I love my family, I really do, but if they ever schedule a wedding for draft weekend I might have to disown them. While I was hanging out with them, the Lightning were busy doing, well quite a bit. Before we get into it, I want to thank Ethan Haas for helping us out with all of the draft posts from yesterday. It’s not easy writing about the 199th player drafted and he was on his game all day long. Thank you.
Thank you to all of you readers as well. Yesterday was one of our biggest days in terms of traffic since we split off from our former corporate overlords. Thank you for reading and commenting (and being respectful!).
As for the Lightning, things started off early as Julien BriseBois woke everyone up in Vegas with a blockbuster deal that sent Mikhail Sergachev to Utah for Conor Geekie, JJ Moser, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2024 seventh-round pick that the team used to draft Noah Steen. The general manager wasn’t done as he then flipped Tanner Jeannot to Los Angeles for another 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 fourth-rounder that they used on Jan Golicic.
With the deals the Lightning freed up a lot of cap space and raised some hopes that perhaps a deal for Steven Stamkos could be resurrected. Following the draft, the GM threw some cold water on those hopes by confirming that he had contacted the Stamkos’ camp after the deals, but nothing had changed and The Captain was still headed to free agency.
That could change before Monday, after all, it seemed Stamkos was destined to test the market back in 2016 before re-signing with the team. Personally, I’m not ready to write off his return just yet, and even if he does talk with other teams, he might still come back home. While Mr. BriseBois stated that he did not raise his offer to Stamkos, that doesn’t mean he won’t in the next 24 hours. It could also be some subtle subterfuge and obfuscation. Good GMs are never 100% honest when they’re talking with the media.
Even if Steven Stamkos is leaving the Lightning, the moves JBB made today make the Lightning a player in free agency on Monday. They now have the space to make offers to Jake Guentzel, Jonathan Marchessault, Elias Lindholm, or Brandon Montour.
Or, with a couple of second round picks in his pocket and some cap space he could find yet another trade partner. Trevor Zegras? Nikolaj Ehlers? Martin Necas? I wouldn’t mind a deal for Necas just so he can stop scoring against them every time they play Carolina. He did make reference to this in his press conference as he acknowledged that teams were reaching out to him now that they have more space. It does seem that he is focused on improving the forward group with his new “war chest” as he referred to it.
The next few days just got a lot more interesting, that’s for sure.
As for the draft, the Lightning added an interesting mix of players in Jan Golicic (defense), Hagen Burrows (right wing), Joona Saarelainen (center), Kaden Pitre (center), Joe Connor (left wing), Noah Steen (winger), and Harrison Meneghin (goaltender). In short, it was a typical Lightning draft. They mined the USHL (which had a really good draft overall), some European prospects, and added a goaltender to their system.
It’s wildly unlikely for any of those players to have an impact on the team in the next two years, but it does add some depth to a farm system that needs it. We’ll take a deeper look at them in the coming days (and probably halt the player reviews for a bit). As it stands right now, the two biggest additions to the organization are the cap space and Conor Geekie, a 20-year-old forward that has top-six potential.
Other Hockey News
The Lightning weren’t the only team making trade waves on Saturday. Division rival Toronto may have added to their defensive depth as they traded Max Ellis and a seventh-round pick to Dallas for the rights to Chris Tanev. [Pension Plan Puppets] They still have to actually sign him, but for a late pick and a depth minor-leaguer, they bought themselves an extra day to negotiate with the big, shot-blocking defenseman.
Meanwhile, the host city for the draft made a few moves as they picked up Akira Schmid and Alexander Holtz from the New Jersey Devils [All About the Jersey]. Picking up a goaltender in Schmid might seem weird considering the host of netminders they already had, but earlier in the day they had shipped Logan Thompson to Washington for some picks. [Knights on Ice]
The Penguins decided to get in on the trade action as they helped St. Louis shed some cap space as Pittsburgh sent future considerations to the Blues for Kevin Hayes and a 2025 second-round pick. [Pensburgh]
Personally, I don’t like grading drafts or trades immediately after they happen. What is thought to be a solid pick at the moment, might age horribly. However, content is needed and The Athletic provided it with their annual draft grades. The Lightning received a “D” (the Sergachev trade wasn’t factored in) with Corey Pronman writing,
“Tampa otherwise didn’t pick until 118, so it’s hard to get excited about that type of class even if they did have a number of picks.”
Steven Ellis was more generous over at Daily Face-Off as he gave them a C-, writing that Hagen Burrows is a “future NHLer” and Joona Saarelainen is “one of my favorite small prospects in this draft”.
With some GMs staying in Vegas to start their free agency moves, expect a few more trades today. Some free agents who are staying with their teams might announce new deals and we might also start hearing rumors about where free agents are going to go, even if they aren’t allowed to talk with other teams until Monday morning.
If anything happens, we’ll have it here.
