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