Tampa Bay Lightning Top 10 Prospects Rankings October 2013

1. Jonathan Drouin, LW 2013 1st Round Pick (3rd Overall) Halifax QMJHL
2. Andrey Vasilevskiy, G 2012 1st Round Pick  Salavat Yulaev Ufa KHL (Russia)
3. Slater Koekkoeck, D 2012 1st Round Pick Windsor OHL
4. Nikita Kucherov, RW 2011 2nd Round Pick Syracuse AHL
5. Vladislav Namestnikov, C 2011 1st Round Pick Syracuse AHL
6. Adam Erne, RW 2013 2nd Round Pick Quebec QMJHL
7. Dylan Blujus, D 2012 2nd Round Pick North Bay OHL
8. Brian Hart, RW 2012 2nd Round Pick Harvard University
9. Tanner Richard, F 2012 3rd Round Pick Syracuse AHL
10. Cedric Paquette, C 2012 4th Round Pick Syracuse AHL

Tampa Bay Lightning Actual Opening Lineup with Line Combinations

Lineup

Lines:

Ryan Malone, Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis
Teddy Purcell, Alex Killorn, Valeri Filppula
Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Richard Panik
Pierre Cedric-Labrie, Nate Thompson, B.J. Crombeen

Defenseman Pairings:

Radko Gudas, Matt Carle
Andrej Sustr, Victor Hedman
Eric Brewer, Mark Barberio

Starting Goaltender: Anders Lindback Backup: Ben Bishop

Scratches: D Keith Aulie, D Sami Salo, C Tom Pyatt

Tampa Bay Opening Day Roster Set + Lineup Combinations

Tampa Bay's opening day roster is set. Many writers and fans of the Lightning feel 2010 1st round pick Brett Connolly has looked outstanding so they wonder why Connolly was sent down to Syracuse in the AHL. The Lightning's 3rd overall pick in the 2013 draft left wing Jonathan Drouin was sent back to his junior team Halifax (QMJHL).

The line combinations are expected to be (left wing/center/right wing left to right listed in order of lines):

Ryan Malone, Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis 
Alex Killorn, Valeri Filppula, Teddy Purcell
Richard Panik, Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat
Tom Pyatt, Nate Thompson, B.J. Crombeen
13th forward could be Pierre Cedric Labrie but some of the 4th liners could move around

The defensive pairings listed in expected order (1st-3rd pairings) will be:

Victor Hedman,  Sami Salo
Matt Carle, Radko Gudas
Eric Brewer, Keith Aulie

Mark Barberio and Andrej Sustr are the 7th and 8th defensemen

Ben Bishop and Anders Lindback are the goaltenders.

Also, Defenseman Brian Lee is on injured reserve to start the season.

Tampa Bay Lightning Send Jonathan Drouin to his Junior Team

The Tampa Bay Lightning have assigned 2013 1st Round Pick (3rd overall pick) Jonathan Drouin to Halifax his junior team. I'm sure Halifax fans will be thrilled.

Tampa Bay Lightning Assigned 3 Players Back To Their Junior Teams and Several to AHL team

The Tampa Bay Lightning assigned LW Henri Ikonen to Kingston (OHL), D Slater Koekkoek to Windsor (OHL) and F Adam Erne to Quebec (QMJHL). They also sent Defensemen Charles Landry, Dan Milan, Joey Mormina, Nikita Nesterov, Drew Olson, Artem Sergeev and Luke Witkowski; Centers Brady Brassart, Max Langelier-Parent and Tanner Richard; Right Wings Eric Neilson, Carl Nielsen and Evan Rankin; Left Wing Danick Gauthier; and Goaltenders Cedrick Desjardins and Riku Helenius to Syracuse (AHL).

2013 NHL Draft Prospect Battle Drouin vs. Jones

The 2013 NHL Draft was considered one of the best drafts if not the best NHL draft since 2003. Did the Tampa Bay Lightning make the right selection with left wing Jonathan Drouin? You could have made an argument before the draft that Jonathan Drouin was the best prospect in the 2013 NHL Draft with his overall talent. Did the benefit of playing on the same line with 1st overall pick Nate Mackinnon outweigh Drouin's talent? Did Jonathan have one great breakout year that may have been somewhat of a fluke or is he just scratching the surface of his potential? The Lightning passed up one of the best defenseman to come into the draft, Seth Jones who went immediately after the Lightning selected Drouin.

