Lightning set to open camp with core mostly intact

The Tampa Bay Lightning are coming off the franchise's second Stanley Cup after spending two months in a bubble in Toronto and then Edmonton and steamrolling their way through the playoffs, capped off with a six-game triumph over the Dallas Stars in the Cup Final.
So what now for an encore?
How about two in a row?

The Lightning will attempt to become the first back-to-back Stanley Cup champions since the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017 and just the second since the turn of the century when they embark on the 2021 regular season.
To achieve that goal, the Bolts open training camp Sunday in preparation for a year that promises to be unlike any other. They've moved to the Central Division this year, the National Hockey League realigning divisions to cut down on travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The regular season will consist of just 56 games rather than the usual 82. Gone are matchups against the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. Instead, the Lightning will get a healthy dose of the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and those same Dallas Stars, among others, as all 56 games will be played entirely within the division.
The top four from each division advance to a 16-team playoff starting in May (the regular season ends May 8).
Here's our breakdown of how the Lightning will look in 2021
FORWARDS
Remember how it was a foregone conclusion the Lightning would lose one of Tyler Johnson, Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat or Yanni Gourde during the offseason? And more than likely, they'd have to ship out two of the aforementioned quartet?
Such was the price of signing restricted free agents Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak - which Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois reiterated throughout the offseason was a priority - and staying under a stagnant salary cap.
Well, here we are at the start of camp and all four are still on the roster. And Cirelli, Sergachev and Cernak are all under new contracts, signed to three-year bridge deals following the expiration of their entry-level contracts.
Credit to BriseBois for finding a way to retain all of his high-profile players while bringing back nearly the same group that led the Lightning to the Stanley Cup a little over three months ago.
Certainly, the loss of Nikita Kucherov for the 2021 regular season due to a hip injury that required surgery - a procedure that was performed December 29 by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and is expected to resolve his hip ailment - helped BriseBois navigate what appeared to be an impossible cap crunch. And all things considered, BriseBois would much rather have his superstar right wing, who just set a franchise record for postseason scoring (7-27-34 points) in leading the Lightning to the Cup, on his Opening Night roster and figure out other ways to deal with being over the cap.
But, sans Kucherov, the Lightning enter the 2021 season with nearly the same group of forwards they had at their disposal last year.
One substantial addition is the return of Steven Stamkos from the core muscle injury that sidelined him for the final seven games of the regular season and the subsequent compensatory injury that derailed his plans to return for the playoffs, the Bolts captain skating just 2:47 of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final against Dallas for his only postseason action and scoring the most iconic goal in Lightning history in the process.
In his media availability December 23 announcing Kucherov's injury, BriseBois replied "I do" when asked if he expects Stamkos to be healthy and available to play at the beginning of the regular season.
The Lightning proved this fall they could win a Stanley Cup without Stamkos. Now with Stamkos back in the lineup, can they prove they're a playoff team without Kucherov?
It'll be a 56-game regular season sprint to get that answer.
The only other changes to the forward group are the losses of fourth line stalwart Cedric Paquette, who was traded to Ottawa along with defenseman Braydon Coburn and a 2022 Second Round draft pick for the rights to Marian Gaborik and Anders Nilsson, both of whom will go on LTIR and further help BriseBois stay under the salary cap while adding room for maneuverability, and the departure of Carter Verhaeghe, who signed with Florida after the Lightning didn't extend a qualifying offer.
With that in mind, here's how Tampa Bay's lines might look when they open the season against Chicago January 13 (these are by no means official):
Palat-Point-Stamkos
Killorn-Cirelli-Johnson
Coleman-Gourde-Goodrow
Maroon-Stephens-Joseph/Volkov
How the Lightning replace Kucherov will be perhaps the most pressing question in training camp. Expect a now-healthy Stamkos to slide into Kucherov's spot on the top line, although another good option could be to move Johnson up as the No. 1 right wing and slot Stamkos in as the second line winger.
The Lightning have options here though, and maybe those top six are jumbled up a bit more. But, for now, considering their effectiveness in the postseason, I would expect the lines to remain basically unchanged, which is why putting Stamkos in Kucherov's spot makes a lot of sense.
The third line, which provided so much energy in the postseason, set the tone for the team at the beginning of games and periods and was also a driver of the offense at times, figures to remain the same, at least for the time being. Why fix what isn't broke?
