Ten fantastic NHLers who played one season (or less) for the Tampa Bay Lightning

After thirty years in the NHL, the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise has seen a lot of terrific players come and go. Some have been franchise mainstays (Lecavalier, St. Louis, Stamkos et al.), while many have been cup-of-coffee-in-the-show types. But not all brief visits have been from fringe players. A variety of great NHLers have suited up in blue and white (or black, blue, silver and white) for brief durations, capping off a long career with a season on Florida's sunny west coast, or been a veteran addition who got flipped late in the season. 

While many of these players were long past their prime when they donned the Bolt, they were spectacular at one point of their career or another-- even if their tenure in Tampa Bay may have been forgettable. Here are ten players who played one season (or less) for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Wendel Clark: 1998-1999

The pride of Kelvington, Saskatchewan, and an NHL all-time great mustache-haver (rockin' a rare goatee in this pic) will always be remembered as the blood-and-guts heart and soul Toronto Maple Leafs captain. And with good reason! Clark put in a dozen seasons in Toronto (plus single season vacations in both Quebec and on Long Island) before signing with the Lightning prior to the 1998-1999 season.

The Lightning's new owner, Art Williamson, had given then-General Manger Phil Esposito the go-ahead to spend some money, hoping to improve a paper-thin roster that finished last in the NHL (by 18 points!) the prior season. Enter Clark, the aging Leaf known for being tough as nails and a hell of a goal scorer. And score he did, sinking 28 pucks in the 65 games he played in TB. He was also the team's All-Star Game representative that year, which the Lightning hosted. Sadly, his goals weren't enough to significantly move the needle for a still-terrible team. They stumbled out of the gate, Esposito was fired before mid-October, and Head Coach and now GM Jacques Demers traded Clark to Detroit before that year's trade deadline.

Craig Janney: 1998-1999 

Along with signing Clark, Esposito also tried to improve the Lightning's forward corps in the summer of '98 by trading bruiser Louie DeBrusk and a draft pick to the Coyotes for silky-smooth center Craig Janney. Once described as having the softest hands in hockey, Janney was a point-per-game player who racked up 185 assists in 186 games centering Brett Hull in St. Louis in the early '90s. 

The 1998-1999 Lightning didn't quite have a Hull on their roster, however. As their season spiraled, the team started jettisoning veterans, including Janney. After collecting 22 points in 38 games, he was sent to the Islanders for a sixth-rounder. The Islanders would be his last NHL stop, as blood clots issues forced his retirement at age 32.

Bill Ranford: 1998-1999

One reason the 1997-1998 Lightning team was such a tire fire was their weakness in goal. Franchise goalie Darren Puppa had a bad back and was nearing the end of his run, and the alternatives were... not great. Bill Ranford was a reliable workhorse goalie, best known for his near-decade with the Oilers, including a Conn Smythe Trophy during Edmonton's 1990 Stanley Cup winning playoff run. Esposito sent Washington a 2nd and 3rd round pick for Ranford in the summer of '98, hoping a solid, dependable veteran could help Puppa carry the load.

It was NOT the Conn Smythe version of Ranford that arrived in Tampa Bay for the 1998-99 season. The veteran managed a putrid 3 wins in 26 starts, with a terrible .881 save percentage. The team jettisoned him at the trade deadline, sending him to Detroit.

Sean Burke: 2005-2006 

Things were WAAAAAY different for the Lightning in 2005. They were fresh off the 2004 Stanley Cup Championship and ready to defend their title (not counting a one-year break for the labor lockout). Only one problem: All-World goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin decided he was entitled to a super-maximum contract, and departed for the Chicago Blackhawks. 

To help fill the 'Bulin Wall-sized hole in the roster, GM Jay Feaster signed Sean Burke to back up Khabibulin's former back up, John Graham. Burke, 39, already had a stellar career, including long stretches as starter in New Jersey, Hartford, and Phoenix, plus being the starting goalie for Canada in the 1992 Olympics. Burke was solid in Tampa Bay, going 14-10-4, with 2 shutouts. He signed with Los Angeles the next season, which would be his last as an active player.

