Quick Strikes: How did the Tampa Bay Lightning do at the NHL draft?

The Bolts and Prospects

How do various hockey writers think the Tampa Bay Lightning did at the draft? Taking into account Al Murray’s tendency to surprise writers by going off the board for certain picks, the general sense is that the Lightning did fine but not great. Statistician Mannyelk on twitter used his own calculation for player value (click through to his twitter to check it out) and came up with a B+ grade for the team.

Here’s what Forbes thought of the Lightning: Winners And Losers From The 2019 NHL Draft [Forbes]

The Tampa Bay Lightning did all right, securing first and third-round picks as part of the deal that sent power forward J.T. Miller to the Vancouver Canucks while getting his $5.25 million-per-year cap hit off their books for the next four years.

But it essentially cost the Toronto Maple Leafs a first-round pick to persuade the Carolina Hurricanes to take on the final year of 39-year-old Patrick Marleau’s $6.25 million-a-season contract.

And My NHL Trade Rumors...Pointed out that the JT Miller trade was all for the sake of a certain player: NHL Trade Analysis: Patrick Marleau and J.T. Miller Traded in Salary Dumps [My NHL Trade Rumors]

Vancouver gains a player who can help them immediately while Tampa Bay climbs slowly out of their salary cap-induced hell. Between this and the Ryan Callahan LTIR designation, Tampa Bay gets closer to re-signing Brayden Point.

Speaking of the team’s cap, times they are a-changing. We’ll be keeping an eye out for news in the next few days. Speaking as a fan of the player, it will be sad to lose Anton Stralman, he’s such a smart analyst of the game and always worth watching in interviews.

In with the new.

Puck 77 profiled our first-round pick: Tampa Bay Lightning: Who Is Nolan Foote? [Puck 77]

Skating is obviously the biggest need for him in his development, because if he doesn’t get better on his edges to enable him to stop and start with the puck, then he will never make the NHL. But if he works on it, and gets considerably better, while fine tuning his already established two-way game, he projects as a middle 6 winger, with PK time, and maybe even PP time if needed by the team. He is still 3 to 4 years out from making an NHL impact, at least at the moment, but he does show some promise.

And this accolade for Hedman is worth noting: Tampa Bay Lightning Steals The Show At The NHL Awards [Puck 77]

Despite coming up short in the Norris voting, Hedman was still given one accolade. He was named to the second team all-star roster, meaning the league thought of him as a top 4 defenseman league wide last year. Another very deserving award/accolade given to a great defenseman. Without Hedman, the Lightning would be lost on the backend, and that will continue as long as he is at 100% with the Lightning.

Non-news can sometimes be news when it means there’s a gap in the lineup at goal: Tampa Bay Lightning picks up a goalie, but he’s not in Crunch’s future [Syracuse.com]

But Mazanec is signed to play overseas next year. Tampa Bay general manager Julien BriseBois said Saturday that Mazanec was included in the swap only to keep Vancouver from going over the contract limit. He said Mazanec is not in the organization’s plans moving forward.

The Game

NHL’s cap crunch is being felt more acutely than ever [Sportsnet]

Welcome to the National Parity League, where the impact of a hard salary cap is being felt more acutely than ever. It fuelled virtually all of the player movement we saw here in Vancouver and may yet produce another trade or two in the week ahead.

Will Seattle expansion help the salary cap? One hopes. But here at least, is news about new hires: No new GM yet, but a key hockey operations pickup by NHL Seattle should help make that call [Seattle Times]

“Analytics isn’t just a department for us, it’s a way of life,’’ Leiweke said as he sat with Mandrycky and Bruckheimer on Saturday morning at a restaurant in the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel, where some of their GM conversations from Friday had taken place. “The world is changing. It’s an informed approach. And Alex (Mandrycky) will play a part in our GM decision. We’re feeling good about fresh eyes on this.’’

The Other Game

The Rays’ Montreal Plan: A peek behind the curtain [Tampa Bay Times, paid content]

Plot or ploy? A look inside the Rays’ thought process as they consider splitting their home schedule between Tampa Bay and Montreal.