A look at draft weekend strategy and beyond for Tampa Bay Lightning

By Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
June 22, 2017

Chicago – Walk tall and tread lightly.

That’s the approach the Lightning carry in to NHL Entry Draft weekend and beyond heading in to next season.

While the main focus of the weekend centers around the drafting future prospects, it’s also the time of year many teams do some wheeling and dealing, or at least start to lay the groundwork for potential deals.

Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman enters the weekend keeping his eye on all of that and more.

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Tampa Bay enters draft weekend holding the 14th overall pick in the first round but has fewer overall picks than previous seasons with just six picks – a first, second, third, two in the sixth and a seventh-round pick. The Lightning’s second-round pick was sent to Vegas to assure they selected Jason Garrison in the expansion draft but they still have Toronto’s second round pick. The fourth- and fifth-round picks were sent to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh at the trade deadline while Tampa Bay holds Montreal’s sixth-round pick.

Gaining more draft picks is always a possibility, particularly considering Yzerman has traded out of the first round twice in the past three seasons.

”We knew coming into this draft and part of it at the deadline was we better do some things to acquire picks,’’ Yzerman said on Thursday. “The only way I can do it is if I trade back in the draft. That really happens pretty quickly on the floor because everybody’s list, depends on how things are evolving and shaping up. Either your phone starts ringing or it doesn’t. It would really depend on our list, how the draft is unfolding and other teams. All of our lists are different. Some guys want to trade up and some guys’ lists look different and say, ‘I’m comfortable moving back.’ Really the situation will determine whether we attempt to move up or move back.’’

If the Lightning stand pat with their number of picks, that’s fine with Yzerman, as well.

”There are good prospects there, in the first round and throughout the draft,’’ he said.

For the Lightning, however, it really is about trying to improve the team this season so that missing the playoffs does not happen for a second consecutive season.

With a healthy Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan injected back in to the lineup, fortunes figure to turn around. But Tampa Bay took a hit on the blue line at the expansion draft when Yzerman swung a deal to send two draft picks plus the rights to Nikita Gusev to steer the Golden Knights toward selecting Jason Garrison. While it allowed Tampa Bay to retain both Slater Koekkoek and Jake Dotchin – both of whom figure to make the team out of camp as they would each require waivers – it leaves an absence on the back end of a veteran blue liner.

”Jason played a lot of minutes and was a reliable, steady defenseman … We’ll look for even more leadership out of Braydon Coburn,’’ Yzerman said. “We bring in Mikhail Sergachev, a young player we’re hopeful that he can fill a spot on our roster and contribute to our team. Slater and Jake both saw time with us last year. We’re hoping they can come up and play and play a significant role in the lineup. In order to do that, you have to have a roster spot for them.’’

But that doesn’t preclude Yzerman from going out and trying to bolster the defense, whether it’s via trade or the free agent route.

The Lightning have a strong group of prospects entering the pro ranks this season – Mathieu Joseph, Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak, Matthew Spencer among them – so there are some trade chips to draw from should the Lightning look to make a move either with some of their prospects or with established players.

Also by moving out Garrison, Tampa Bay opened up $4.6 million in available cap space giving Yzerman approximately $23 million in salary cap space entering the summer. Some of that will be used on trying to re-sign Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Andrej Sustr, Luke Witkowski and possibly Yanni Gourde.

But the flexibility is there if Tampa Bay wants to pursue somebody in the free agent market – such as Dmitry Kulikov, Kevin Shattenkirk, Michael Stone or Karl Alzner.

”On July 1 we’ll try to make those phone calls starting on Sunday (when the window to contact free agents opens) and start to talk to some of the free agents,’’ Yzerman said. “But July 1 is tough because you better be prepared to give more term and more dollars than you want. You can wait until after, but if you wait you might miss out. So it’s tricky. But we’ve done a lot here to try to give ourselves a little bit of flexibility, you don’t want to put ourselves right back in the same position if we are not confident that it’s really going to make a difference.’’

Then there is the trade route, a more likely area to explore in the short term for Tampa Bay. They have the assets to make a deal work if they can find the right fit. There were pre-expansion draft rumblings about the likes of Sami Vatanen, Marco Scandella, Matt Dumba, Travis Hamonic all being available. Then there are the multiple amount of defensemen that Vegas took in the expansion draft – they chose the maximum of 13 and acquired more in other trades – two of which have already been moved, Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dave Schlemko.

But there is no timeline in Yzerman’s mind to try to find what he is looking for no matter the route he utilizes.

”We think we know our nucleus and what to expect from them all, we have to try to fill in a couple of holes created by the changes that we have made and I believe the changes were necessary for us to kind of move forward,’’ he said. “Now we have to fill those holes and it may take some time, it may not happen this week, it may not happen on July 1 and maybe some things are temporary until some of our young guys come in. Because going out and signing a player to a long-term deal through free agency isn’t exactly what we need and could put us in a bad spot, so we’ll proceed cautiously. We know are needs are and sometimes you need cooperation to fill those needs and other teams are not necessarily aligned with yours.’’

Budaj signing made official:

Tampa Bay officially signed veteran goaltender Peter Budaj to a two-year contract on Thursday to serve as the backup to Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The deal was reported on Monday but there was a roster freeze in place that during the expansion draft period that was lifted on Thursday.

”We really like the person, his work ethic, his character, he was a good fit,’’ Yzerman said. “He’s comfortable with the role he’s going to have, the has the right attitude and has a great work ethic and great demeanor. So we felt he would be a great fit and compliment Vasy very well.’’

In case you missed it: The NHL schedule was released on Thursday and you can find the Lightning schedule here.

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