Gary Roberts: 2008-2009 

By 2008, the '04 championship glory was gone and the Lightning's wheels had completely fallen off. The team was now owned by a couple of jerks with no idea what they were doing. "OK" Hockey recklessly signed players and traded away others, while barely having the funds to pay the team's bills. They brought in several admired veterans during their delusional spending spree, including Gary Roberts, a Stanley Cup Champion in Calgary in 1989, who had just gone to the 2008 Cup Final with the Penguins. 

Roberts was a former fifty goal scorer and a consummate pro, but he was 42 years old. He played 30 games with the Lightning, collecting seven points, before suffering an elbow injury that would end his career. He then transitioned into a new role as a personal trainer, helping a young Steven Stamkos and many others reach their physical potential.

Mark Recchi: 2008-2009

Another 2008 signing by the two idiots who thought they were trading hockey cards, Mark Recchi was a veteran winger with an outstanding hockey career, piling up points during stops around the NHL. He already had two Cup wins and seven All-Star Game appearances by the time he signed a one-year deal with the Lightning, and he continued to score with the Bolt on his chest. He put up 45 points in 62 games before the struggling Lightning shipped him away at the trade deadline.

Recchi kept scoring for a few more years, too; he capped his career at age 43 by winning a third Cup with Boston in 2011, after beating the Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final.

Olaf Kolzig: 2008-2009 

Olaf made his first appearance for the Washington Capitals waaaaay back in the 1989-1990 season, and he never played anywhere else... until two jackasses bought the Lightning and thought it would be cool to have him wrap up his career in Tampa Bay.

Kolzig absolutely owns the Washington record book for goaltenders, and having him finish his career with an eight-game, injury-shortened season with the Bolts is just... weird. And he didn't really finish with Tampa Bay either. The owners were secretly hurting for cash, and once he was hurt they packaged his contract with a few on-the-bubble players and a sweetener draft pick and sent them to Toronto as a salary dump.

Simon Gagné: 2010-2011 

Simon Gagné had been a fixture for the Philadelphia Flyers. He played ten seasons for Philly, made the All-Star Game twice, and played for the Canadian Olympic team in 2002 and 2006. But the Flyers traded him to Tampa Bay in the 2010 off-season for d-man Matt Walker and a 4th. 

Acquired by new GM Steve Yzerman to provide scoring depth and experience, Simon put up 40 point in 63 regular season games for the Lightning (17g, 23a), and proved a valuable contributor in the team's surprisingly deep playoff run. He appeared in 15 of the Lightning's 18 playoff games, scoring 5 goals with 7 assists as the team beat the Penguins, swept the Capitals, and finally fell to the Bruins in the ECF.

Gagné signed with Los Angeles in the 2011 offseason and hung around a few more years, but time had taken its toll on his body. He got a Cup ring with the Kings in 2012 but only appeared in four games during their run, and finally retired in 2015.

Evgeni Nabokov: 2014-2015 

Ask a hundred NHL fans to close their eyes and think of Evgeni Nabokov, and probably 99 of them will picture him in a San Jose Sharks uniform. Nabokov was the Sharks starter from 2000-2010, winning the Calder Trophy for best rookie in 2001, was an NHL First Team All-Star in 2008, and he remains the Sharks career leader in most goalie categories. But they couldn't pay what he thought he deserved in 2010, so he signed in the KHL. He flopped in Russia, and then spent three seasons sharing the Islanders net.

He signed with the Lightning in 2014 and was expected to be Ben Bishop's solid veteran backup, which would give a young Andrei Vasilevskiy time to mature in the minors. Two things conspired to derail this plan: first, Vasilevskiy was terrific out of the gate, proving himself already NHL ready, and second, Nabokov was washed up as an NHL goalie. He went 3-6-2 for an otherwise excellent Lightning team, with a terrible .882 save percentage. In February he cleared waivers, and Yzerman traded him to San Jose for nothing so he could retire the next day as a Shark. 

