Tampa Bay Lightning Players Who Could Be Moved At The Trade Deadline
The Bolts By The Bay Staff sounds off on who they feel the Tampa Bay Lightning should be looking to move as the NHL Trade Deadline approaches.
The Tampa Bay Lightning started off the 2016-17 season on tremendous fashion. The Lightning went 6-4-0 in the first 10 games of the season leading many Bolts fans to believe this could be the year the Lightning escalate their game and make a return to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the injuries started to set in and some of the weaker points in the Lightning’s game started to glow like a lightning bug in the heart of the bayou. The Lightning went from being a veritable force in the Atlantic Division to being two points shy of the Boston Bruins for third place in the Division.
It is hard to pinpoint the actual source of the problem, but there is definitely something amiss within the Tampa Bay Lightning. What was once a strong defensive unit is turning over the puck left and right, a once dangerous group of snipers are now having issues finding the back of the net, and the Lightning’s goaltenders find themselves left out to dry on a nightly basis.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Bolts have a plethora of talented players in their lineup, but if the Lightning wants to get back on the right track and start winning games once again, something is going to have to give.
The New Year is almost upon us, and along with it nears the 2017 NHL Trade Deadline. As most hockey fans know by now, this is the final day a team has the opportunity to make any changes to their lineups until the conclusion of the postseason. In other words, if there is a move to be made, it must be before this date.
Keeping this in mind, the staff here at Bolts By The Bay has been posed with an interesting question this week. With the NHL Trade Deadline Looming at the end of February, which player, if any, do you see the Tampa Bay Lightning moving?
There are more than a few names being tossed around when it comes to this particular subject. Unfortunately, there is one particular player’s name that continues to rise to the top.
Exactly which players do the Bolts By The Bay staff members see moving before the deadline? In the pages that follow, each staff member will make their case and Lightning fans can get a feel for what the future may hold for the Tampa Bay Lightning. We hope you enjoy the ride.
Tasha St. Pierre – Bolts By The Bay Site Expert
The Tampa Bay Lightning have been facing some tough times as of late. A defensive core that was once solid has started allowing turnovers quicker than a downtown bakery, a team full of snipers who are genuinely skilled at finding the back of the net couldn’t hit the braiding with a magnifying glass, and the Lightning’s netminders find themselves throwing their hands in the air as they are being left out to dry.
It’s getting increasingly difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of the issue. The Lightning is filled to the brim with talented players who all know how to get the job done at the highest levels of the game, but that simply isn’t showing this season.
A case could be made the ridiculous amount of injuries the team has been forced to deal with over the course of the first quarter of the season have contributed to the team’s struggles, but this is not really a new issue for the Lightning. This is not the first time they have been faced with this issue, and it surely won’t be the last.
Tampa Bay Lightning
The New Year is quickly approaching, and soon after 2016 fades into 2017, the movement within the NHL will be put to an end with the arrival of the 2017 NHL Trade Deadline. As it was mentioned previously, the Lightning will need to make some sort of change if they want to get back on the right track. Maybe, just maybe, an impending trade could serve to be the magic the team needs to find their way once again.
Keeping this in mind, the staff was asked to determine who, if any, the Tampa Bay Lightning should be looking to move before the NHL Trade Deadline. There is a very good possibility I will be the minority when it comes to this issue, but I remain steadfast in my opinions.
There are two players I can see the Tampa Bay Lightning moving before the NHL Trade Deadline comes to pass. The first of those players is Lightning forward Valtteri Filppula. Filppula currently has one more season, following this one, left on his contract with the Lightning before he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent.
Currently, Filppula is making an average of $5 million per year on his contract and will remain as such until his contract expires at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season. Filppula started out his time here in the Bolts Nation with a terrific season, bringing home 25 goals and 33 assists for a total of 58 points.
Unfortunately, Filppula’s numbers have been headed downhill since then, culminating with the 2015-16 season where Filppula brought home eight goals and 23 assists for a total of 31 points. Thankfully, things seem to be on the rise for the 32-year-old Finnish forward this season.
