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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

Now before we go any further, I want to reiterate that this is a countdown of the greatest goal scorers in franchise history, not a list of the greatest overall players to lace their skates for the Lightning. If we took into account the other aspects of Victor Hedman's game, he would be a much higher rank. Seeing that he has a lot of hockey still to play in his career, it is more than likely he will move up the greatest scorers list very soon.

Hedman was selected second-overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. He got his first crack at the NHL right away in the 2009-10 regular season at the age of 19. Right from the beginning, he was a mainstay on the Lightning roster and is now one of the faces of the franchise.

Although a master of the assist, Hedman has not scored over 16 goals, which was accomplished this season, in his career. In 549 games, he has managed to tally 65 goals. Surprisingly enough, none of them have been game winners. However, 11 of his 65 goals have been acquired on the power play.

Now there will be individuals on this list with fewer goals than Hedman. Before you dub me a complete moron, I ask that you please consider the number of games each player suited up for the Lightning and the number of goals they were able to accrue over that period of time.

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