How quickly time flies. The calendar has officially switched over to September and summer is now behind us. We’ve finally made it to hockey season. Okay, maybe the games don’t quite count yet, but there will be actual competitive hockey played this month, and by the end of it, we will have a sense of what type of team the 2023-24 Tampa Bay Lightning will be. However, before we get to this year’s team, let’s take a few weeks to get to know the players that will make up future Lightning teams. It’s time for the 2023 Top 25 Under 25.
Over the next few weeks we will be breaking down the top prospects in the organization that are under the age of 25 (October 1 is the cutoff date). It’s a time-honored tradition that dates back to 2013 when one Steven Stamkos topped our inaugural list (talk about time flying by). Those early countdowns had quite a few really, really good players on them (Nikita Kucherov was ranked 15th on that list). Things have changed just a bit since then. We do still have 25 players on this list, and out of those 25, there are definitely some prospects that will make the NHL at some point. Is there a Stamkos or Kucherov on the list? Well…..you never know.
In his quest for Stanley Cups, general manager Julien BriseBois has sacrificed draft picks, prospects, and more draft picks in order to bring quality pieces into the organization. That has led to one of the smallest pools of players under the age of 25 that the Lightning have had in a long time. By our calculations, there are only 35 players either under contract or on the reserve list for the Lightning that are under the age of 25. That’s not a lot. However, whenever a fan walks into Amalie Arena, they can look up at the two recent Stanley Cup banners that are hanging from the rafters.
Not only has the pool of prospects grown smaller, the top end of the talent that made up the recent lists has vanished. The top four players from last year’s list have either aged out or left the organization. In total, eight players that made the list last year are not on it. The good news is that five of those players (Mikhail Sergachev, Brandon Hagel, Cole Koepke, Nick Perbix, and Sean Day) are still in the organization. Cal Foote, Max Cajkovic, and Grant Mishmash have left via free agency or trade.
The bright side is that there are some open spots for new players. There will also be a new number one now that Sergachev has aged out. Who will that player be? Well, you’re going to have to stick around for a few weeks to find out.
We did things a little different this year. First of all, there was no readers component to the voting. Due to the changes we’ve gone through in the past year, we just didn’t have the bandwidth or resources to include votes from the community. We do hope to bring that feature back for next season’s list. There are always at least a few players that get vastly different rankings from the readers as opposed to the staff, and that’s a fun dynamic to explore.
There were six voters in total that provided lists, and despite us all going about it in different ways, the results ended up being pretty close. Granted with such a limited field to choose from, there weren’t going to be many differences. There are a couple of ways to look at how to rank the players. One can argue that it’s the best players in terms of their current development. Another way to look at the list is by biggest potential. The Lightning have a lot of prospects with a top-end outlook as a bottom six, two-way forward or bottom-pairing defender. Still, there are a few players in the system that could break that mold and provide high-end talent if everything falls into place for them.
Starting on Monday we will be rolling out one player per day as we count down the top prospects. Please follow along and comment on if we were too high or too low on each player’s rankings.
