The upcoming week in Tampa Bay Lightning

It will be a busy week for the Tampa Bay Lightning as their pre-season schedule gets underway with four games in five nights. They will also have their first round of roster cuts to lower the number of bodies in camp as we come up on the two-week mark until the season begins. By the end of the week, we should have a pretty good idea of what the roster will start to look like.

First up are the games. After an off day on Monday, the Lightning host Carolina on Tuesday, Florida on Wednesday (in Orlando), and Nashville on Friday before they head out to Smashville for another game on Saturday. That’s a lot of hockey. In at least one of those games, we will see something resembling the actual line-up for the season opener on October 11th. The other games will be a chance for some of the younger players to get a taste of NHL action before being assigned back to their junior teams or get ready for the Syracuse training camp.

If the Lightning follow their normal procedure, the first round of cuts will be junior-eligible players. Unlike some other franchises, that won’t really reduce the number of players in training camp by that much. Jan Golicic, Kaden Pitre, Ethan Hay, and Harrison Meneghin. Ethan Gauthier is eligible to return to his junior team, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he hangs around training camp a little longer.

The bulk of the roster cutdown will likely happen next week. While the Crunch haven’t officially announced when their training camp will open, their welcome back to town event takes place on Wednesday, October 2nd, which usually heralds the start of their practices. Last season, the event was on October 4th, and they officially opened their camp on the 3rd. Expect something similar this season, especially considering their first pre-season game is on the 4th this year.

At some point, we will see how their new-look power play will perform against actual competition. Erik Erlendsson wrote about what they were trying to do in practice last week in order to fill the Steven Stamkos-sized hole on special teams. The first unit was comprised of Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, and Brandon Hagel. While there are a lot of familiar names, how they were lined up was a bit different:

“The only position that remained the same was Hedman manning the point. Guentzel moved into the bumper spot previously occupied by Point, who moved into the down low spot around the net and goal line. Hagel was at the right circle, which means that Kucherov – who has been manning that spot at the right circle almost since he came into the league – moved over to the [left] circle.”

EE did mention that Kucherov moved back to his customary side during the practice, but expect multiple looks from the top unit in pre-season as well as throughout the regular season until they figure out the best combination of their elite scorers. For those keeping track at home, he mentioned that the second unit featured a few different players. The first combination had Darren Raddysh, Mitchell Chaffee, Anthony Cirelli, Nick Paul, and Cam Atkinson. JJ Moser rotated in for Raddysh at times with that unit.

There is more competition for spots on the roster than has been the case in recent years, so there is a little more importance placed on the practices and games this fall. While usually, the primary concern is that everyone makes it out healthy, the Lightning need to figure out their line combinations and defensive pairings. Someone has to win the open spots and game action will go a long way to see who emerges.

We’ll track the roster moves and any other developments throughout the week while also keeping the Top 25 Under 25 countdown rolling with the top ten prospects in the system. At this point, we’ll discuss players that not only are likely to make the Lightning roster, but will also have an impact on how the team performs. It’s a much stronger list than we’ve seen in recent years with the potential for a couple of all-stars on it.

Speaking of Top 25 Under 25 alumni, the man we had ranked 4th all the way back in 2013, Radko Gudas, was named the Anaheim Ducks 9th captain in franchise history. In his second season with the Ducks, Gudas will be the first player to wear the “C” since Ryan Getzlaf retired following the 2021-22 season. Congrats, Mr. Gudas.