Mitchell Stephens seems poised to take over as the full-time starter as the fourth line center. He was an effective face-off man for the Lightning in the postseason and scored a goal in his playoff debut during the Round Robin stage against Washington.
Patrick Maroon - who split the vote with Kucherov among Bolts Nation as everybody's favorite Cup celebrant - returns for two more seasons after re-signing with the Lightning in the offseason.
The only real training camp battle among the four lines is figuring out who plays alongside Maroon and Stephens. Mathieu Joseph would appear to have the inside track having played in 107 career regular season games, including 37 last year, but Alex Volkov got the surprise start in the Cup-clinching Game 6 against Dallas and acquitted himself well, drawing a tripping call against John Klingberg in the first period the Lightning were able to convert into the game's opening and game-winning goal on the subsequent power play.
Throw in intriguing prospect Alex Barre-Boulet, veteran Gemel Smith and trialist Boo Nieves, invited to camp on a pro tryout after spending last season between the New York Rangers (4 games) and AHL Hartford (43 games), and the Lightning appear to have all the ingredients in place to remain one of the highest-scoring teams in the NHL.
DEFENSEMEN
Tampa Bay's top four of Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak is arguably the best in the League.
Hedman is a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, finishing third the last two seasons after becoming the first Bolt to win the award as the NHL's premier defenseman in 2017.
McDonagh is one half of Tampa Bay's shutdown duo along with Cernak and is also its top penalty killer among defensemen. He munches major minutes and sacrifices his body regularly - he's led the Lightning for blocked shots in both of his full seasons in Tampa Bay - to help the Bolts win.
Sergachev signed a three-year bridge deal worth $4.8-million AAV to stay with the Lightning. The 22 year old turned a corner midway through last season once he learned how to use his body to play more physically. He's on the ice in all situations and saw time on Tampa Bay's top power-play unit in the postseason, which might become a more permanent thing with Kucherov unavailable.
Expect his responsibilities and ice time to increase as he continues to develop into one of the league's top blueliners.
And Cernak is a hulking, young, coveted right-shot blueliner who, like Sergachev, also signed a three-year bridge deal, his coming in $2.95-million AAV. It hurt at the time, but how good does that Ben Bishop trade back at the 2017 deadline that netted Cernak look now for the Lightning?
Beyond those four, it gets a bit murkier.
The Lightning lost Kevin Shattenkirk to free agency. The Bolts got him at a bargain for the 2019-20 season at $1.75 million after his contract was bought out by the New York Rangers. Shattenkirk was a leader in the Lightning locker room and played so well he was able to parlay his one season in Tampa Bay into a three-year contract with Anaheim at nearly $4 million per year.
Braydon Coburn, who came to the Lightning at the 2015 trade deadline and scored one of the more memorable goals in franchise history when he fluttered in the opening goal and game-winner from the blue line in the third period of a Game 7, 2015 First Round showdown against Detroit, is also gone as part of the trade with Ottawa for cap relief purposes.
The Lightning took a flyer on Zach Bogosian at the trade deadline that paid off considerably as he slotted in next to Hedman for the remainder of the regular season and most of the playoffs and performed better than expected. He's now with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jan Rutta re-signed for two more seasons and, now healthy after a lower-body injury forced him to miss the final month of the regular season as well as a majority of the playoffs, figures to be in line to play alongside Hedman on the Bolts' top pair again thanks to the chemistry they possess. Remember, when the Lightning were playing their best hockey of the 2019-20 regular season during a stretch that lasted from late December to mid-February, Hedman and Rutta were paired together for a majority of it and performing at a high level.
Luke Schenn didn't see a ton of action in the regular season but proved invaluable in the postseason when the Lightning switched to a 11 forward/7 defenseman alignment after McDonagh went down with an injury in the Boston series. When McDonagh returned, Schenn stayed in the lineup as his effectiveness eliminating threats around the net and physicality in his own end was a welcome commodity. Expect him to see increased action in 2021 with the losses of Shattenkirk and Coburn.
And then there's highly-rated prospect Cal Foote. Is this the season Tampa Bay's First Round draft pick (14th overall) in 2017 makes the jump to the NHL after an impressive start to his pro career in the AHL? He certainly showed well during the Bolts' restart training camp, earning praise from BriseBois, Cooper as well as a number of Lightning players. He's the wild card. If he can continue that progression into this year's training camp, he'll likely earn a roster spot and possibly a slot into the top six. If he's not quite ready yet, the Lightning have the luxury of letting him continue to develop while turning to Schenn as the third pair right-side defenseman.