Chris Kunitz: 2017-2018

Kunitz had already won a Cup in Anaheim when he arrived in Pittsburgh to provide secondary scoring behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and in eight and a half seasons with the Penguins he added three more Cups to his resume. A consistent scoring threat, the Regina, Saskatchewan native was named to the NHL First All-Star Team in 2013 and played on Canada's 2014 Olympic team. 

In 2017, while Kunitz and the Pens were winning the Cup, the Tampa Bay Lightning missed the playoffs, their season derailed by injuries to several key players. Signing the free agent Kunitz to a one-year contract was part of their reload plan, and it was a success. The Lightning had a 113 point season, with Kunitz contributing 13 goals and 29 points in a depth role. The team went on a deep playoff run, losing in the third round to the eventual champion Capitals. Kunitz's scoring touch dried up during the playoffs, and he had only a single assist in 17 post-season games. He departed in the offseason, playing one year in Chicago before retiring.

Do you have a favorite brief Bolt? Let me know on Twitter @ReviewLightning!

Projecting the First Class of the Lightning Hockey Hall of Fame Part One: The '90s

(Brian Bradley speeds up the ice. Pic via NHL.com)

As part of their 30th anniversary celebration, the Tampa Bay Lightning have announced the creation of a team Hockey Hall of Fame, which is extremely cool and exciting. Long time fans will get to see familiar faces honored, and newer fans will be introduced to some of the characters that preceded the Lightning's current crop of stars. It also gives weird, obsessive bloggers like me a chance to speculate on who will be chosen as the first inductees into the #TBLHHOF. 

In order to determine who should be included in the First Class, I decided to follow the Hockey Hall of Fame guideline of choosing four players. Active NHL players are not eligible. I also didn't include Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier for consideration; since the club has already retired their sweaters, they can be grandfathered in as automatic members. 

Given that this is the Lightning's 30th season, it's easy to break down the team's history into three decades, roughly grouped as the '90s era, the first Stanley Cup era, and the current era. Since most of the players from the current era are still active NHLers, we don't need to worry about that group for HHOF purposes, so inductees can be split between the other two eras. 

If we look at the '90s era, meaning roughly the decade from the 1992-1993 inaugural season to around 2001, two names immediately stand out: Brian Bradley, and Darren Puppa. 

Really, Brian Bradley should be a slam dunk. Brian led the Lightning in points in their first four seasons, which stood as the record for most consecutive seasons as points leader until Nikita Kucherov led the team five times from 2016-2020. Bradley owned most of the team's offensive records when his career was cut short by a concussion during the 1997-1998 season. He retired with 111 goals and 189 assist for 300 career points in 328 games with the Bolts. He represented the Lightning in the 1993 and 1994 All-Star Games, and is already a member of the Sports Club of Tampa Bay Hall of Fame. Bradley remains an active part of the Lightning community. 

While Bradley was carrying weight offensively in the early seasons, Darren Puppa was the stalwart in goal, with his arrival prior to the 1993-1994 season giving the team their first bona fide NHL starting goaltender. His 29-win performance in the 1995-1996 season was especially noteworthy, as his 0.918 save percentage was second in the NHL to Buffalo's Dominic Hasek (0.920), and his goal against average of 2.46 was seventh overall. He contributions were significant as the team qualified for the playoffs for the first time. 

Like Bradley, Puppa's career was affected by injury, with back ailments dragging down his appearance numbers as the '90s progressed. Even so, Puppa remains near the top of the Lightning's goalie list in several categories: third in games played, fourth in wins, and fourth in shutouts.

I'll be back in a few days with my picks for the two players from the 2000s. Spoiler: my choices will not be remotely shocking.

Who would you have chosen from the '90s to induct into the Lightning Hall of Fame? Let me know on twitter @ReviewLightning!

Ondřej Palát: Career Review and Best Wishes

(Pic: tsn.ca)

 This one hurts.

