The Tampa Bay Lightning made a number of noteworthy moves on Tuesday afternoon, including a signing and a roster cut down on the eve of their first preseason game of 2013… Oh, and the lineup for that game was revealed as well.
The first news of the afternoon was the signing of 2013 7th round draft pick, forward Joel Vermin to a standard three-year entry level contract. Vermin, 21, will play for Bern of the Swiss-A league this season (and may make an appearance for the Swiss national team during the Olympic Games in Sochi during the winter).
But with the system depth good news comes the camp-related bad news: surgery and a roster cut down. Defenseman prospect Dylan Blujus had arthroscopic knee surgery today and is expected out for 2-4 weeks. He’ll remain with the Lightning during his recovery. From the sounds of it (via Erik Erlendsson of the Tampa Tribune/TBO) it was an elective procedure, not out of necessity.
The training camp roster shrank from 62 to 59 with the releasing of forward Brett Welychka, defenseman Jake Dotchin and goaltender Eric Brassard from their amateur tryout agreements. Dotchin is a former 6th round draft pick for the Lightning from the 2012 draft, he’ll return to his junior team. Welychka and Brassard were invitees.
And then there’s Orlando…
Cedrick Desjardins and Kristers Gudlevskis, the 2013 5th round draft pick, will split time in goal for the Lightning. The rest of the Lightning lineup should look as such:
Forwards:
Alex Killorn – Valtteri Filppula – Teddy Purcell
Dana Tyrell – Nate Thompson – B.J. Crombeen
Henri Ikonen – Mike Angelidis – Tom Pyatt
J.T. Brown – Cedric Paquette – Adam Erne
Defense:
Matt Carle – Radko Gudas
Slater Koekkoek – Mark Barberio
Dmitry Korobov – Nikita Nesterov
And finally, a public service announcement because I’m seeing this asked openly a lot: Tomorrow night’s game is not televised, nor is any game during the 2013 NHL preseason. If that changes, it’ll be a story in itself, but it’s not likely to change (nor is it a Tampa Bay Lightning issue alone, most other teams don’t televise preseason exhibitions).
