Tampa Bay Lightning 2025-26 Season Preview

Tampa Bay Lightning 2025-26 Season Preview

In today’s video, we continue on with our NHL season preview series. We wrap up looking at the Atlantic Division. Today, we look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning have been a force to be reckoned with in this division for several years. Will that continue? Can they make some damage in the playoffs? It’s been a while since they’ve gotten past the first round. We’ll discuss their expectations coming up next. So, welcome back to another video here at Top Shelf Hockey. As I mentioned today, we look at the season preview for the 2526 season for the Tampa Bay Lightning as we complete our look through the Atlantic division. In case you’ve missed it or haven’t been following along, we’ve completed season previews for the other uh teams in this division already. Uh we’ve already completed the other seven teams. This is the end of the Atlantic preview. So certainly uh check the other ones out if you haven’t done so already in case you’re new to the series though. Essentially, we’re going to take a look back at last year. take a look at the team individual stats, uh the cap space. Uh we’ll look at over the offseason, how the team changed with additions and subtractions. You know, there any rookies that could impact this roster. Are there any trades we’re expecting to see, contract extensions that could happen through the year? What’s the projected lineup look like? And then what do we think they’re going to be able to accomplish? And what are the top questions facing the team going into the current season here? So, let’s take a look at the Tampa Bay Lightning. And let’s first discuss a bit how things went last year. So they had a a pretty good regular season. They were second in the Atlantic Division, 102 point campaign with a record of 4727 and8. Unfortunately, that was not continued in the playoffs, losing in round one against the eventual Stanley Cup champions for the second consecutive year. Florida Panthers, losing in a five-game contest, four games to one. Now, they were the highest scoring team in the NHL last year, 292 goals, uh, which was quite something. They were very, very, very good offensively. And you know what? They were also extremely good defensively. They only gave up 216 goals, which was fourth best. So, really, like, there’s a lot to like about this Lightning team. Yes, the the the playoffs didn’t go their way. You can make an argument that I think the Panthers kind of pushed them around a little bit, to be honest. Uh, I just think that the Lightning team was not um gritty and tough enough and all that and I just think the Panthers just they’re better fit for the playoffs the way they’re built right now. U but it wasn’t close unfortunately. Um that that’s really, you know, not what you want to see after a very successful regular season. Now, looking at their playoff streak, they were in the playoffs or have been in the playoffs for eight consecutive years. And of course, they had a run just like Florida is doing right now with three consecutive years in the Stanley Cup final, winning in 2020, winning again in 2021, and then losing in the final in 2022. Between the Lightning and the Panthers, they’ve had the Stanley Cup final appearance six straight years by that state. So, I mean, it’s quite something when you think about it. Um, obviously, like I said, the Lightning three straight, followed up by the Panthers three straight. Will we see something different this year? Now, the only with the Lightning is like the looking back to those glory days. They won some cups like the great teams. They said they’ve still been good, but they haven’t won a playoff series in three years. And a lot of people keep thinking, is this the year Tampa’s going to take a step back? Is this the year? Is this the year? And it never seems to happen. This team has been really good for a really long time. I mean, they’ve made some really tough decisions and they found ways to kind of, you know, get a little bit younger here and there and, you know, they’re still not, I wouldn’t call them a young team. They’re still a very seasoned veteran team, but they, you know, like for example, parting ways with captain Steven Stamos and a, you know, very tough decision, right? Like they make moves like that so they could bring in Jake Gensel who’s again not a young player, but he’s, you know, a few years younger than Stamco. So, they found ways to get younger while still staying veteran. Um so it’s been a quite a run for the Lightning. Now last year their top individual performances were Nikita Cooer off again with another stellar year 121 point season. He has been uh one of the best point production guys in the last number of years now. It’s been a long stretch. Uh usually you kind of expect Coohra and McKinnon to be battling for the Art Ros trophy. Now we’ve seen a few of