More goes into how these players do than their statistics but you can follow the statistics of these three players here for fun to start.

3rd Overall Pick Left Wing Jonathan Drouin Tampa Bay Lightning


4th Overall Pick Defenseman Seth Jones Nashville Predators

2013 Draft Prospects Tracker

Bookmark this blog to track the Tampa Bay prospects and updated statistics for the upcoming season. Instead of looking up the players throughout the season, you can track their statistics here.
1st Round Pick Left Wing Jonathan Drouin - Drouin is playing for Halifax in the QMJHL in 2013-2014.

2nd Round Pick Left Wing Adam Erne - Erne will play for Quebec in the QMJHL in 2013-2014.

ADAM ERNE

5th Round Pick Goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis - Gudlevskis will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

KRISTERS GUDLEVSKIS

6th Round Pick Forward Henri Ikonen - Ikonen will play for Kingston in the OHL in 2013-2014.

HENRI IKONEN

7th Round Pick Forward Saku Salminen - Saku will play for Jokerit in sm-liiga the top Finland Pro League.

SAKU SALMINEN

7th Round Pick Forward Joël Vermin - Vermin will play for Bern in the NLA in Switzerland Pro League in 2013-2014.

JOEL VERMIN

2012 Draft Prospects Tracker

Bookmark this blog to track the Tampa Bay prospects and updated statistics for the upcoming season. Instead of looking up the players throughout the season, you can track their statistics here.
1st Round Pick Defenseman Slater Koekkoek - Slater will play for Windsor in the OHL in 2013-2014.

SLATER KOEKKOEK

1st Round Pick Goaltender Andrei Vasilevski - Andrei is expected to play for Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the KHL in 2013-2014.

ANDREI VASILEVSKI

2nd Round Pick Defeneman Dylan Blujus - Blujus will play for North Bay in the OHL in 2013-2014.

DYLAN BLUJUS

2nd Round Pick Right Wing Brian Hart - Hart will enter his sophomore season at Harvard University in 2013-2014.

BRIAN HART

3rd Round Pick Forward Tanner Richard - Richard will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

TANNER RICHARD

4th Round Pick Center Cédric Paquette - Paquette will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

CEDRIC PAQUETTE

6th Round Pick Defenseman Jake Dotchin -

JAKE DOTCHIN

7th Round Pick Left Wing Nikita Gusev -

NIKITA GUSEV

2011 Draft Prospects Tracker

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1st Round Pick Center Vladislav Namestnikov - Vladislav will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

VLADISLAV NAMESTNIKOV

2nd Round Pick Right Wing Nikita Kucherov - Kucherov will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

NIKITA KUCHEROV

5th Round Pick Defenseman Nikita Nesterov - Nesterov will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

NIKITA NESTEROV

6th Round Pick Goaltender Adam Wilcox - Wilcox enters his sophomore season at the University of Minnesota in 2013-2014.

ADAM WILCOX

7th Round Pick Center Matthew Peca - Peca enters his junior season at Quinnipiac University in 2013-2014.

MATTHEW PECA

7th Round Pick Left Wing Ondrej Palat - Palat will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014.

ONDREJ PALAT

2010 Draft Prospects Tracker

Bookmark this blog to track the Tampa Bay prospects and updated statistics for the upcoming season. Instead of looking up the players throughout the season, you can track their statistics here.
1st Round Pick Forward Brett Connolly - Connolly will likely play for Tampa Bay in 2013-2014 so he is no longer considered a prospect.

3rd Round Pick Defenseman Brock Beukeboom - In February 2011, The Blues acquired the rights to Beukeboom from Tampa Bay along with a 2011 third-round draft pick in exchange for defenseman Eric Brewer.

3rd Round Pick Defenseman Radko Gudas - Radko will play for Tampa Bay in 2013-2014 so he is no longer considered a prospect.

3rd Round Pick Defenseman Adam Janosik - Janosik is no longer property of Tampa Bay because he was not signed by the deadline in 2012.

4th Round Pick Defenseman Geoffrey Schemitsch - Schemitsch is no longer property of Tampa Bay because he was not signed by the deadline in 2012.

4th Round Pick Center Jimmy Mullin - Mullin will enter his junior season at Miami University in 2013-2014.

