Throughout his tenure with the Tampa Bay Lightning, general manager Steve Yzerman found great success at the draft. Even if he struggled at times with first-round picks, his team of scouts consistently pulled top-talent out of all rounds of the draft.
With 2019 representing the first draft for the Lightning without Yzerman in close to a decade, this represents a good time to look back at some of the most successful picks made during his time in Tampa Bay.
#5: Anthony Cirelli
As the 72nd pick in the 2015 draft, it would have been easy to write off Anthony Cirelli as a longshot to reach the NHL, let alone excel once he made it there. Despite this, Cirelli quickly established himself as one of the Lightning’s top prospects in his first season playing for their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
In fact, before the end of his AHL rookie season, Cirelli received a call-up, scoring two goals in his very first game. After that debut, he locked down a third-line role with the franchise.
To put it simply, Cirelli is the exact player that the Lightning needed to develop. He is not only a skilled scorer, but he has become one of the team’s best defensive forwards. In his rookie season, he was a key part of Tampa Bay’s league-best penalty kill, all while scoring 19 goals.
Not bad for a third-round pick.
#4: Andrei Vasilevskiy
After coming up one game short of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, the Lightning experienced a disastrous 2011-12 season that saw them back in the basement of the league. The only positive came from Yzerman liquidating his veteran players at the trade deadline to grow a stockpile of picks in the upcoming draft.
Using a first-rounder acquired in one of those trades, the Lightning took the best goaltender available, Andrei Vasilevskiy. For a team in dire need of a franchise goaltender, Vasilevskiy represented a beacon of hope. If all went well, he could be their answer to a decades-long struggle in net.
Two years into taking over the starting role in Tampa Bay, one can safely say that Vasilevskiy is not only a franchise goaltender but also one of the best goalies in the NHL. He has that perfect combination of poise and raw talent to be a dominating force in net.
Simply put, Yzerman hit a home run with this pick, giving the Lightning their goaltender of the future.
#3: Brayden Point
Of all the players that the Lightning drafted during Yzerman’s tenure, no one better fit his mold than Brayden Point. As a speedy and skilled forward, Point was overlooked at the draft due to his size. Many thought he had the talent to be a first-round pick, but he fell all the way to the third-round before Tampa Bay selected him.
Point wasted no time rewarding the Lightning for their selection. He made his NHL debut as a 19-year old in 2016, instantly becoming a focal point of the team’s identity. Over his first three seasons, Point was named an All-Star, posted a 40-goal season and is one of the Lightning’s most dominant defensive players.
Even if the Lightning aren’t able to re-sign Point in the 2019 offseason, he has already proven to be an amazing value pick for the franchise. Assuming he gets a new contract, he will continue to show the league that he is, in fact, a superstar in the making.
#2: Ondrej Palat
As a seventh-round draft pick by the Lightning back in 2011, Ondrej Palat has done nothing but exceed expectations with the franchise. First, he helped lead Tampa Bay’s then-AHL affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, to the 2012 Calder Cup Championship.
Then he put together one of the best rookie seasons in Lightning history in 2013-14. Palat would go on to post 23 goals and 59 points en route to a second place finish for the Calder Memorial Trophy.
After that, he put together a 63-point campaign in 2014-15 as a member of Tampa Bay’s famed Triplets line, one of the single most dominant lines in the NHL that season.
Read Also: Lightning Trade Block: Ondrej Palat
Even if injuries have slowed Palat’s career in recent years, he still is an import part of the team’s identity and is one of the Lightning’s best draft picks in team history. In fact, one can argue that he is the best value pick made in the league over the last decade.
#1: Nikita Kucherov
There are few hockey players in the world as dominant as Nikita Kucherov. When he is playing at his best, he can seemingly score at will, either setting up a perfect pass for his teammates or using his world-class shot to baffle opposing goaltenders.
At the 2011 draft though, there were many questions regarding Kucherov. Some saw him as a first-round pick while others saw him as a risk due to the infamous ‘Russian Factor’ and his small stature. Yes, he had potential game-breaking skill, but no one was positive if that skill would make it to the NHL.
All of these questions caused him to drop all the way down to the 58th pick, where the Lightning happily took a chance on him.
Since he joined the league, Kucherov has been rewarding the Lightning for taking a chance on him. As a second-round pick, there were some expectations about what he could develop into. What he became is, inarguably, a top-five player in the NHL and the best draft-pick during the Yzerman-Era.
Lightning’s Success in ‘Yzerman-Era’
Before Yzerman took over the Lightning in 2010, the franchise was known for having weak drafts. While they found success with their first and second overall picks, they pulled in little talent outside of those selections.
From first-round picks to seventh-rounder miracles, the Lightning found incredible talent from all levels of the draft. It may not be an exact science, but Yzerman and company looked like geniuses with these five picks.