those battles over the last few years here. But another phenomenal season from Cooch. Uh Brandon Hegel had a really really good season. obviously his career year, 90 points last year. Braden Point, another solid effort, a point per game effort, 82 points. Jake Gensel, uh, 80 points in his first year with the Lightning. Victor Hedman, again, a pretty solid year. Again, a guy who’s getting older, but still very, very productive, 66 points and became team captain after the Stamco departure. His first year’s captain was pretty successful overall. the deadline, we saw them bring back Yanni Gourd and Oliver Borkstran came with them from a deal with the Kraken. Um, so they got a little bit more uh deeper as well. Of course, Yanni Gourd was the number three center on those cup winning teams and he had some different wingers back then with guys like Blake Coleman and uh Barkley Gdro, but obviously you know uh Gourd was a big part of those cupwinning teams. Very familiar. Don’t think he really wanted to go, but of course expansion was coming. the cap was a problem and he was kind of squeezed out and you know it’s an unfortunate thing but that that’s the business side of sports but at the end of the day the Lightning go into this season just a little bit of cap space 1.1 million so there’s a little bit of wiggle room there but not a whole lot to to do much with but how did this team change over the offseason and the answer is not really a lot because they have a lot of their players locked up to longer term deals um as far as subtractions goes. They lost Nick Perix on the blue line. Um, you know, he had a decent year for them last year and got to a point where, you know, he was able to command more money. Tampa, it was like, okay, we like Perix, but he’s cashing in. This is his opportunity. We’re going to have to find a way to um to replace him on the back end for for less money, right? So, now they’re going to rely even more so on guys like Littleberg and Radish and those guys, right? But like essentially Pervix’s, you know, cashed in, left. Tampa wasn’t going to do that. They also were kind of forced to trade youngster Isaac Howard. Um, of course, Howard uh came out of college. Um, well, he didn’t officially come out of college until after he signed with the Oilers after the trade, but you know, after the performance he had in college, it was widely expected he would sign and go to the NHL. He certainly looked like he was ready for the next opportunity. And for whatever reason, we don’t know exactly, but there were negotiations between uh the Lightning and Howard’s camp, and things didn’t go well. There’s clearly some things that Howard wasn’t happy about or didn’t like. I don’t know what they were. Um there were some speculation he wanted, you know, to go right to the NHL, whereas the Lightning was non-committal. I mean, we really don’t know, right? I’ve heard a bunch of different rumors. Um, I don’t really know what changed for them, but essentially they were forced to trade Howard, uh, who they sent over to Edmonton. Uh, the additions new to the team this year include Pontis Holberg, who came over, uh, from the Toronto Maple Leafs, so he was not, uh, retained in Toronto. Uh, they signed Jacob Pelchce. Of course, Pelchce formerly of the Calgary Flames, did spend some time at the Capitals as well. And then uh you could call this next guy a bit of a journeyman. Scott Saburn uh more of an AHL, you know, journeyman with a few NHL stops along the way. He’s never really played like a full NHL campaign, uh but has seen NHL action. If you need a fourthline guy who can give you a little bit of forch check, drop the gloves, you could put him in there. Um but ultimately, he’ll be more of a um of an AHL, you know, veteran, if you will. So, uh, I don’t expect to see him a whole heck of a lot at the NHL level, especially considering the deep lightning roster. Um, I mean, are there any other rookies that could really impact this team this coming year? And the answer is probably not. I mean, Connor Geeki is not a rookie. He technically played 52 games last year, but he would be the closest thing to having a young player um kind of have an impact and take a bigger role and kind of expand what he was able to do. Um, Sam O’Reilly would be the probably one of the more interesting, if not the most interesting rookie I think on the team. But I don’t expect to see him in the NHL this year. As far as trade bait goes, is there any trades we should expect this Lightning team to make? It’s not there’s nothing really obvious to be honest. If for any reason the Lightning were struggling and were, you know, in danger of missing the playoffs, I could see them maybe making a few moves. But barring that, which is not something I really foresee something coming here, um I’m going to say probably not. I mean, I do wonder about the future of Ryan Mcdana. Of course, they brought him back. He was a