His best season, however, came three years later. In 2006-07, Lecavalier won the Rocket Richard Trophy by scoring 52 goals. He finished with 108 points. At the time, both were franchise records - Steven Stamkos later eclipsed the goal mark when he netted 60 in 2011-12, but Vinny's point total record still stands. He also recorded 339 shots on goal that season, another Lightning franchise record.
There have been other Lightning players who have had sensational individual seasons. Marty St. Louis was league MVP Award in 2003-04, a regular season in which he posted a league-leading 94 points. There was the aforementioned 60-goal season for Stamkos. The "Triplets" line in 2014-15 (Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov) all surpassed 60 points.
Still, based not only on the stats, but also the eye test, I believe the greatest individual season in Lightning history belongs to Lecavalier in 2006-07. Vinny had always possessed incredible talent and with it, the ability to dominate a game. But in 2006-07, he did it consistently. On most nights, he was, simply put, the best player on the ice. Head coach John Tortorella, who was (and still is) unflinchingly honest in his assessment of his players, stated it openly that season when speaking about Lecavalier. Torts called him the best player in the game.
Unfortunately, the Lightning team wasn't as deep as it had been three years before. Perhaps that was one reason why Tortorella ended up playing his top players a lot. In terms of average ice time per game, Brad Richards and St. Louis played over 24 minutes a night. Lecavalier was over 22 and a half minutes. The trio finished with three of the four highest ice time totals for forwards in the league. On the blue line, Dan Boyle played over 27 minutes a game, finishing fifth overall. The added ice time allowed Lecavalier and company to affect each game more than they would have in previous seasons when their ice times were lower.
As Nikita Kucherov got off to his hot start this season, Lightning beat writer Bryan Burns noted that Kucherov was slightly behind the points pace that Lecavalier set. But that torrid pace for Vinny wasn't from the 2006-07 season - it was from the following year. I confess that I hadn't remembered Vinny's remarkable start to 2007-08. It goes to show that his dominance wasn't limited to just one season. But that one season was still something to behold - an elite player performing at the top of his game night in and night out.