JIMMY MULLIN

6th Round Pick Forward Brendan O'Donnell - Brendan will enter his junior season at the University of North Dakota in 2013-2014.

BRENDAN O'DONNELL

7th Round Pick Defenseman Teigan Zahn - Zahn was not offered a contract by the Lightning and became an unrestricted free agent in June 2011.

2009 Draft Prospects Tracker

Bookmark this blog to track the Tampa Bay prospects and updated statistics for the upcoming season. Instead of looking up the players throughout the season, you can track their statistics here.
1st Round Pick Defenseman Victor Hedman - Hedman is on Tampa Bay so he is no longer considered a prospect.

1st Round Pick Right Wing Carter Ashton - Ashton was traded from the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Keith Aulie on February 27, 2012.

2nd Round Pick Right Wing Richard Pánik - Panik will play for Syracuse in the AHL in 2013-2014 if he doesn't make Tampa Bay's opening day roster.

RICHARD PANIK

4th Round Pick Forward Alex Hutchings - Hutchings was not given a qualifying offer in 2013 so he is a free agent.

5th Round Pick Goaltender Michael Zador - Zador was not signed by Tampa Bay and he is no longer property of the Lightning.

6th Round Pick Goaltender Jaroslav Janus - Janus is apparently playing out his contract for HC Slovan Bratislava in the KHL in 2013-2014.

JAROSLAV JANUS

7th Round Pick Defenseman Kirill Gotovets - Gotovets is expected to play his senior season at Cornell University in 2013-2014.

KIRILL GOTOVETS

2008 Draft Prospects Tracker

Bookmark this blog to track the Tampa Bay prospects and updated statistics for the upcoming season. Instead of looking up the players throughout the season, you can track their statistics here.
1st Round Pick Center Steven Stamkos - Stamkos is on Tampa Bay so he is no longer considered a prospect.
4th Round Pick Forward James Wright - Wright was traded along with Mike Vernace, to the Florida Panthers for Mike Kostka and Evan Oberg on December 2, 2011.
5th Round Pick Goaltender Dustin Tokarski - Tokarski was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for Cédrick Desjardins on February 14, 2013.
5th Round Pick Right Wing Kyle DeCoste - DeCoste was not signed by the deadline so he is no longer property of the Lightning.
6th Round Pick Defenseman Mark Barberio - Barberio will play for Syracuse in the AHL if he does not make the opening day roster in 2013-2014.

MARK BARBERIO

6th Round Pick Defenseman Luke Witkowski - Witkowski is expected to play for Syracuse if he does not make the opening day roster in 2013-2014.

LUKE WITKOWSKI

7th Round Pick Left Wing Matias Sointu - Tointu will play for TPS in the sm-liiga, Finland's top Professional league in 2013-2014.

MATIAS SOINTU

7th Round Pick Defenseman David Carle - Carle retired from hockey in 2008.

2007 Draft Prospects Tracker

Bookmark this blog to track the Tampa Bay prospects and updated statistics for the upcoming season. Instead of looking up the players throughout the season, you can track their statistics here.
There are no prospects left to track for the 2007 draft for the Lightning.
2nd Round Pick Forward Dana Tyrell - Tyrell will play for Tampa Bay so he is no longer considered a prospect.

3rd Round Pick Center Luca Cunti - Cunti's rights were relinquished by Tampa Bay in 2009.

3rd Round Pick Forward Alex Killorn - Killorn will play for Tampa Bay so he is no longer considered a prospect.
4th Round Pick Center Mitch Fadden - Fadden was waived in 2011 and is no longer property of the Lightning.
5th Round Pick Forward Matt Marshall - Marshall is no longer property of the Lightning as he was never signed.
6th Round Pick Left Wing Johan Harju - Harju played for Tampa Bay in 2010-2011 season but returned to Sweden. He is 27 and if he is still property of Tampa Bay he is probably no longer on their radar.
7th Round Pick Goaltender Torrie Jung - Jung was not signed by the deadline and he is no longer property of Tampa Bay.
7th Round Pick Defenseman Michael Ward - Ward was not signed by the deadline and he is no longer property of Tampa Bay.
7th Round Pick Left Wing Justin Courtnall - Justin was not signed by the deadline and he is no longer property of Tampa Bay.