Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

How Steve Yzerman Built The Tampa Bay Lightning

06/15/2015 at 11:46am EDT

from Jonathan Willis of Sportsnet,

In a span of just four years, Yzerman dismantled the team. Thirteen of 14 forwards who appeared in the post-season were sent away with only a then-21-year-old Steven Stamkos spared. A similar fate was visited upon the back end with 7-of-8 defencemen and both goalies were axed with 20-year-old Victor Hedman the sole survivor.

Hedman and Stamkos is an awfully nice starting point. A lot of teams would consider themselves lucky to be starting out of the gates with a franchise centre and a franchise defenceman, plus the rest of the talent that Yzerman had as trade bait. Yzerman continued to look for ways to improve going through an aggressive search for talent.

Al Murray, a scouting director with the Los Angeles Kings, was brought in to run Tampa Bay’s draft efforts in August 2010. In his first draft, the Lightning had just two picks in the top-100 and six picks overall, but Murray found four players on the team today, including Vladislav Namestnikov (first round), wingers Nikita Kucherov (second round) and Ondrej Palat (seventh round) and defenceman Nikita Nesterov (fifth round). Six players in all on the 2015 Lightning are Murray picks, including Cedric Paquette (fourth round).

more

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

Email Paul anytime at [email protected]

Most Recent Posts

Most Recent Comments

Comment by Cigar-Nurse in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Quick Recap- Wings/Hurricanes - 9 minutes ago
Comment by bezukov in Abel to Yzerman from the entry The Downward Spiral Continues For The Wings - 1 hour ago
Comment by damndogrevenge in Abel to Yzerman from the entry The Downward Spiral Continues For The Wings - 1 hour ago
Comment by Paul in Kukla's Korner Hockey from the entry NHL Short Notes - 8 hours ago
Comment by Paul in Kukla's Korner Hockey from the entry NHL Short Notes - 8 hours ago