How does Tampa stack up against the best teams from the pre-cap 90s and early 00s?

[Maestro84]

I can confidently say Tampa over the last 3 seasons now have put together a roster that no one else in the cap era has had, yeah I know they are well over the luxury tax but they've still been able to make it work. So how does Tampa's roster talent over the past few years stack up against the best teams of the 1990s (last full decade without a cap) such as:

1991-1993 Pittsburgh Penguins (feat. Lemieux, Jagr, Francis, Barrasso, Murphy, Coffey, Trottier, Mullen, Recchi, Stevens)

1995-2003 New Jersey Devils (feat. Brodeur, Niedermeyer, Stevens, Elias, Sykora, Gomez, Rafalski)

1995-2002 Detroit Red Wings (feat. Yzerman, Lidstrom, Russian Five, Shannahan, Murphy, Chelios, Osgood, Vernon)

1996-2002 Colorado Avalanche (feat. Sakic, Forsberg, Roy, C. Lemieux, Kamensky, Hejduk, one season of Ray Bourque)

1998-2000 Dallas Stars (feat. Modano, Hull, Belfour, Nieuwendyk, Zubov, Langenbrunner)

Click to read more...

 

[Rschmitz]

It's taboo to compare them to any of the pre-cap teams, if it's three in a row and the Lightning are clearly the best cap era team, then we can have that discussion.

 

[Garbageyuk]

Better than NJ, worse than all the rest.

 

[Empoleon8771]

I can confidently say Tampa over the last 3 seasons now have put together a roster that no one else in the cap era has had

Uh, the 2010 Hawks would like a word with you. They put together that asinine roster with a cap that was like 60% of the cap today, while also not pulling any sort of cap shenanigans.

This Lightning team isn't even the best cup winning team of the cap era. 2010 Hawks and 2012 Kings definitely beat it and I'd probably put the 2016 Penguins over them too.

It's just kinda odd to compare the Lightning to the best pre-cap teams when the Lightning aren't even the best post-cap team.

 

[DowJones]

No one knows, but I would guess pretty equal to the Wings and Avs. Tampa’s top skaters are not quite as good as Lids, Forsberg, Sacic, Bourque,… But Tampa has like 7 of these almost-as-good guys.

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

Uh, the 2010 Hawks would like a word with you. They put together that asinine roster with a cap that was like 60% of the cap today, while also not pulling any sort of cap shenanigans.

This Lightning team isn't even the best cup winning team of the cap era. 2010 Hawks and 2012 Kings definitely beat it and I'd probably put the 2016 Penguins over them too.

It's just kinda odd to compare the Lightning to the best pre-cap teams when the Lightning aren't even the best post-cap team.

I disagree with the pens being the better team. They might have beat them in a 7 game series, but let's be honest those 2016 and 2017 pens winners werent rated as favourites entering the playoffs. They were very deep at forward but their defence in both years was pretty bad. And vasy > murray

 

[Xirik]

Better than NJ, worse than all the rest.

hey its a Habs fan that is still mad about the Devils dunking on his team for most of the 90s and 2000s.


Anyways I view that era Devils as equal to the Lighning, I think such a series would go the distance to 7 and depending on which rulebook was used I think Stevens would put the fear in some of the Bolts players.

Goalies= Equal
Offense=Bolts
Defense=Devils
Depth = Equal


OP forgot Lagenbrunner and Arnott

 

[silkyjohnson50]

They’re really good, but I’m not even convinced that they’d beat the 08 Wings or some of those Chicago teams shortly thereafter.

 

[Garbageyuk]

hey its a Habs fan that is still mad about the Devils dunking on his team for most of the 90s and 2000s.


Anyways I view that era Devils as equal to the Lighning, I think such a series would go the distance to 7 and depending on which rulebook was used I think Stevens would put the fear in some of the Bolts players.

Goalies= Equal
Offense=Bolts
Defense=Devils
Depth = Equal


OP forgot Lagenbrunner and Arnott

Oh yeah I'm just seething about all those regular season losses. I'm neutral on the Devils, if not a borderline fan. Brodeur is one of my favorite players of all-time. Plus P.K. plays for the Devils now too, and it's the same thing with him. Good try though.

 

[Garbageyuk]

It's taboo to compare them to any of the pre-cap teams, if it's three in a row and the Lightning are clearly the best cap era team, then we can have that discussion.

They can never be the best cap-era team because they cheated it. So yeah we can compare them to pre-cap teams.

 

[Rschmitz]

They can never be the best cap-era team because they cheated it. So yeah we can compare them to pre-cap teams.

This literally makes no sense but lol ok

 

[Random Comment]

Comparing eras is stupid. The league has gotten more skilled and the league from top to bottom has better athletes. Tampa is better than all those teams. But compared to their peers, those teams from 90s had a much bigger gap to their peers than Tampa does to the rest of teams in league now. Parity and such.