Here's how the defense pairings likely shake out going into the regular season (again, these are not official, just projections):
Hedman - Rutta
McDonagh - Cernak
Sergachev - Schenn/Foote
The Lightning are loaded on the left side, a thinner on the right. Moving Sergachev to the right side would give him an opportunity for more playing time, but the Lightning aren't keen on playing defensemen on their off side. Sergachev can play both, but the Bolts prefer him on the left.
And don't forget Luke Witkowski either. He started the 2019-20 season with the Lightning before being sent to Syracuse and spending the majority of the season with the Crunch. Witkowski joined the Lightning for the restart, helping them get ready for their eventual Stanley Cup run, and figures to get an opportunity to prove he deserves a permanent spot in Tampa Bay during camp.
GOALTENDING
Connor Hellebuyck may have won the Vezina Trophy last season, but ask any Lightning fan who the best goaltender in the NHL is and you'll get one definitive answer:
Vasy
Andrei Vasilevskiy saved his finest moment in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs for his last, making all 22 stops in the Cup-clinching Game 6 versus Dallas for his first career postseason shutout.
After the 2019 playoff debacle against Columbus, some questioned whether Vasilevskiy could ever be the goalie to carry a team all the way to the Cup.
Those concerns were summarily squashed during his incredible performance last postseason where he went 18-7 with a 1.90 goals-against average and .927 save percentage while never dropping back-to-back games.
Can he do it again?
Bolts Nation has no doubts.
Vasilevskiy has paced the NHL for wins in the regular season each of the last three years. He's been a Vezina finalist three years in a row and won the prestigious award in 2019.
Backing up Vasilevskiy once again is the more than capable Curtis McElhinney, who went 8-7-3 with one shutout in his first season as Tampa Bay's backup.
Remember, there was talk during the restart training camp McElhinney was outplaying Vasilevskiy and maybe deserved a start or two in the playoffs. That never came to fruition, mainly because Vasilevskiy was just that dominant, but the Lightning have complete faith the 37-year-old McElhinney can relieve Vasilevskiy or even take over for a bit as the number one should an injury befall the starter.
TLDR: The Lightning are set in net.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Tampa Bay's power play was wildly inconsistent during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Lightning went seven consecutive games at the start of the elimination rounds without scoring a power-play goal, a 0-for-15 slump that lasted the entire First Round versus Columbus and into the Second Round against Boston.
The unit also had three separate games where it scored three power-play goals, all Lightning victories, including two routs.
In total, the power play went a respectable 22.7 percent in the playoffs, tops among teams that made it past the First Round.
Now, the unit faces a major obstacle as it enters 2021.
Nikita Kucherov will not play during the regular season as he rehabilitates from hip surgery performed December 29. The Lightning are hopeful Kucherov would be available for the playoffs should they qualify, but there are no guarantees.
Kucherov's absence is a considerable blow to the unit. More than anybody, he's the player the power play runs through, his creativity, deception skills and one-timer from the right circle opening up a myriad of options for the other four players on the ice. Finding a capable replacement for Kucherov will be one of the biggest challenges for the Lightning during training camp. Will Brayden Point be the driver of the power play this season? Will we see more of the two defenseman look with Victor Hedman and Mikhail Sergachev on the top unit? Can Anthony Cirelli be the guy to come in and replace Kucherov? Is it Tyler Johnson?
Getting Steven Stamkos back helps. One of the reasons for the Lightning's inconsistency during the postseason was the absence of their captain and his hammer from the left circle. The threat of Stamkos pulling the trigger on his one-timer should create more seams in the opposition's penalty kill.
But it remains to be seen if the power play, which has ranked in the top six in the NHL each of the last four regular seasons, can continue to be as lethal in 2021 without Kucherov.
The penalty kill got off to a rough start over the first month of the 2019-20 regular season but rebounded to become one of the team's more consistent units.
The additions of Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow at the trade deadline took the penalty kill from pretty good to darn near elite in the postseason.
There's no reason to think the PK won't be just as good in 2021 with most of the major players returning.
Sure the losses of Braydon Coburn, Cedric Paquette and Zach Bogosian will hurt from a depth perspective, but the Lightning bring back their top 10 penalty killers in terms of postseason shorthanded time on ice (Coburn, Paquette and Bogosian ranked 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively, in this area)
Expect the penalty kill to play at a high level from the start this season as the unit won't have to work new members into the rotation like last season.