In the 27 games he’s played so far this season with the Lightning, he has scored five goals and 12 assists for a total of 17 points. This is over half of his production from the previous season and the Lightning are only a quarter of the way through the season. This seems like the perfect time to get maximum value out of a player who may be looking for a new home at the conclusion of their contract.
The Tampa Bay Lightning could definitely use another solid body on the defense. Now, before we go looking in the trade market for this, let it be said there are plenty of viable candidates within the Syracuse Crunch organization. Slater Koekkoek, Luke Witkowski, and many more players are ready for their opportunity to make an impact on the NHL.
However, if the Lightning are going to add to their defensive structure, the simple fact of the matter is someone needs to go. Right now, that defenseman could be Lightning defenseman Nikita Nesterov. Nesterov is definitely on par when it comes to making hits; however, one area he particularly struggles in is blocked shots.
In the 20 games Nesterov has played this season, he has blocked a mere 13 shots. The one and only player lower than him in this particular area is Luke Witkowski, who has only played in seven games on the main roster this season.
On the offensive side of things, Nesterov has one of the lowest missed shots level on the team. Of course, this could have something to do with the fact Nesterov has only attempted 23 shots on goal this season. While offense is not his primary position, when you have players like Victor Hedman pulling in a team-leading 55 shots so far this season, you can certainly see the disparity here.
Tampa Bay Lightning Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman has a number of decisions to make before the NHL Trade Deadline at the end of February. Whether or not Yzerman feels the same as this humble hockey fan remains to be seen. At the same time, it will definitely be interesting to see how things play out.
Chase Kimball – Bolts By The Bay Contributor
As much as I hate to say it, I think Ben Bishop won’t be playing with the Tampa Bay Lightning past the trade deadline. Plain and simple, the Lightning don’t have the cap space to give Bishop the money he’ll want as one of the top goalies in the league.
Not only this but with the expansion draft coming up the Lightning can only protect one goalie. This means that if the Lightning choose to protect Ben Bishop, they will almost certainly lose Andrei Vasilevskiy.
There’s an eight-year difference between the two and in my opinion, while Vasilevskiy isn’t quite on Bishop’s level yet, he would do just fine as the Lightning’s main netminder. He’s the future of the Lightning and in my personal opinion, with time and training, I think he can become a franchise goalie.
Tampa Bay Lightning
No matter what happens after the deadline, there aren’t any good possibilities that come from keeping him. If the Lightning choose to protect Vasy in the expansion draft and Bishop is selected, the Bolts just lost one of the better goalies in the NHL right now for nothing.
As he will be an Unrestricted Free Agent at the end of this season, it’s possible that he won’t be selected by the Las Vegas Golden Knights. They wouldn’t want to waste the pick on someone they can’t reach a deal with so the Lightning may still have both goalies.
As mentioned earlier, there won’t be enough money to resign him so he’ll go where the money is and the Lightning will still lose him for nothing.
Trading Bishop before the deadline would ensure that the Lightning at least receives some kind of asset from losing him and will also free up some much-needed cap space that can be put towards signing players like Tyler Johnson and Jonathan Drouin whose contracts will also expire next season.
Lauren Burg – Bolts By The Bay Contributor
With the NHL Trade Deadline approaching fairly soon, I could see the Tampa Bay Lightning dealing goaltender Ben Bishop. There are a few reasons behind this bold move.
First, the Lightning need a finisher because the current lineup has trouble scoring no matter how many shots they throw at the opposing netminder. Even as the league has evolved into one that’s more defensive-minded, one goal for likely won’t win many games.
Take Sunday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes or even Thursday’s matchup with the Vancouver Canucks. The Lightning came out on a mission, controlling the game early, but ended up losing due to their inability to find the back of the net.
Tampa Bay Lightning
They did earn a point from the Carolina game but that was more a result of Bishop playing lights out for 60+ minutes. If they could have scored once during regulation, they would have won that game. Instead, the lack of a true sniper did them in.
In saying that, one must give to receive. For the Lightning, a top notch finisher who has the ability to help ease the scoring woes in the absence of Steven Stamkos would probably come at the expense of a two-time Vezina Trophy finalist in Bishop.
