Three Lightning Players Due for Increased Roles in 2022-23.
1. Mikhail Sergachev
Through his first five seasons in the NHL, Mikhail Sergachev has been afforded the luxury of playing behind two of the best left-hand shot defenseman in the NHL, Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh.
In the first few seasons, Sergachev’s minutes were truthfully quite sheltered because they could be. In the most recent season’s his minutes and impact have greatly increased and he has often found himself around third of fourth among Lightning defenseman for time on ice.
Now, with McDonagh no longer around, Sergachev is now solidified as the left-hand shot on the Lightning’s second defense pairing. Between all of his special teams work, he has seen 20 minutes of ice time periodically over the last few seasons. That will now become a standard as he will likely be looking at ranking second only to Victor Hedman in ice time among Lightning defensemen.
2. Brandon Hagel
When Brandon Hagel landed in Tampa Bay prior to the trade deadline this season, he landed in a much different situation from where he came from with Chicago. While it was nice to find himself on a contending team, he was no longer able to play on the opposite wing of Patrick Kane.
No longer a top line player, Hagel found himself in more of a checking role further down the lineup. Hagel was an effective player in this sort of role, but his potential went rather untapped in his time with the Lightning, especially in the playoffs. A big part of that was the broken foot he sustained blocking a shot in round two against Florida.
There is reason to believe that with increased opportunity further up in the lineup with Tampa Bay, that Hagel can post similar numbers to the 21 goals in 55 games with Chicago. With Ondrej Palat no longer around, Hagel is one who could draw consideration to take the left wing spot opposite of Nikita Kucherov on the Lightning’s top line.
Now that it's the intermission, can we please take a second to revisit and fully appreciate this Brandon Hagel moment after dropping the gloves with Vatrano? pic.twitter.com/g5os0resUB
— Sports by Tampa Bay Times (@TBTimes_Sports) June 8, 2022
3. Ross Colton
In his first full regular season, Ross Colton had a pretty great year. He scored 22 goals and recorded 39 points in 79 games. Throughout the regular season and playoffs, Colton saw much of his action as a third liner and getting work on the second powerplay unit.
With Anthony Cirelli missing the start of the season and the departure of Palat, there is opportunity for Colton to expand his role in the top six. He will have every opportunity to land a role on the wing of one of the top two lines. The question will be if he will have the offensive output of a top six winger.
Colton has proven to have flashes here and there playing on the Lightning’s second line. He even scored the Stanley Cup winning goal while skating on the second line with Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli. So if there is another winger knocking on the door of a role in the Lightning’s top two lines, Colton will surely get a shot.
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