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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
Number 18: Alex Killorn
Number 17: Chris Gratton
Number 16: Teddy Purcell
Number 15: Ruslan Fedotenko
Number 14: Ondrej Palat
Number 13: Dave Andreychuk
Number 12: Alex Selivanov
Number 11: Ryan Malone
Number 10: Tyler Johnson
Number 9: Petr Klima
Number 8: Vinny Prospal
Number 7: Brad Richards
Number 6: Fredrik Modin
Number 5: Brian Bradley
Number 4: Nikita Kucherov

Number 3: Vincent Lecavalier

Vincent Lecavalier, Tampa Bay's all-time leader in goals scored, was selected first-overall by the Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. When he was drafted, Bolts' owner went as far as to say that Lecavalier would be the Michael Jordan of hockey. Now, he never got to that level of greatness but Lecavalier is still one of the best players to ever wear a Tampa Bay Lightning sweater.

He made his NHL debut in the 1998-99 season, playing all 82 games and scoring 13 goals. His goal production immediately picked up the following season, scoring 25 goals in 80 games. Lecavalier could always be counted on to do his fair share of goal scoring and even won Maurice Richard Trophy in 2006-07 with 52 goals.

Throughout his 14 years with the Lightning organization, Lecavalier played in 1,037 games. He managed to contribute 383 goals, 112 of them on the power play, and 60 of them being game-winners. Although his stint with the Bolts had a somewhat unhappy ending, he is still one of the best all-time and will most likely see his number hanging from the rafters some day soon.

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