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In honor of the upcoming season, which is the franchise's 25th, I thought it would be fun to use this hockey downtime to countdown the 25 greatest goal scorers in Tampa Bay Lightning history.

In constructing this list, I not only took into account the number of goals a player scored while playing in Tampa, I also considered a number of games they suited up for the Lightning. As this list progresses over the next few weeks, you will notice that some players are ranked higher than others even if their goal total was less. This is because although someone scored slightly fewer goals, they reached those numbers in fewer games.

Due to the Lightning still being a relatively young franchise, a good deal of these players are still active, and some of them still take the ice for the Bolts.

Enjoy!

The List So Far
Number 25: Pavel Kubina
Number 24: Victor Hedman
Number 23: Mikael Andersson
Number 22: Roman Hamrlik
Number 21: Dan Boyle
Number 20: Rob Zamuner

Number 19: Valtteri Filppula

Valtteri Filppula, a native of Vantaa Finland, was originally selected in the third round of the 2002 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings. He would make his NHL debut for the Red Wings during the 2005-06 season where he played four games. Filppula then became a mainstay in the Detroit lineup for the next seven seasons, recording 100 goals and 151 assists.

In the summer of 2013, signed what would turn into an unpopular five-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning worth $25 million. Of course, the unpopularity was more because of the cap-hit than the quality of the player.

In his first season with the Bolts, Filppula recorded a career-high 25 goals, adding 33 assists to go along with it. Unfortunately, he could never repeat those numbers with Tampa Bay, scoring 12, 8, and 7 goals the next three seasons. When his time with the Lightning came to an end right before last season's trade deadline, Filppula had recorded 52 goals 292 games. Although his goal total is less than players already mentioned on this list, the fewer amount of games he played with the Lightning is what gave him a higher ranking.

Filppula finished the 2016-17 season with the Philadelphia Flyers, scoring five goals in twenty games.

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