The Tampa Bay Lightning fell two wins short of the summit. At least they boast the sort of young legs that can hoist them back to similar heights, though, right?
Jonathan Toews was impressed with the push-back from Tampa Bay in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, even if he delivered that message in the form of a backhanded compliment. Negative types would say 2014-15 was a year of almost - nearly winning the division, coming that close to a Cup win - but most would agree that last year a big success.
The question is: will the Lightning look back at that run as the time they learned how to win the big game?
Time hasn’t always been kind to teams who fall in Stanley Cup Final rounds, although the Lightning have the makings of a team that could be here to say, perhaps running parallel to the Penguins (who lost in 2008 before winning it all in 2009).
Most obviously, the Lightning have the same coach and the same core players.
Off-season recap
Of course, one can look at that bounty of prime-age assets and think that the Lightning can make this last for ages.
Unless you’re a huge Brenden Morrow fan, the main cast members from the 2014-15 Bolts are returning for the sequel. The biggest changes are expected to be from internal growth: Jonathan Drouin may take a bigger role, Andrei Vasilevskiy could push Ben Bishop for starts and others hope to become full-time NHL players.
The biggest consideration comes when you ponder contracts that end after 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Most obviously, Steven Stamkos is in the last year of his contract, a fact that will likely make for distracting headlines.
One piece of “The Triplets” - Nikita Kucherov - will be an RFA after 2015-16. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat will carry that same RFA status after 2017-18, and one would expect big upgrades from their matching $3.33 million cap hits. Even the goalie duo of Bishop and Vasilevskiy only hold two-year deals.
A quiet summer makes sense for the Lightning, yet it’s a bit foreboding, as many would prefer to see “Stamkos signs seven-year mega-deal” in this slot. Yzerman still has time to swing deals like those both before, during and after 2015-16, but looming cap challenges are the elephant in the room.
That’s a bummer for the future, yet the Lightning seem well-stocked for the shorter term.
