Tampa Bay Lightning: 2015 Draft Pick Grades

Jun 26, 2015; Sunrise, FL, USA; NHL commissioner Gary Bettman addresses the crowd before the first round of the 2015 NHL Draft at BB&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

With the 2015 NHL Draft completed, we take a look back at the Tampa Bay Lightning draft picks.

After a busy two days in Sunrise, Florida for the 2015 NHL Draft, the Tampa Bay Lightning have walked away from BB&T Center with nine solid prospects who will bolster an already impressive pipeline of prospects that the organization has accumulated in past years.

Each draft pick offers their own skill set that Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman and Director of Amateur Scouting Al Murray believe will one day develop into the kind of players that will one day be quality players in the NHL.

If they believe in a player, the duo will not hesitate to pull the trigger, and are not scared to move back to accumulate more picks if the player they wanted is not available or will fall to them at a different position.

Every single prospect the Tampa Bay Lightning will be bringing into their organization will look to develop their games to one day reach the ultimate goal of reaching the NHL. Why not do it with an organization that has a track record of taking their home grown talent and turning them into solid NHL players that go on to have successful careers at hockey’s highest level?

Look at some of the organizations most recent prized prospects that made their way through the ranks and eventually became great players for the Lightning. I’m talking names like Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson, Cedric Paquette, and Alex Killorn who are some of the players that make up the young talented core of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Soon to follow you have Anthony DeAngelo, Slater Koekkoek, Tanner Richard, Matthew Peca, Adam Erne, and the list goes on and on.

These prospects will be under the watchful eye of the Lightning front office, and if they successfully mold their game and become the player the organization believed they would become, then they will earn themselves an entry-level contract, and officially have the amateur hockey player tag replaced when they sign their deals and become pros.

Again, that’s some time down the road. For some that may be just one productive season in junior away and for others it may be a four or five-year grind before they even sniff at a contract offer.

However long it takes, each prospect will look to one day wear the sweater of an NHL franchise. With that, let’s take a look at this years impressive haul from the 2015 NHL draft.

Next: Second Round: Mitchell Stephens