High Expectations

The Tampa Bay Lightning  begin their 25th season tonight against the Detroit Red Wings and expectations are higher than ever this fall. The Lightning are coming off two seasons in which they made it to the Stanley cup final and eastern conference final respectively losing to the eventual cup winners in both seasons. Steve Yzerman and his staff had an busy off-season as they were able to sign back their core guys in Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, Alex Killorn, and Nikita Kucherov. Basically have the same team coming back looking to get over the hump and win the ultimate prize being the Stanley cup. This team has it all, they just need to stay healthy and put it all together down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs.

The team has probably the best goalie duo in Ben Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy whom both have been outstanding over the last two seasons. The team has a big decision to make regarding Bishop as he is entering the final year of his contract. Does the team trade him if the right offer appears and go with Vasilevskiy going into the postseason? I say they don't and let Bishop get one more shot at winning it all, and then in the off-season they can figure that out.

Lightning have what they need to win it all as they have scoring, solid defense, and great goaltending. I think the big keys throughout the season is going to be staying healthy and developing the powerplay enough to make it a strength. If they can do those two things the sky is the limit for this team as they have everything else in place. It all begins tonight, it's going to be a fun season as expectations are high but this team would want it no other way.

The Captain is Back!

The Tampa Bay Lightning have re-signed star forward and team captain Steven Stamkos to new 8 yr deal worth 68 million in which Lightning Gm Steve Yzerman announced last night. This is fantastic news for this hockey club as they have been on the cusp of winning a stanley cup the past two seasons. Most thought that Stamkos had played his last game with the Lightning after the game 7 loss to the Penguins, but that isn't the case anymore.  Stamkos has stated that he has unfinished business here and is determined to bring this city a stanley cup title again.

Excited to be back for 8 more years @TBLightning ! Here we go .....

— Steven Stamkos (@RealStamkos91) June 29, 2016

Tremendous job by Steve Yzerman and Stamkos's agent to get this done allowing Stamkos to continue his career in Tampa Bay. Stamkos's heart is with this organization and feels it has many great seasons ahead with hopefully multiple championships per tampabay.com.

"I grew up as a kid there," Stamkos said. "And this team is on the verge of hopefully competing for Stanley Cups for years to come and me being the captain and being a leader... I know the process took a lot longer than maybe both parties would have liked, but in every decision in life you want to make the best decision. 

The biggest news from this is that we could finally see Stamkos and young star Jonathan Drouin on the same line for this upcoming season which could be a very dynamic duo.

Few months ago, some wondered if #TBLightning would lose both @RealStamkos91 + @jodrouin27. Now they could be on same line next season

— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) June 30, 2016

 This is a great day for the Lightning and all of the fans in Tampa Bay. This team is going to be special during the 2016-17 season.

What to do With Stamkos?

Now since the Lightning are officially knocked out of the playoffs, it's time to discuss the off-season as it will be one of the biggest ones in franchise history. The big question is what will the team do with captain Steven Stamkos who is a free agent on July 1st and is free to sign with any team. The answer is simple the Lightning will do whatever is best for them, as general manager Steve Yzerman has done just that since he arrived in 2010.

The Lightning have a certain number in mind for Stamkos and probably wont go past that number due to the fact that key players like Hedman, Kucherov, Killorn, and Johnson will need new contracts as well. The Lightning are going to have to move some pieces around in order to create more cap space. One of the likely candidates is defenseman Matt Carle who has a big cap number and his play has been sub par to say the least. Yzerman will try to trade him but a buyout is more likely which would have the same effect.

In my opinion, I believe Stamkos will return as he is a big part of this team and it's hard to replace a guy like him. Again as I have said before Yzerman will do what he thinks is best for the team, and if that means keeping Stamkos then that is what will happen. Either way this is going to be one fun offseason for the Tampa Bay Lightning.