Bishop is no doubt better than his current 8-10-1 record and .909 save percentage. Look at last weekend’s back-to-back versus Washington and at Carolina for proof. He faced nearly 100 shots in less than 24 hours (130 minutes combined), only allowing two past him in allowing the team to pick up three of a possible four points.
Secondly, Bishop’s future with the Lightning is murky at best. He has no contract in place for next season and, due to general manager Steve Yzerman’s move to ink young Russian Andrei Vasilevskiy to a three-year deal last summer, could find himself headed to expansion team Las Vegas come June 2017.
I know, I know. The big question now is whether Vasilevskiy is ready to take over the reins. While I agree he’s still green in some areas, his performance in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals and so far this season (6-2-1, .929 save percentage) point toward him being ready to take that leap.
Now, it’s a matter of whether the Lightning can afford to stand pat until after the season concludes or if they are better off making a deal now.
To me, that should be a no-brainer.
With Stamkos out until mid-March at the earliest, Nikita Kucherov drier than the Arizona desert and both Ryan Callahan and Jonathan Drouin missing time with various injuries, the Lightning find themselves outside of the playoff picture as we approach Christmas. That’s not a familiar place for this team, yet they are there due in large part to a sudden inability to score.
Unpopular as it may be, dealing Bishop for a proven finisher who excels at both ends of the rink could be the missing piece that turns a currently sinking ship in the right direction before it’s too late.
Will Clewis – Bolts By The Bay Contributor
Well, this is certainly an interesting question and it has been discussed and thrown around the Tampa Bay Lightning fanbase for quite some time, especially since the summer.
After the major signings that happened during free agency in July, fans of the franchise were ecstatic to hear that players like captain Steven Stamkos, defenseman Victor Hedman, and winger Alex Killorn would be around long-term and locked in for the next several years.
Other players like Andrei Vasilevskiy, deemed the future number one goaltender for the Lightning, Vladislav Namestnikov, a fan favorite, and star forward Nikita Kucherov were also re-signed, but given much shorter contracts.
Tampa Bay Lightning
With that said, Lightning Vice President and General Manager, Steve Yzerman, definitely worked his magic over the summer and pulled off some incredible deals, including the Kucherov contract situation, which lingered on days before the start of the regular season.
Even though Jedi Master Yzerman was able to squeeze in all those contracts, the cap situation for the Lightning is a bit messy and part of it is why he was only able to give Kucherov a so-called “bridge deal.”
Because there will be very little cap space come next summer, the Tampa Bay Lightning will not be able to keep some of its more prized, young and talented players like Tyler Johnson, Jonathan Drouin, and Ondrej Palat.
Now, I’m not saying those players will definitely be gone, but if Yzerman intends to keep them, some other players on the roster will have to go. With the late February Trade Deadline coming up in a few months, that may be an opportune time to deal them.
Names like Ben Bishop (UFA – 2017) and Valtteri Filppula have circulated around in terms of trade talks, and one of the two has been put on the “hot seat” by some fans. With Bishop’s poor stats (compared to previous seasons) and inconsistency in net, there have been talks about shipping him off and getting a large return, as a result.
This would open the door for Vasilevskiy to take the starting role in net and carry the team into the playoffs, hopefully.
However, if Bishop plays better over the next few months and goes on a hot streak, that would cloud the situation even further, and I’d think the front office would be more inclined to keep him, especially if a Stanley Cup run is still in mind.
So, to get back to the original question, I don’t think it can be determined yet who the team will trade, but there’s a chance the Lightning send Bishop to a different team in exchange for a top-4 defenseman or someone else.
If he continues to put up less than stellar performances, like on Thursday, then his trade value will decline some. I’m certain that the front office likely doesn’t want to lose the two-time Vezina Trophy candidate for nothing once we hit free agency, too.
Next: Ben Bishop: 'Nobody Is Going To Feel Bad For Us'
In addition, I could see the Lightning shipping off Filppula, but that gets a bit more complex when dealing with his modified no-trade, no movement clause. For all I know, the Lightning could just stay put and see what happens following the deadline.