I shouldn't have said mostly.
What I meant is that a lot of the players that were with the Crunch last year made the Lightning at the start of the season and are regulars there now and with the rash of injuries even more of them have had significant roles. At one point more half of the defense played in the CCF last year.
Although he didn't play in the CCF last year even Killorn spent most of last year with the Crunch before being promoted and Fil has also played a lot with Johnson (he's a good little player, MLS jr.?)
yeah. tampa has been out of this world with their drafting. almost all yzerman picks have raised their stocks since they have been drafted. and they have made tremendous undrafted pickups (sustr, brown, conacher, johnson, korobov possibly too etc)
i think the transition from AHL to NHL was made easier because they got their cup of coffee last year and copper was their coach there most of the time. i don't think griffins would've won the series if crunch were healthy (also mrazek was difference maker). not a knock against griffins. but imo it's not fair to compare them on just that series. GR kids are coming year later, getting a look this year and hopefully ready next year.
and from those finals wings do have quite many regulars; whole first line, lashoff and dekeyser. crunch had basically the same amount on their starting roster.
killorn was only down because of lockout. wouldn't have spend second there otherwise.
johnson could be st. louis lite imo.
though they do make their share of mistakes, i'm impressed how cooper coached them. most are legit nhlers, panik has struggled mostly and barberio early on.
connolly hasn't still broken out.