Tampa Bay Lightning: 30 Best Draft Picks In Franchise History

Oct 14, 2015; Columbus, OH, USA; A general view of the NHL logo on a net prior to the game of the Ottawa Senators against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

10. Cory Cross

Draft Year: 1992

Position: Defenseman

The NHL Supplemental Draft was a draft that was established as an offshoot of the NHL Entry Draft between 1986 and 1994. The Supplemental Draft was used by teams to select collegiate ice hockey players who were not eligible for the standard Entry Draft. Unlike the Entry Draft, most players selected never played in the NHL, although a few “diamonds in the rough” went on to NHL careers. The Tampa Bay Lightning found one in defenseman Cory Cross.

Selected with the first overall pick of the 1992 Supplemental Draft, Cory Cross would be the first member of a brand new team that would soon take the league by storm in the coming years. Cross was a 6’5, 219 left-handed defenseman that the organization decided that they would build their young team around, and even though he was a sub par skater, his booming slap shot and physical play made him a force on the ice.

Cross would spend parts of six seasons with the Lightning, scoring 12 goals and tallying 46 assists during his time in a Lightning uniform. It would be him along with the first ever NHL Entry Draft selection in team history Roman Hamrlik that would lead the team on the blue line as the struggles of being a new team in the NHL would come upon them.

Cross was later traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs along with a seventh round pick for forward Freddy Modin, who would become a key cog for the organization’s first Stanley Cup winning team, so that also helped. However, on what was the beginning of what is now one of the greatest franchises in sports, Cross was the first piece of the puzzle and will always be remembered after being selected with the first Supplemental Draft pick in franchise history.

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