Quote:
Originally Posted by Canada 02
They obviously, have been drafting quite low the past few years, however, who was their last significant draftee that they developed and has played any significant number of games for them? Looks like Cirelli, who was drafted in 2015. Not much since
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Stephens is one and Yzerman just grabbed him knowing the waiver situation and the depth on the Lightning. Mathieu Joseph was a 2nd rounder in 2015, he's an NHLer, so is Ross Colton a 4th rounder from 2016.
They've also traded a lot of picks over the past 3 years as it's their contending window.
They also find a lot of good prospects and develop them well through free agency. Yanni Gourde, Marchessault, Verhaeghe. The last two were cast offs from other organizations and spent a few years in Tampa's farm, got a cup of coffee with the Lightning then got scooped up by the rival Panthers and blossomed; Panthers knew what was going on and was pro scouting the Lightning farm system.
A current guy who they picked up for free and who might "pop" like the 3 above is Alex Barre-Boulet who looks like he's ready to make the jump to the NHL. Lightning just re-signed him to a 3 year contract for peanuts.
If I were running a team, I'd station a pro scout in Syracuse just to watch the Lightning farm team exclusively and poach them.