Tampa Bay Lightning prospect pool filled with depth and skill at every position

[HF Article]

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Armed with one of the top prospect pools in all of the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning are starting to reap the rewards of good drafting, particularly in the mid-rounds. In the past few years they have added high-ceiling players like Jonathan Drouin and Andrey Vasilevskiy in the first round, whom have been complemented nicely with former mid-round selections like Ondrej Palat, Radko Gudas, and Alex Killorn.



Left Wing

A position that once consisted of prospects who were largely unknowns has become an area of strength for the Lightning. Killorn was able to develop his game for four seasons at Harvard University.… read more



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[Yzlamic Preacher*]

This is one the better articles put out. Pleasantly surprised.

 

[newham89]

This is one the better articles put out. Pleasantly surprised.

Who would have thought that universal praise for our prospect pool would go down well?

 

[Glide5]

Makes you realize how good our drafting and free agent signings have been these last few year. Besides the obvious (Palat, Sustr, Johnson, Brown) you have Janus and Wilcox as 6th round picks, Gusev at 7, and the host of Unsigned or late signed European players. I know they all wont develop out but it still makes you feel more confident in the system.

Crazy to think that in 2-4 years, we could potentially have Bish and Vasi fighting for a top spot, along with Janus and Wilcox fighting for top spot in the AHL. I almost feel bad for Janus, cause he played well yet we had to send him away back for a little while. Hopefully he can come back next year and push Vasi some at syracuse. Best thing for a young goalie is having another guy to push him.

 

[Tampa Bay Kiwi]

Makes you realize how good our drafting and free agent signings have been these last few year. Besides the obvious (Palat, Sustr, Johnson, Brown) you have Janus and Wilcox as 6th round picks, Gusev at 7, and the host of Unsigned or late signed European players. I know they all wont develop out but it still makes you feel more confident in the system.

Crazy to think that in 2-4 years, we could potentially have Bish and Vasi fighting for a top spot, along with Janus and Wilcox fighting for top spot in the AHL. I almost feel bad for Janus, cause he played well yet we had to send him away back for a little while. Hopefully he can come back next year and push Vasi some at syracuse. Best thing for a young goalie is having another guy to push him.

Can't wait to have Vasi in Syracuse, hopefully he does have some competition from a solid goalie. Janues would be great, but could well be Gudlevskis

 

[DFC]

Makes you realize how good our drafting and free agent signings have been these last few year. Besides the obvious (Palat, Sustr, Johnson, Brown) you have Janus and Wilcox as 6th round picks, Gusev at 7, and the host of Unsigned or late signed European players. I know they all wont develop out but it still makes you feel more confident in the system.

Crazy to think that in 2-4 years, we could potentially have Bish and Vasi fighting for a top spot, along with Janus and Wilcox fighting for top spot in the AHL. I almost feel bad for Janus, cause he played well yet we had to send him away back for a little while. Hopefully he can come back next year and push Vasi some at syracuse. Best thing for a young goalie is having another guy to push him.

The real shocker is just how many of them are working out, and how few prospects in the Al Murray era have been written off. This guy find NHLers, and he finds them in every round. Look no further than Ondrej Palat. It's at the point where you can't even second guess the draft picks, because the success rate is so crazy.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

The real shocker is just how many of them are working out, and how few prospects in the Al Murray era have been written off. This guy find NHLers, and he finds them in every round. Look no further than Ondrej Palat. It's at the point where you can't even second guess the draft picks, because the success rate is so crazy.

Very few from Murray have panned out so far, if we're being technical.

 

[MattM92]

Very few from Murray have panned out so far, if we're being technical.

It's only been 3 drafts (4 if you count the '10 draft when they came in). And multiple players are knocking on the door already with more on the way

 

[Glide5]

Very few from Murray have panned out so far, if we're being technical.

Hey, he's got one NHL'er in Palat out of the 7th round already. Thats hard enough as it is haha.

 

[BoltSTH]

The real test will be when we are consistently picking in bottom 8 of each round.

 

[LTIR Trickery]

The real test will be when we are consistently picking in bottom 8 of each round.

Same thing the Rays are currently facing.

Sustr and Palat are the two that Murray has really struck gold on that are here, and so far the rest looks pretty good. So far.

 

[The Macho King]

The real test will be when we are consistently picking in bottom 8 of each round.

TBF, I disagree. Value out of later rounds is what's important. It's not like some magic switch turns from pick 30 to 31 to create a new class of players. We might just be getting lucky right now, or maybe not, but I wouldn't expect our drafting to decrease significantly.

Also, Namestnikov was what, the 28th pick? Not bad for a late first rounder.

 

[DFC]

TBF, I disagree. Value out of later rounds is what's important. It's not like some magic switch turns from pick 30 to 31 to create a new class of players. We might just be getting lucky right now, or maybe not, but I wouldn't expect our drafting to decrease significantly.

Also, Namestnikov was what, the 28th pick? Not bad for a late first rounder.

Exactly. After the first and maybe the second round, where you pick doesn't really matter if we're talking about getting quality players. If you're getting quality picks out of fifth rounders, you're not going to stop getting quality players if you pick them later in that round.

I also think we're passed the point where we can chalk it up to luck. Al Murray's picks have just been too consistently good, round for round. We're getting solid NHLers out of the middle and late rounds, and few if any picks in the Murray era have been written off yet. It's really amazing. Even if you can chalk some of his success up to luck, it still leaves him way, way ahead of most scouts in the league. Obviously, Palat is the biggest success story, given how close to the bottom of the draft he was selected.

But you can even look outside of the draft and see the amateur players the Lightning have signed. I'm honestly not sure who's in charge of that. I mean, even passed Johnson, you can take a look at Conacher -- the Lightning signed a player, developed him, and flipped him for a potential #1 goalie. That's like free money.

Whether or not the Lightning can turn the corner at the NHL level is still anyone's guess. But the overhaul of the developmental system has been so successful that any critiques of it are really just nit-picking.

 

[Glide5]

Exactly. After the first and maybe the second round, where you pick doesn't really matter if we're talking about getting quality players. If you're getting quality picks out of fifth rounders, you're not going to stop getting quality players if you pick them later in that round.

I also think we're passed the point where we can chalk it up to luck. Al Murray's picks have just been too consistently good, round for round. We're getting solid NHLers out of the middle and late rounds, and few if any picks in the Murray era have been written off yet. It's really amazing. Even if you can chalk some of his success up to luck, it still leaves him way, way ahead of most scouts in the league. Obviously, Palat is the biggest success story, given how close to the bottom of the draft he was selected.

But you can even look outside of the draft and see the amateur players the Lightning have signed. I'm honestly not sure who's in charge of that. I mean, even passed Johnson, you can take a look at Conacher -- the Lightning signed a player, developed him, and flipped him for a potential #1 goalie. That's like free money.

Hey, as they say. Life is 50% luck and 50% skill. You have to be good at what you do to be lucky. Murray and the scouts are doing a lot right to be getting lucky with these late round picks. They are taking the Russian risks that most aren't, and they aren't afraid to get the undersized guys that no one thinks will develop.

I still remember of draft day 2012 people yelling to draft Gusev in the 4th round... instead they got him in the 7th... it wasnt really luck that he fell by that point. Other teams just didn't want to risk a smaller Russian.
Or even getting Erne in the second round. People will be saying we got lucky to have him fall to us in a few years. It was lucky that he fell, but we also weren't going to pass on what was easily a first rounder.