Of course, it always hurts to lose someone you love. Imagine the tears that are going to flow during the video tribute when ten-year Lightning veteran Ondřej Palát returns to Amelie Arena for the first time: I mean, it will be disgusting that he'll be wearing a New Jersey Devils uniform, but I'm not going to be able to hold myself together (although I'll be watching on TV, as a faraway fan repping #DistantThunder).

Yes, the 208th pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, the 2013 Calder Cup Champion and 2014 Calder Trophy Runner-Up, the member of the famed Triplets line with Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov, the two-way conscience, the consistent scorer, the playoff hero, the two-time Stanley Cup Champion, "Sneaky P"... 

Ondřej Palát has left the Lightning.

How? Why?

We've all been over this before. The Lightning are caught between having a host of rising stars in their early-to-mid-twenties (Paul, Sergachev, Cirelli, Černák) that need market-value long-term contracts, having several top-tier NHL superstars on large-dollar deals (Vasilevskiy, Kucherov, Hedman, Stamkos), and trying to ice a balanced team during a period when the salary cap has been flattened for years by low profits due to pandemic shut-downs. 

As a result, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois was forced to set aside any personal attachment he or the organization might feel for Pally, and try to be strictly objective. A pros and cons list to re-signing the winger might look something like...

PROS: Strong two-way forward. Consistent scorer. Clutch playoff performer. Exceptional chemistry with teammates (those no-look passes with Kucherov!!). Great in the room. Cute as a button. Did I forget anything?

CONS: Thirty-one years old, in a league where scoring totals tend to decline as forwards progress beyond their twenties. Frequently injured (he's only played 80+ games once in his career, routinely missing 10-20 games with injury). 

The expectation is that over time, age times injury will equal declining production. The Devils were willing to offer Palát a five year contract at six million dollars per year. That deal will probably be good value for Jersey in the first few years, and maybe not as much in the last few. Regardless, the Lightning don't have the money. Being forced to choose between very good players in their mid-twenties and very good players in their early thirties will always have the same result, no matter how beloved the player's history with the team is, no matter how good his playoff production has been, and no matter how cute he is.

So let's take a moment to remember some good times.

Starting in 2005, Ondřej played for HC Frýdek-Místek, a second-division under-18 team in his Czech home town. He split his junior career between HC Frýdek-Místek and first-division team HC Vítkovice Steel before joining Drummondville of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 2009 as an 18 year old.

In his second season with the Voltigeurs, Palát scored 96 points in 61 games (39g, 57a) and represented the Czech Republic (now Czechia) in the 2011 World Junior Championship in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. The Czechs failed to advance to the medal rounds, but Palát scored 2 goals and added an assist in 6 games. He added 11 points in 10 playoff games with Drummondville, and showed enough in his final year of junior hockey to draw the attention of the Lightning who took him 208th out of the 211 players drafted in 2011.

Palát joined the Norfolk Admirals for the 2011-2012 season and put up 30 points in 61 games in his first year as a pro. Importantly, he was a participant in the Admirals' unbelievable 28-game winning streak. Under Head Coach Jon Cooper, Palát and the Admirals won the Calder Cup as American Hockey League champions.

For the 2012-2013 season, Tampa Bay moved its AHL affiliation to Syracuse, and Palát and his teammates joined the Crunch. He continued to improve and develop, and he scored at nearly a point-per-game pace, including notching his first hat trick as a pro, scoring three goals against Rochester on February 26, 2013. 

A week after that hat trick, Palát was recalled THE SHOW for the first time, joining the struggling Lightning on March 3. He debuted the next night when the Lightning visited the Penguins, recording his first NHL point with an assist on Tom Pyatt's (remember him?) second period goal. The Lightning lost 4-3, however, continuing a downward trend. With the team clunking along, Lightning General Manager Steve Yzerman dismissed Head Coach Guy Boucher and elevated Cooper to the big club. 

When the 2013-2014 season began, Palát started the year on the Lightning and excelled at the NHL level, scoring 21 goals and 59 points in 81 games, good enough to place second in rookie of the year Calder Trophy voting. His Norfolk-to-Tampa Bay teammate Tyler Johnson would place third, with Nathan McKinnon taking the award.

