The Tampa Bay Lightning are known to have some of the best players in the league in their lineup, with players like Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, and Brayden Point dominating at forward while Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev dominate on the blue line.
Stamkos last season hit a new career high in points with 106 in 81 games, and Kucherov had an outstanding season despite missing half of it with an injury as he put up 69 points in 47 games, putting him on pace for 120 points in 82 games.
With the new season underway, Lightning fans are eager to see how their favorite players will play after another great season where they saw history be made as the Lightning took over third place in consecutive series wins with 11. The only two teams to beat that record are the two best dynasties in NHL history.
With that being said, with so many young players getting more time up in the lineup, it’s time to not just predict what the lineup will look like, but also guess how many points each player will get this upcoming season.
This is the lineup that we will be using, assuming this is what the Lightning do this season based on what we saw on opening night:
A look at the lines tonight! ⤵️ #TBLvsNYR pic.twitter.com/KJomOK45bP
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) October 11, 2022
**Cirelli, Bogosian out to start the season
Predictions:
Forwards:
Stamkos: 41G, 53A, 94P
Kucherov: 39G, 72A, 111P
Point: 34G, 52A, 86P
Killorn: 19G, 26A, 45P
Namestnikov: 16G, 31A, 47P
Hagel: 24G, 18A, 42P
Koepke: 12G, 17A, 29P
Paul: 19G, 23A, 42P
Colton: 26G, 17A, 43P
Maroon: 9G, 14A, 23P
Bellemare: 7G, 13A, 20P
Perry: 13G, 21A, 34P
Defenseman:
Hedman: 15G, 57A, 72P
Foote: 5G, 18A, 23P
Sergachev: 6G, 39A, 45P
Cernak: 2G, 11A, 13P
Fleury: 2G, 5A, 7P
Myers: 1G, 10A, 11P
Goalies:
Vasilevskiy: 40 W, 16 L, 5 OTL, 2.29 GAA, .921% SV
Elliott: 11 W, 9 L, 1O TL, 2.76 GAA, .903% SV
Multiple players will be looking to improve on their point totals from last season, most notably Brayden Point, who had a down year after getting injured at the beginning of the season. Other notable players are young guns in Ross Colton, Mikhail Sergachev and Cole Koepke, with Sergachev wanting to show he’s worth his big contract that he signed this past offseason.
As of writing this, the Lightning have played just one game with Stamkos scoring the lone goal on the powerplay, assisted by Point and Kucherov.