Lightning Prospect Pool Gets Harsh Criticism
The Tampa Bay Lightning's prospect pool was recently ranked as the worst in the NHL.
Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports - Lightning Prospect Pool Gets Harsh CriticismThe Tampa Bay Lightning have been one of the NHL's most dominant teams of the 2020s, having won two Stanley Cups and making three Stanley Cup Final appearances. Due to this, they naturally have been buyers for multiple years in a row and have given plenty of draft picks away in the process. Thus, they are not necessarily known for sporting a deep prospect pool at this juncture.
Due to this, in a recent article for The Athletic, Corey Pronman ranked the Lightning's prospect pool as the worst in the entire NHL right now. Last season, The Athletic had the Lightning as having the No. 31 prospect pool in the end, so they have dropped this year.
While the Lightning's prospect pool has been ranked at the bottom of the NHL, that does not mean that they lack intriguing prospects. They notably added Conor Geekie earlier this offseason from the Utah Hockey Club in the Mikhail Sergachev trade, and he could one day become a top-six forward. In addition, they also have other interesting youngsters like Isaac Howard, Ethan Gauthier, Niko Huuhtanen, Dylan Duke, and Jack Finley who have bright futures.
It will be very interesting to see how many of the Lightning's prospects take positive steps in their developments next season. If several of them have big years, it would help increase optimism regarding Tampa Bay's prospect pool moving forward.
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