 

[AlphaBravo]

I can confidently say Tampa over the last 3 seasons now have put together a roster that no one else in the cap era has had, yeah I know they are well over the luxury tax but they've still been able to make it work. So how does Tampa's roster talent over the past few years stack up against the best teams of the 1990s (last full decade without a cap) such as:

1991-1993 Pittsburgh Penguins (feat. Lemieux, Jagr, Francis, Barrasso, Murphy, Coffey, Trottier, Mullen, Recchi, Stevens)

1995-2003 New Jersey Devils (feat. Brodeur, Niedermeyer, Stevens, Elias, Sykora, Gomez, Rafalski)

1995-2002 Detroit Red Wings (feat. Yzerman, Lidstrom, Russian Five, Shannahan, Murphy, Chelios, Osgood, Vernon)

1996-2002 Colorado Avalanche (feat. Sakic, Forsberg, Roy, C. Lemieux, Kamensky, Hejduk, one season of Ray Bourque)

1998-2000 Dallas Stars (feat. Modano, Hull, Belfour, Nieuwendyk, Zubov, Langenbrunner)

The 2012-2014 Kings deserve to be on this list as well. We were pretty dominant in that era. Quick, Doughty, Kopitar, Carter, Richards to name a few.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Tampa is also pre-cap

 

[metalan2]

I disagree with the pens being the better team. They might have beat them in a 7 game series, but let's be honest those 2016 and 2017 pens winners were rated as favourites entering the playoffs. They were very deep at forward but their defence in both years was pretty bad. And vasy > murray

The Pens out shot teams by 20 every night and barely gave up scoring chances. That series would be a great one.

 

[sasha barkov]

The 2012-2014 Kings deserve to be on this list as well. We were pretty dominant in that era. Quick, Doughty, Kopitar, Carter, Richards to name a few.

Lol, they were not dominant in that era. They struck luck twice in the playoffs when they won their cups. They finished as the eight seed in 2012 and 3rd in 2014

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

They'd be competitive.

It's not just that their roster is full of stars, it's that almost all of them are right in their prime now. It's not like say... the Wings who had Yzerman (who was still great) who wasn't as great as he once was. Ditto with Robitaille, Hull, Chelios etc... Great players but many who were near the end of their careers.

 

[Mike8]

No one knows, but I would guess pretty equal to the Wings and Avs. Tampa’s top skaters are not quite as good as Lids, Forsberg, Sacic, Bourque,… But Tampa has like 7 of these almost-as-good guys.

I don't think Tampa compares on the depth front to those pre-cap era clubs.

The Wings depth chart: Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Hull, Robitaille, Larionov, Datsyuk, Draper, Holmstrom, Maltby, McCarty
D: Lidstrom, Chelios, Duchesne, etc.

Just doesn't compare.

Avs as well:
F: Sakic, Forsberg, Hejduk, Tanguay, Drury, Deadmarsh, etc.
D: Bourque, Blake, Foote, DeVries, etc.

 

[Gurglesons]

I disagree with the pens being the better team. They might have beat them in a 7 game series, but let's be honest those 2016 and 2017 pens winners were rated as favourites entering the playoffs. They were very deep at forward but their defence in both years was pretty bad. And vasy > murray

You realize PIT beat Vasy in 2016 right?

 

[Xirik]

I don't think Tampa compares on the depth front to those pre-cap era clubs.

The Wings depth chart: Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Hull, Robitaille, Larionov, Datsyuk, Draper, Holmstrom, Maltby, McCarty
D: Lidstrom, Chelios, Duchesne, etc.

Just doesn't compare.

Avs as well:
F: Sakic, Forsberg, Hejduk, Tanguay, Drury, Deadmarsh, etc.
D: Bourque, Blake, Foote, DeVries, etc.

Avs had a place in Middle Earth on their team? not fair!

 

[CupofOil]

I think they've had a pretty easy path throughout the playoffs the last two seasons compared to a lot of Champs but their roster (even pre cap circumvention) matches up well with any of those teams. They have the best goalie, the best Dman, arguably two top 10 forwards, ridiculous forward depth, a really good group of top 4 of Dmen, great coach.

There's no weaknesses on this roster, the biggest weakness prior to '19-'20 was toughness and the ability to win grind it out affairs and they addressed that big time with Coleman, Goodrow, Maroon, Czernak's emergence etc. About as complete a team as you'll ever find.

 

[Coburn and Condra]

You realize PIT beat Vasy in 2016 right?

You mean a 21 year old Vasy who was still backing up Bishop and forced into the series cold due to injury? He got knocked around pretty good in the 2015 SCF in what were similar circumstances.

Imagine thinking that's the same goalie you saw yesterday.

 

[Gurglesons]

You mean a 21 year old Vasy who was still backing up Bishop and forced into the series cold due to injury? He got knocked around pretty good in the 2015 SCF in what were similar circumstances.

Imagine thinking that's the same goalie you saw yesterday.

I forgot PIT had an absolute vet stud in net..

 

[Coburn and Condra]

I forgot PIT had an absolute vet stud in net..

His argument was that 20-21 Vasy is better than 16-17 Murray. 2016 Vasy is irrelevant to this conversation as are the 2016 Lightning, which makes head-to-head also irrelevant.

 

[Hoochi Papa]

None of those teams cheated, so you can't really compare. It's not built under the rules and just because p***y ass NHL let's it slide, doesn't mean it wasn't blatant cap circumvention. Had they played fair, we might compare Panthers, Isles, Canes or Habs instead of them.