-foot-8-inches	183-pounds	19	26	45
Brayden Point	Right Wing	68	5-foot-10-inches	166-pounds	18	22	40

Tampa Bay Lightning Line 3 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Chris Kunitz	Left Wing	71	6-foot-0-inches	195-pounds	9	20	29
Vladislav Namestnikov	Center	74	5-foot-11-inches	180-pounds	10	18	28
Ryan Callahan	Right Wing	18	5-foot-11-inches	187-pounds	2	2	4

Tampa Bay Lightning Line 4 Forwards

Player	Position	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Yanni Gourde	Left Wing	20	5-foot-9-inches	172-pounds	6	2	8
Cedric Paquette	Center	58	6-foot-1-inches	198-pounds	4	6	10
J.T. Brown	Right Wing	64	5-foot-10-inches	169-pounds	3	3	6

Tampa Bay Lightning Forwards Review: Steven Stamkos needs to stay healthy in 2017-2018. Tampa Bay will not get back to the playoffs unless Stamkos plays all 82 games. He's that vital to this top line. Put Stamkos with Palat and Kucherov and this top line will take off.

Tyler Johnson is a good line 2 center. Alex Killorn had some success on the second line. Brayden Point also emerged as a line 2 player.

Chris Kunitz will compliment Vladislav Namestnikov as the line 3 left winger next to Namestnikov. Ryan Callahan also needs to stay healthy as the line 3 right winger. Tampa Bay's fourth line of forwards is a huge weakness.

In 2016-2017, the Tampa Bay Lightning ranked 14th in goals scored and 6th on the power play. Tampa Bay will be lucky if they can match that in 2017-2018.

Tampa Bay Lightning Defensive Lines

Player	Line	Games Played	Height	Weight	Goals	Assists	Points
Victor Hedman	Line 1	79	6-foot-6-inches	223-pounds	16	56	72
Anton Stralman	Line 1	73	5-foot-11-inches	190-pounds	5	17	22
Braydon Coburn	Line 2	80	6-foot-5-inches	223-pounds	5	7	12
Dan Girardi	Line 2	63	6-foot-1-inches	212-pounds	4	11	15
Jake Dotchin	Line 3	35	6-foot-3-inches	210-pounds	0	11	11
Andrej Sustr	Line 3	72	6-foot-7-inches	220-pounds	3	11	14

Tampa Bay Lightning Defensemen Review Tampa Bay has a ton of big physical defensemen that know how to stop a power play by penalty killing. The Lightning ranked 16th in goals allowed and 13th in penalty killing. This defense should get Tampa Bay to another playoff appearance and they will probably be a top 15 defense in both goals allowed and penalty killing.

Draft Utopia Between The Pipes Goalie Tracker

Starting Goalie

Player	Team	Games Played	Record	Shutouts	Save Percentage	Goals Against Average
Andrei Vasilevskiy	Tampa Bay Lightning	47	23-17-7	2 Shutouts	.917	2.61 GAA

Backup Goalie

Player	Team	Games Played	Record	Shutouts	Save Percentage	Goals Against Average
Peter Budaj	Tampa Bay Lightning	55	30-21-3	7 Shutouts	.915	2.18 GAA

Tampa Bay Lightning Goaltender Review The Lightning have Andre Vasilevskiy as their full-time starting goalie now. Peter Budaj had 7 shutouts last season for the Lightning in limited action. Tampa Bay has a great goalie situation and that is why the Lightning have a shot to contend.

Tampa Bay Lightning Prospect Pool: Tampa Bay has Dennis Yan in their farm system. Yan, their 2015 third round pick is about to tear it up for the Syracuse Crunch.

Tampa Bay Lightning 2017-2018 Prediction

Tampa Bay will fall short of a playoff appearance. The Lightning lack a fourth line of forwards. If Steve Stamkos gets injured again, the Lightning could finish in the bottom 10.