Mullet Over

Tampa Bay Lightning

I'm going to skip straight to what Tampa added this offseason.

Ryan Malone: 27 goals 24 assists 51 points +14 103 PIM 16 PPP 159 SOG
Radim Vrbata: 27 goals 29 assists 56 points +6 14 PIM 13 PPP 246 SOG
Vaclav Prospal: 33 goals 38 assists 71 points even 45 PIM 19 PPP 215 SOG

Those are the big three. They lost Dan Boyle in a trade to San Jose, but got back Matt Carle, who laid a goose egg on a talented San Jose team last year, but finds himself in a much more wide open system here in Tampa. The former Hobey Baker Award winner is young and only one season removed from a 42 point season. When deciding which Tampa defenseman is going to get the powerplay time keep in mind Paul Ranger and Filip Kuba as well.

Prospal interests me the most of Tampa's foward aquisitions. Why? Because its almost certain that Lecavalier and/or St. Louis asked for his return. 57 of Prospal's points were scored in his 62 games with the Lightning last year. He's got chemistry with these guys. This year Prospal is a slightly under point a game winger. Believe it.

I would say Vrbata's point totals go up. Malone takes the hit for this being an incredibly crowded team and Recchi and Roberts bring experience to the dressing room but not much else to your fantasy squad.

Keep this in mind. Tampa was a bad team last year, and for most of that year they had Dan Boyle and Brad Richards. Even if you believe that all of these additions make up for those losses check out this stat line:

13 games started, 3 won, 10 lost. 2.79 GAA and .893 Sv%.

Those are Mike Smith's numbers as a starting goaltender for Tampa Bay at the end of last season. Despite the addition of Olaf Kolzig, Smith is the presumptive number 1 goaltender. The problems here run deep. Ask yourself, does Barry Melrose fix these, or make them worse.