leafs4life22's Dynasty - Operation Sports

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tampa Bay Lightning 2012-2013

Posted on February 19, 2013 at 01:05 AM.

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As the winner of The Great Coin Flip Battle of the North (a very complicated and in-depth selection process), the Tampa Bay Lightning will be the team of choice for my first ever Dynasty blog.
There is a lot of talent on this team, some young, some old. My plan as the new General Manager is to take that "some old" portion of the organization and drop kick it high over the city walls. By the time I'm through with it, this will be a young team with loads of potential and the chance to grow together and prosper. It may lead to a few unsuccessful first seasons, but if that's what it takes, I'm willing to do it.
As I move along I will be updating this post with all the happenings of the first season. Spoiler alert: We're going to suck.

This is the team I will be beginning my journey with:

Tampa Bay Lightning Depth Chart - 2012-13
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LW	Ryan Malone (82)	Benoit Pouliot (75)	Crombeen (72)	Pierre-Cedric Labrie (67)
C	Steven Stamkos (91)	Vincent Lecavalier (86)	Tom Pyatt (76)	Dana Tyrell (76)
RW	Martin St. Louis (87)	Teddy Purcell (82)	Nate Thompson (74)	Adam Hall (73)
D #1	Matt Carle (86)	Eric Brewer (83)	Marc-Andre Bergeron (80)
D #2	Victor Hedman (85)	Mattias Ohlund (82)	Sami Salo (82)
G	Anders Lindback (78)	Mathieu Garon (77)

Now, let's get to work.

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Going into the season, my goal was to get rid of any aging talent and incorporate as much youthful enthusiasm as I could. So far, mission accomplished.

TRADES

To Tampa Bay: C Mikhail Grigorenko
To Buffalo: RW Martin St. Louis

To Tampa Bay: Michael D Del Zotto
To New York Rangers: C Vincent Lecavalier, D Brendan Mikkelson

To Tampa Bay: C Patrick Kane
To Chicago: D Matt Carle, D Brian Lee, LW Benoit Pouliot

To Tampa Bay: D Nick Leddy
To Chicago: LW Ryan Malone, 2013 3rd round pick

To Tampa Bay: D Eric Brewer
To Colorado: RW Davie Jones (yes, Davie.)

To Tampa Bay: Mike Komisarek, 2013 3rd round pick
To Toronto: Brock Buekeboom

To Tampa Bay: C Patrik Elias
To New Jersey: Mattias Ohlund, JT Brown

Through these trades, I was able to get rid of my old talent, bring in new younger talent, and most importantly give myself a 2nd quality center, which will help the likes of Grigorenko and Kucherov to grow greatly. A couple notes;
1) The Elias and Komisarek deals were to become cap compliant before the start of the season. They have no part of the future here.
2) Anders Lindback will be the starter this year. I contemplated the idea of trading for a higher quality goalie, but opted to stick with Lindback for at least one year. We'll see how it goes.

Updated Depth Chart:

Tampa Bay Lightning Depth Chart - 2012-13
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LW	Nikita Kucherov (63)	Cory Conacher (71)	Richard Panik (65)	Davie Jones (78)
C	Steven Stamkos (91)	Patrick Kane (86)	Dana Tyrell (76)	Tom Pyatt (76)
RW	Mikhail Grigorenko (64)	Brett Connolly (72)	Teddy Purcell (82)	Nate Thompson (74)
D #1	Victor Hedman (85)	Keith Aulie (74)	Marc-Andre Bergeron (80)
D #2	Michael Del Zotto (83)	Nick Leddy (79)	Mike Komisarek (78)
G	Anders Lindback (78)	Mathieu Garon (77)

The left side of the ice is downright ugly, with Davie Jones and his locker being the highest rated LW at 78... And even he isn't seeing much ice time. If there is any success to be had this year, it's on the back of our two sniping centers, Stamkos and Kane. Maybe it will be enough, but in the event that it isn't (it won't be), there will be one fun off-season ahead for GM Leafsbro.