The emergence of Jon Cooper as a top-level coach, the arrival of Palát, Johnson, and fellow rookie Nikita Kucherov, and having established stars Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman enter their primes would be the defining moments of the Lightning's next decade. 

Together the group would swing between the highs of two Conference Finals and four Stanley Cup Finals including brilliant back-to-back championships, the pains of the injury-laden 2016-17 season, and the shock of the 2019 first-round sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets after an all-time great regular season. And as a consistent performer, especially in playoff time, Pally has been emblematic of the group. He leaves with a reputation as a clutch playoff warrior, having elevated his Goals-Per-Game average from 0.227 regular season to 0.347 in the playoffs. In the 2020 Stanley Cup run, he set the Lightning team record for goals in the most consecutive games with five.

He leaves the Lightning with his name twice etched on the Stanley Cup. Best wishes in New Jersey to Ondřej Palát.

Stanley Cup Final Flashback: Vasilevskiy's Mask

 

(image from wtsp.com)

In all of sports, is there anyone more famously superstitious than hockey goalies? There are the obvious legends, like Patrick Roy talking to his goalposts and Glenn Hall barfing before every game. Those two Hockey Hall of Famers might be excessive cases, but NHL 'tenders are notorious for their adherence to routine and ritual. Some might consider this superstition (gotta put each piece of equipment on in order, gotta do this, gotta do that), while many likely consider it a way of building focus and eliminating distracting variables. So what happens if something has to change? Does it affect the player's focus? Does it affect performance?

In Game Six of the Stanley Cup Final, with the Tampa Bay Lightning trailing the Colorado Avalanche three games to two in the series, we saw a fascinating case of a goalie dealing with a sudden equipment change with a quick goal to follow. The goalie in question was Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Lightning's dominant superstar netminder. 

The Lightning started the second period of the must-win game up 1-0 off a goal from Captain Steven Stamkos. Although the Bolts were dealing with several injuries and at times looked over-matched by the deep and talented Avalanche, they held the edge in shots 10-8 through the first period, and importantly, had the edge in goal: the Avs' Darcy Kuemper was having an average-at-best post-season and was definitely beatable, while Vasilevskiy was coming off two straight Cup wins including a Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, and was considered virtually unbeatable in elimination games.

But early in the second period, something was off. 

After an initial minute of back and forth play, the Avalanche were working behind the Lightning net. The puck went into the air and Vasilevskiy reached back and caught it, stopping play at 18:24. He then skated to the bench, indicating there was an issue with his mask. He handed it over to the trainer and skated back to the Lightning crease with his spare mask, slid it on, and squared up for the faceoff. 

Eighteen seconds later, Nathan MacKinnon put a laser one-timer under Vasilevskiy's arm, changing the momentum of the game. 

It would be unfair to MacKinnon and the Avalanche to suggest that Vasilevskiy's mask issue contributed meaningfully to the goal; after all, the Avs held the zone, made several shot attempts, and Bowen Byram set MacKinnon up to unleash a blast that few goalies would have any chance of stopping.

NEVERTHELESS.

The timing is more than coincidental, and if there are any goalies capable of stopping MacKinnon's shot, Vasilevskiy is certainly among them. He made other seemingly impossible saves in the same game. Saying a different mask contributed to the goal would be silly superstition, but saying that the distraction of a gear change mid-game affected his concentration by even a single percentage point is reasonable. And a single percent can make the difference with players at the level of MacKinnon and Vasilevskiy.

From a Lightning fan's perspective, wondering what would have happened if Vasilevskiy's mask did not require service is enough to drive you crazy: naturally, the Big Cat would have made a stunning save on Mackinnon, momentum would have stayed with the Bolts, and they would have won the game 1-0 before winning Game Seven and collecting their third straight Stanley Cup. Right? Right?

That might be going too far. But, honestly, this has been keeping me awake at night all summer and I had to get it out of my system. 

I hope it hasn't been keeping Vasilevskiy up. He needs his rest for the coming season.