Tampa Bay Lightning Mailbag: Which New Face Will Make The Biggest Impact During The 2015-16 Season?

Welcome to this week’s Bolts By The Bay Mailbag, the place where we take any questions you may have about the Tampa Bay Lightning and give you answers.

Have a question for next week’s BBTB Mailbag? There are many ways to reach us! The easiest way would be by filling out this Google form. You can also get us your questions by commenting on any of our articles or on our Facebook page. Tweeting is also an option. Send your question to either @BoltsByTheBay or my personal account @K_Barber9. With that, let’s get to this week’s question.

Dixon asks: Which new face will make the biggest impact for the Lightning next season?

This question is an interesting one due to the team’s roster makeup. Going into the offseason, there was not much the team could do in free agency due to their salary cap situation and the number of players from last season’s team that reached the Stanley Cup Final under contract for next season. Only a few players were going into the offseason as unrestricted free agents while most of the team’s young talent was controlled by the team as they became restricted free agents.

The team tendered and later signed most of its RFA’s including AHL scoring star Jonathan Marchessault and 23-year-old defenseman Luke Witkowski. Along with those two prospects, the team also resigned some of their UFA’s including Syracuse Crunch captain Mike Angelidis. However, they did let some players walk out the door like veteran forward Brenden Morrow.

Yet as we look at the projected Lightning roster for the 2015-16 season there are not many spots left to fill. Yes, losing a veteran that was good in the locker room like Brenden Morrow is indeed a loss, but is one the team can easily absorb. Other losses like Jean-Philippe Cote and Carter Ashton to Europe really won’t affect the NHL roster at all, but it does create more room in Syracuse for players that were recently signed by the team including prospects and depth free agents.

Now, moving on to the question at hand. With the roster almost completely intact for next season, which new face could step up and shine like Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle did last season? Well, the first person you could look to is the person who will replace Morrow on the NHL roster to start the regular season in former Ottawa Senators forward Erik Condra. The team signed the 28-year-old forward to a three-year deal this offseason and all indications point to him coming in right away and help the team once again make a push for the Stanley Cup.

Now you may ask yourself, how is someone with a career high of nine goals and 25 points going to come in and dazzle us like say a Nikita Kucherov or Tyler Johnson did when they entered the league? Well, if you liked Brian Boyle last season than you will surly like how Condra plays when he is on the ice. His ability to win faceoffs, kill penalties, and block shots made Boyle an invaluable part of the Lightning roster last season. Not to mention his ability to provide depth scoring and even flip around and play some defense for a bit made him even more important to the team.

Now, Erik Condra will not dazzle you with his scoring ability or fill in on the Lightning blue line anytime soon, but like Boyle, Condra will play a solid two-way game and lay his body on the line in order to block shots. His ability to play on the penalty kill makes that unit even stronger with Boyle, Cedric Paquette, and J.T. Brown filling out the rotation while a man down. Again, he is no wizard with the puck on his stick but has the ability to chip in quality depth scoring. On a team like the Lightning who saw Brian Boyle reach 15 goals last season, you could possibly see Condra right around the 10 goal and 28 point mark. Playing on the fourth line with Boyle and Brown could create an even better fourth line than was on the ice last season.

With Condra all but a lock for the opening night roster, the Tampa Bay Lightning have a full roster going into the start of the 2015-16 season. Yet there are still other names that could move up to the NHL roster at different points throughout the season and play important roles for the team moving forward. This includes some of the organizations top prospects and depth signings that were made in free agency this summer.

Lets start with a name that many Lightning fans may already be familiar with. Slater Koekkoek, who got his first cup of coffee in the NHL last season when filling in on a Lightning blue line that was decimated by injury may once again play a key role in the team’s ability to keep the puck out of their own net. As of now the Lightning defensive core is made up of Anton Stralman, Victor Hedman, Jason Garrison, Matt Carle, Andrej Sustr, Braydon Coburn, and Nikita Nesterov. That is three defenders that play the right side (Stralman, Garrison, Sustr) and four who play on the left side (Hedman, Carle, Coburn, Nesterov).

More from Bolts by the Bay

Koekkoek plays the left side, but as we have seen in years past you can never have too much depth. Koekkoek proved he could keep up with NHL players in his three game stint in the NHL and showed some of the skills that made the Lightning select him with the 10th overall selection in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Though Koekkoek will most likely spend much of the year with the Syracuse Crunch, there is no doubt that he could come in and perform very well if the Lightning were to once again catch the injury bug on the back-end.

Moving once again to the players that are paid to put the puck in the back of the net, the Lightning have a ton of quality young forwards that can come up and perform well when needed. On the wing, Jonathan Marchessault could finally his mark on the NHL and find himself with the big club for an extended period of time. Though this will all depend on if he can clear waivers and find himself with the Crunch to begin the year (assuming he is sent down) Marchessault has the scoring ability to be a double-digit goal scorer at the NHL level. We have seen his skill set both in the AHL and NHL for a short period of time as he has the speed to race around defenders and a wrist shot that will find its way into the back of the net more times than not if on target.

Tanner Richard could possibly get his big break and make his long-awaited NHL debut for the Lightning sometime next season as well. The Swiss forward took on more of a leadership role with the Crunch last season and was the team’s top line center for most of the year. At 5’11 184 lbs, Richard is a good skater that has soft hands and can be a great playmaker. Willing to play both sides of the ice, Richard could easily come in and play a bottom line role ahead of Marchessualt if the team is looking for a gritty player instead of a pure scorer. He could play center or wing with the Lightning next season and use his ability to put the puck in the net and willingness to play a physical game to make a name for himself at the NHL level. Look for Richard as one of the first forward call-ups if a bottom-six forward on the Lightning roster goes down with an injury.

Other wildcards that could find themselves in a Lightning sweater at some point during the season are Anthony DeAngelo and Adam Erne. The team has Luke Witkowski as an option on defense as the right hander over DeAngelo due to his experience and willingness to play effective bottom pair minutes while also throwing his body around over an offensively gifted DeAngelo who is still raw defensively. The organization will want to get DeAngelo a lot of ice time in Syracuse as he enters his first year as a pro, but DeAngelo could find himself in a Lightning uniform if the team’s power play performs poorly like it did last season. Same thing goes for Erne as Richard and Marchessault would most likely get the call over the first year pro looking to improve his 200-foot game.

The Tampa Bay Lightning organization once again has some of the best depth at every position in the NHL and a roster with almost all of its player from last season’s Stanley Cup Final team intact. Look for Condra to play the biggest role of the new faces in a Lightning uniform next season with Richard, Marchessualt and Koekkoek also making an impact.

Next: Tampa Bay Lightning: Expectations for 2015 Prospect Tournament

More from Bolts by the Bay

Home / Editorial