If there is someone on the team’s radar, they’ll for sure pick them up and send Perbix down (who is waivers exempt). But it’s possible some player the team wants could sneak through. There will be some decent players out on the wire, but I assume few will be available to the Lightning, who are far down the priority list because of their place in the regular season standings last year. Who knows what players will be available on October 9th/10th, the last day for preseason waivers before rosters are due. And I think it likely will be, but there is a chance the Lightning go shopping on the open market. There isn’t a forward that wasn’t cut that could fill the role, so it should probably be Perbix. Currently Nick Perbix is the frontrunner for the last job as the eighth defenseman. Now this last, coveted, spot on the roster is tricky. Haydn Fleury was signed to fill-in for Bogosian while the veteran defenseman recovers from surgery, he requires waivers if he’s to be sent down, but as the seventh defenseman he’s going to be making the team. Add in the six defenders and two goalies, and that’s 21. Both players will all-but certainly make the team. Gabriel Fortier was also skating with that line, so he’s in with a shout for the same sort of role. I see Koepke is slotted into the third line, which is a great place for him to be in. That’s why he’s here.Īnd if anyone is looking for some snarl, go ahead and look up Cole Koepke, I wrote his Top 25 Under 25 article.Īfter that longer than brief aside, let’s talk about what the roster could look like for opening night. He is, by all accounts, here to deal with the Florida Panthers in one of the final two preseason games in case they start targeting players. If he was capable of any kind of NHL role he would’ve gotten one by now. It should also be mentioned that Labrie is 35-years-old, last played in the NHL eight seasons ago, incase that’s not enough of a reason. He is not part of this roster unless the Lightning sign him to an NHL contract, nullifying his AHL contract with the Crunch. One thing I definitely need to get out of the way first is that Pierre-Cedric Labrie is on an AHL contract and a PTO. That leaves the very obvious 20 player lineup, plus three extras. With Anthony Cirelli (and Bogo) on LTIR, the Lightning have plenty of cap space to run a full 23-player roster starting on the first day of the season. *Note: all players the Lightning have cut have successfully been assigned to the Syracuse Crunch or their junior team. Pat Maroon - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Corey Perry Vladislav Namestnikov - Steven Stamkos - Nikita Kucherovīrandon Hagel - Brayden Point - Alex Killorn Injured (2)Īnthony Cirelli (inj), Zach Bogosian (inj) Forwards (14) The lines are based on yesterday’s skate. If I’m able to watch it (I live in Canada) I will definitely try to focus on the players I will speak on below.Īllow me to break down the roster (of 26) that’s left following waivers and reassignments to the Syracuse Crunch that occured over the past week, and then break down how the roster might play out over the next week. Who gets the 12th forward spot, the 23rd roster spot, etc. This will change this weekend as the Lightning are set to play two games against the Florida Panthers on Thursday and Saturday, and with the Bolts camp roster dwindled down to 26 players, it will be the real team that we’ll see.Īnd that team we see will determine the roster decisions for next week. The Lightning have not dressed their regular lineup for any of the team’s three games up to this point, so none of those results have been any kind of representative sample for the team this season, or at the very least what we can expect from players looking to fill open jobs. We will get real, meaningful, NHL hockey in a mere seven days, woohoo!Īnd with the coming of the regular season means the end of preseason. The NHL regular season begins on Tuesday, October 11th for the Tampa Bay Lightning (and the whole league). A look at the available jobs as camp nears its close.
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