Lightning's 2021 Draft class prioritizes size and strength

The Tampa Bay Lightning are going to lose a significant portion of their roster this offseason, key players that helped the team win back-to-back Stanley Cups.
A lot of the roster holes opened up by this summer's cap crunch will have to be filled organically by players knocking on the door of the National Hockey League according to general manager Julien BriseBois, prospects in the system like Taylor Raddysh, Boris Katchouk and Alex Barré-Boulet to go along with players such as Mathieu Joseph, Cal Foote and Mitchell Stephens who have already seen significant time in the League with the Bolts.
Saturday, the Lightning set out to secure the next wave of prospects who will one day be counted on to play a role with the team, drafting seven players at the 2021 NHL Draft, held virtually for a second-straight year.

If there was a theme to their 2021 Draft class, the Lightning seemed to focus in on size, strength and difficulty to play against, at least compared to previous recent classes.
The Bolts took four forwards and three defensemen with their seven selections, four coming from the United States and one each from Canada, Russia and Finland.
After going without a pick in the First Round Friday - the Lightning dealt their 2021 1st Rounder to Columbus to acquire David Savard at the trade deadline - and sending this year's Second Round pick to Montreal last year to move up and take Jack Finley in the 2020 Second Round, Tampa Bay didn't make a selection until the end of the Third Round on Saturday, when they picked Roman Schmidt 96th overall from the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
Schmidt is a 6-foot-5, 210-pound, right-shot defenseman who registered three goals and 14 points in 48 games with the U.S. U-18 team during the 2020-21 season.
"He's one of those guys we say makes the all-warmup team because as soon as he steps on the ice, everybody takes a look and they see this great big guy wheeling around and they go 'Holy mackerel, who's this guy?'" Lightning assistant general manager, director of amateur scouting Al Murray said. "He starts off with a big advantage as a hockey player because he's a good skater who's big and strong. And then he plays a pretty simple, straightforward game. He's in good position, makes the safe first pass, plays one-on-ones well, handles traffic down low and in the corners well."
Both of Schmidt's parents were figure skaters, and the burly defenseman started out figure skating too in addition to playing hockey until he decided to focus strictly on hockey at nine years old.
"My first steps on the ice were with figure skates," Schmidt said. "Between the two, I put a lot of time in both of those, and I've been on the ice pretty much my whole life."
Schmidt lists his hockey hero as Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, and said it was "surreal" being drafted by the same organization.
"Being a bigger guy like Victor, I try to emulate as much as my game to his," Schmidt said. "He's the best defenseman in the League. He's definitely one of my idols. I've looked up to him for a long time."
The 18-year-old Schmidt was initially committed to play collegiately at Boston University but signed with the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League in June. He considers himself a stay-at-home defenseman who's looking to develop his offensive game in the OHL this coming year.
"I do think I have an offensive upside that I haven't tapped into yet," he said. "I think playing in Kitchener next year will help me tap into that."
The Lightning entered Saturday without a Fourth Round selection but traded their 2022 Fourth Rounder to Montreal to move into the round and take another player from the U.S. National Team Development Program, left wing Dylan Duke with pick No. 126.
Duke is a 5-foot-10, 175-pound forward from Strongsville, Ohio. In 50 games with the U-18s in 2020-21, he recorded 29 goals and 49 points, ranking second on the team in both categories. Duke registered four points (3 goals, 1 assist) in five games for Team USA at the IIHF World Junior Championship in April 2021.
"He's a left-shot forward, plays usually left wing, and he is all about what we call a Bolt," Murray said. "He's high energy, really smart, competitive, always net-front, always banging around, has good skill level, good skating."
BriseBois called Duke a "super competitive player" with "a knack for scoring goals," which is why the Lightning moved up to grab him.
"He was significantly higher on our list than the next guy on our list," BriseBois said. "It was an opportunity to get a player that we felt should have been drafted probably a few rounds before where we were able to get him. The acquisition cost for that particular Fourth Round pick was just essentially trading next year's Fourth Round pick, so we're moving up a year, didn't actually cost us anything in terms of an asset. And we get a player that we feel pretty lucky that we're able to have him slide to that draft position."
Duke said a big part of his game is scoring goals, getting net-front and battling in front for tips and rebounds. He compared his game to the New York Islanders' Anthony Beauvillier and Montreal's Brendan Gallagher, two players the Lightning got a close-up look at during their recent Stanley Cup championship run.
"If someone asked me where would you want to go in the draft before the draft started, if there was one spot I wanted to go to, it was Tampa Bay," Duke said. "Just watching what they've done the last couple of years, the organization is unbelievable. I couldn't be happier to be a part of the Tampa Bay Lightning organization. I think we're going to continue to try to win Stanley Cups and win Stanley Cups."