pillar back there in the blue line during their cup winning days. Um had to be a cost cutting move. They were very, you know, shrewd making that move, sending him to Nashville, getting him to wave and then they brought him back uh afterwards and he’s on the last year of his contract now into like his mid30s. I don’t know how long he wants to play. I don’t know how they feel about resigning him. So, I guess his future with the team is a little bit in question cuz there hasn’t been a lot of chatter around him, but again, I would be surprised if they traded him, too. So, not going to say that’s impossible, but I don’t know that it’s really likely either. As far as guys who could reach contract extensions with the club between now and during the season, Mcdana also falls into that category. Like I said, I would expect the Lightning to probably make a decision, but knowing that he’s an older veteran who’s got a lot of experience and for the most part, it’s been pretty important to them, they might have a mutual understanding. It wouldn’t be shocking if they said, “Let’s wait and see how the season goes.” Um, they have, you know, you do have time after the season ends, unless you’re winning the cup, uh, to make those decisions and have negotiations or whatnot. Um, so we could see a wait andsee approach. See how he plays. Maybe they look at it in the second half of the year. I’m not sure, but he is eligible and it could happen. Uh, Darren Radish is another guy in the back end who could be extended. That wouldn’t be shocking. I don’t think that would cost the Lightning too much and I can see them considering extending him for a few years. Uh Oliver Bjorkstrand who looks to have came over from uh Seattle with Yanni Gourd at the deadline last year is a player that I would think that they brought in with the hope and expectation that he would do well and it could extend. I think they see him being a a pretty good player who can go between their second and third lines. Um as of right now I I think it’s fair to say his his time with Tampa after the trade was okay. I don’t think it was phenomenal, but it was it was decent. like you can usually count on Borkstrand for 20 goals. So, you know, we’ll see what happens, but I would not be shocked if they did extend him. But again, they may want to wait and see how things start before they commit. You know, we’ll have to wait and see on that. As far as their projected lineup going into this season, well, not big uh question marks in goal. Andre Vasilowski will be their starting goalender. No shocker there. Jonas Hansen will be their backup goalie for I believe the third straight year. um continues to not really be impressive and not really put up good numbers, but they continue to keep him around. Uh he was just recently extended as well. On the back end, your decor is going to consist of Victor Hedbin probably with JJ Mosher, uh Ryan Mcdana, Eric Chernack, uh Littleberg, Radish are going to probably be your 6D. Um the pairs may change a little bit, but those are definitely going to be your six guys barring injury. Uh, in the forward group, you’re looking at a top line of Braden Point, Nikita Cooerov, and Jake Gensel. Uh, your second line likely going to be Celli with Hegel and Gonals. Um, you know, Gage could play in that second line. It could be Borkstrand. Hard to say. Um, but either either way, they’ll they’ll flip-flop between your second and third line. Your the rest of your third line would be Nick Paul and I suspect probably Connor Geeki with your fourth line being Yanni Gourd. uh Gergensson’s and either Holberg or or Mitchell Chaffy. Uh they could move things around a little bit as well, too. Like, you know, Paul sometimes plays in the top six. You can move Gourd up um to the third line center role. You know, I if Geeki is doing well, you’re going to want to continue to develop him. But, you know, if not, maybe he comes out at times because you also have Jacob Pelchce who you sign. You still got Boris Kachuk. um like they’ve got more than enough bottom six players here, but I would suspect that Homeberg will likely grab a spot um in the bottom six, I would think. And then with Gourd, Gergensson’s, Geeky, Paul kind of make, you know, with kind of rounding out that lineup, but that’s uh going to be the thing. Now, the questions facing the franchise are expectations. I fully expect this team to be a playoff team. Again, like I said, they were really good last year. didn’t have a good playoff series against Florida. Um, and they didn’t really do much of anything really to address that either. So, I’m not sure that I would bet on the Lightning to have great playoff success. Um, I guess it depends on the opponent, too, though, right? I mean, if they were to run into the Panthers again, I don’t know that I would be confident. But depending on the team, you know, if they can have a good enough regular season and they could play