Duke is committed to the University of Michigan and will play for the Wolverines next season. His father Steve Duke played hockey at Western Michigan University and professionally in the ECHL and AHL. His younger brother Tyler Duke is also a player in the National Team Development Program with the U-17 team.
"He's got the right attitude and the right competitiveness on a good skill level that we're excited about him coming into our organization," Murray said. "He's going to go off to Michigan, which is a good development program. And because of where it's located, we should have easy access to work with him over the summers as well."
In the Fifth Round (160th overall), the Lightning selected Cameron 'Cam' MacDonald, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound forward from the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
In 30 games with the Sea Dogs in 2020-21 - he decommitted from Boston College to play for Saint John -- the power forward notched 10 goals, 17 points and 30 penalty minutes.
He's 18 years old and from Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia.
"I kind of like to take parts of like Matthew Tkachuk and Tom Wilson," MacDonald said when asked who in the NHL he models his game after. "I think they're grindy players, kind of like me. I know how to score goals. At an earlier level, I scored a lot of goals and I was able to kind of bring that to midget where next year I'm kind of looking to bring that to the junior level, which I haven't done in the past two years. I think I have that goal-scoring aspect, but at the same time, I'm a 200-foot player and I'm really physical."
MacDonald said Tampa Bay has been his favorite team since he was a kid and respects how the organization is able to develop prospects into top-notch NHL players.
"I think everybody who is big and plays physical wants to be Tom Wilson, but there's only one Tom Wilson thankfully for a lot of players in the National Hockey League," Murray said. "I think Cam to me falls in along with Cedric Paquette, Barclay Goodrow, those kind of guys. Now, again, he's not yet Cedric Paquette and he's not yet Barclay Goodrow, but he's a big body with some skill around the net who works hard and finishes all his checks and is a decent skater but needs to work on some skating things he can improve with technique and strength. I think Tom Wilson is a bit of a reach. Good for him for aspiring to that, but I would think more along the Barclay Goodrow, Ceddy lines."
Tampa Bay took back-to-back blueliners between the Sixth and Seventh Round.
With pick No. 192 to close out the Sixth, the Lightning selected left-shot defenseman Alex Gagne.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Gagne tallied 23 assists and 26 points in 53 games during the 2020-21 season with the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League. He also registered a franchise-record and ranked first among USHL defensemen with a plus-35 plus/minus rating.
Gagne, 18, is a Bedford, N.H., native who is committed to play at the University of New Hampshire in the fall.
With their first of three selections in the Seventh Round, the Lightning took defenseman Daniil Pylenkov from Vityaz Podolsk of Russia's KHL at No. 196.
Pylenkov skated in 54 games for Podolsk in 2020-21, collecting five goals and 19 points. The 20 year old also skated for Russia at the 2020 World Junior Championships, recording one assist in seven tournament games.
Pylenkov is a left-shot defenseman measuring in at 6-foot-1, 194 pounds.
At No. 211, the Lightning grabbed left wing Robert 'Cooper' Flinton, a 6-foot-2, 203-pound, left-shot forward from Auburn, N.H. The 17 year old committed to Dartmouth College for the 2022-23 season.
Flinton had five goals and nine points in six games for St. Paul's Prep School in Concord, N.H. this past season.
And with the final pick of the 2021 NHL Draft, Tampa Bay took Niko Huuhtanen, a 6-foot-1, 204-pound right wing from Helsinki, Finland, rated the 49th best international skater in the final NHL Central Scouting standings.
Huuhtanen will play for the Everett Silvertips in the Western Hockey League this upcoming season.
"Niko's a very unique guy," Murray said. "He's not Patrick Maroon, but he's a Finnish, 17-year-old version of Pat Maroon. He's a big body. He needs to improve his skating, but he's got terrific hands. He loves to go net-front, and he loves to play the corners."
Huuhtanen is a right shot that can play both the left and the right wing.
We love his compete," Murray said. "We love his effort. We love his size. We love his hands. And like a lot of young players, he's got some things to work on, in his case it's skating technique, it's strength issues with his legs…But he was a guy that we definitely wanted to get in as part of our organization."
Murray said the Lightning won't hold a traditional development camp like they would in a typical offseason because of the abbreviated summer schedule but will instead hold one virtually. The Lightning will try to bring as many of the draftees in a few days early for a prospect tournament in September to get a little extra time with the new additions.
Added BriseBois on Tampa Bay's 2021 Draft class: "I think every player we drafted today, we saw something in them that makes us believe that they can be a Bolt."