like a wild card team, let’s say they got one of the up and cominging teams like the Habs or the Senators or, you know, a team from the Metro, then I might feel differently. Um, but for right now, the Lightning, uh, I expect will probably be in the battle for the top three again. Uh, you never know. I I think the Atlantic might be a little bit more open this year than than last as far as, you know, how they all finished, but I think I’d be pretty surprised if Tampa wasn’t a top three team. But look at last year between the third spot and wild card one, it was only one point, right, between third and fourth. So, it it was tight. It was tighter last year and then it’s going to I think it could tighten up even more. So, it could be interesting to see. Now, can Andre Vasilowski duplicate last year? He had a 921 and a 2.18 goals against. Like that was a really good year for Vasilovski. It’s the best year he’s had in about four years. So basically since they won the cup uh his numbers dropped. He wasn’t horrible, but he wasn’t that Vaselowski uh star goalender that everybody was fearful of and intimidated by. I think that factor kind of dropped whereas last year he was a heck of a lot better and kind of resumed a lot of that form. Now, I know he did have some back issues in there, had missed part of the year before with the back surgery, but he seemed to look really good. Now, can he do that again? If he’s anywhere closer to the um you know, the 23 24 versions of Asalovski, eh, that could be a problem, right? So, to me, if he can be as good as last year, I fully expect them to be just as good as a team because he gives them a chance to win every single night. They’re very potent offensively and even if their D is, let’s just say they don’t play defense quite as well as last year, they’re still going to be a really good team and win more games than not. So, but Vasilovski’s performance to me is something that we need to examine and see where he is. Which Vaselowski are we getting? Um, and so another big question is, are they tough enough, gritty enough to win in the playoffs? And like I said before, it kind of depends on who their opponent is, but they haven’t really addressed that. I mean, Scott Saburn’s really not going to solve that in my opinion. Um, so we’ll see. Um, but they could have a little bit more of that. It wouldn’t hurt. Maybe that’ll be something they address later into the season. Uh, you know, how effective is Yanni Gourd and, uh, Borkstr going to be in a full season back with the Lightning? I mean, Gourd is, you know, like I said, he was a really good important piece to like those cup winning teams, but he’s also, you know, a few years older now. He’s also been through some some serious injuries, too. So, you know, how effective will he be? Uh, and, you know, that’s going to be a big part of their success or not. Oliver Borkstrand again, can they count on him for another 20 plus goal season? You know, how’s his first full year going to be in Tampa? I would hope being there for the full year integrated in training camp. He’d already know the systems a bit. If that same coach has been there a long time, theoretically it should set them up for success, but again, a lot of it’s going to depend on their their health, their bodies, and their age. Like, you know, this team does have a lot of players that are in and around 30 plus. So, it’s, you know, you do have to wonder if injuries start to creep up, that could be their downfall. Like even I remember years back when they surprised people and missed the playoffs. was a long time ago, but a lot of it was injury related. So, you know, you just that’s things you cannot predict. But if they were to run into that, you know, it could be it could be a problem for sure. But, uh, let me know what your thoughts are on the expectations for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Like I said, I suspect that they will be in the top three of the Atlantic. I expect them to be a playoff team again. But I do wonder if I’m later in the year, I’d be looking to add some more grit and toughness to see if uh that’s might be the missing ingredient to have playoff success that they haven’t had since they were in the Stanley Cup final in 2022. So, let me know your thoughts and expectations for the Lightning. We’ll discuss in the comments. If you new new to the channel, make sure you subscribe and stick around. We’ll keep you up to date with all the news, rumors, and analysis of all 32 NHL teams. Thanks for watching. I’ll catch you next time. [Music]

Tampa Bay Lightning 2025-26 Season Preview
NHL Regular Season 2025-26 is almost ready to begin. Today we preview the Tampa Bay Lightning. We discuss the additions, subtractions and Predictions for the upcoming seasons. Tampa Bay Lightning trade Rumours, Tampa Bay Lightning Top prospects and the 2026 NHL Draft.

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