While the wait continues for the addition of a top-six forward such as Petr Sykora or
my personal endorsement, Alex Tanguay, the summer of positives continued for the Tampa Bay Lightning over the weekend as they announced the re-signing of defenseman Matt Smaby to a two-year contract. The 24-year-old Smaby saw his development process hit fast-forward out of necessity when a rash of injuries decimated the Lightning blueline last season and he quickly rose to the challenge. Playing big time minutes against the opposition’s best while battling through a lingering foot injury of his own earned Smaby the respect of his teammates and coaches and also brought quite the fan following throughout. His efforts were even rewarded here with
the 2008-09 JJ Award for Best Defenseman.
But Smaby’s return also adds to a logjam of Lightning defenders that, at some point, will have to be dealt with.
The Bolts now own the rights to 10 defensemen who have seen significant time at the National Hockey League level and another in Victor Hedman who will surely make the big club out of training camp. While GM Brian Lawton has made it clear that carrying eight defensemen is something the team wouldn’t hesitate to do, that still leaves three players without a spot come opening night.
Problem? Maybe. But not necessarily a bad one. Also not necessarily something that requires quite the level of analysis that it will get here but it’s worth monitoring as the season draws near.
Figuring out how it will all shake out, excluding any injuries or other unfortunate circumstances, is pretty simple at first glance. What isn’t so simple is what will become of those that aren’t assured of a roster spot.
The official word will be that nobody is guaranteed anything, of course, but factoring in a little reality whittles things down a bit. There
are sure things here but, after that, the picture gets a bit cloudy.
Have a look:
Mattias Ohlund: The Lightning’s big splash of the free agent signing period was brought in to anchor the defense and mentor young Hedman. Head coach Rick Tocchet can use permanent ink with Ohlund when filling out his lineup card for some time to come.
Hedman: NHL-ready has been the buzz phrase for Victor for as long as he’s been on the 2009 Entry Draft radar. He was chosen to make an immediate impact as a franchise d-man and his time begins now.
Matt Walker: There’s nothing flashy about “The Finger” (stretching a bit on a potential alternate nickname for Matt there, I know). His game is all grit and hard work – something the Lightning needed from the back end perhaps more than anything else – and he was scooped up quickly on day one of free agency, indicating the club’s level of interest in his services. Clearly, he is in the team’s everyday plans for the 2009-10 season. But keep in mind that the 65 games Walker played last season were a career high. Prior to that, the most appearances he’d made in a single NHL campaign was 54. The rough-and-tumble style does come with a price.
Kurtis Foster: After a long road back recovering from a nasty broken leg, Foster brings another big body as well as a big shot to the Lightning defense. Just like Walker, putting in a full season of NHL-level work has always been a challenge for Foster, who played a career-high 58 games for Minnesota in 2005-06. His signing came as a bit of a surprise on the day of the Ohlund/Walker press conference but Lawton and co. are excited about what he brings to the table.
Andrej Meszaros: The most valuable asset remaining from the trickle-down effect of the Dan Boyle trade, Meszaros is rehabbing from shoulder surgery but is said to be right on track. Before this summer’s reinforcements, he was probably the only defenseman considered to be an integral part of the team’s core. The addition of Ohlund will steady things for Mesz as well, who is better suited at this point in his career as a second pair defenseman who can continue to grow into that go-to role.
Paul Ranger: Like Meszaros, Ranger is also recovering from shoulder surgery, his second in as many years. Also like Meszaros, Ranger will surely benefit from the signings of Ohlund, Walker and Foster, who will all help shoulder (no pun intended) some of the load young players like Paul have had to help carry very early in their career here. This is a big year for Ranger, no doubt, particularly with the amount of talent now on the Tampa Bay blueline.
On paper, there’s your top-six. But paper doesn’t get you anywhere so let’s continue:
Lukas Krajicek: The Lightning recently re-signed the restricted free agent to a one-year contract but they did so at the very fair price of just under $1.5 million. Krajicek doesn’t have the size of the top-six identified earlier and doesn’t play a very physical game, which makes him stick out like a sore thumb among the rest of these bruisers. But he moves the puck well enough and is durable enough to draw some interest elsewhere. An ideal trade candidate, who would shock many were he still around when training camp wraps in late September.
David Hale: More than likely, Hale was forced upon the Lightning in the Radim Vrbata trade with Phoenix that also saw tough guy Todd Fedoruk end up in Tampa. Moving from the New Jersey and Calgary organizations before his brief time as a Coyote, Hale has had trouble holding down a regular gig. He’s under contract throughout this season and will provide additional competition during the preseason.
Smaby: For all the progress Smaby made last season, he’ll obviously find no added comfort come training camp this year with such a crowded defense corps. Ending up back in the minors wouldn’t behoove either player or team with Smaby now on a one-way deal and, besides, all would have no choice but to look at such a demotion as a real setback. With every intention of building on last year’s success, Smaby should be a force to be reckoned with in September. It’s hard to see him landing somewhere outside the top eight.
That does it for the nine defensemen on one-way deals, while Matt Lashoff and Mike Lundin are restricted free agents who still need new contracts.
Lashoff was acquired from Boston at the trade deadline in the Mark Recchi deal and had a similar impact on the Tampa Bay power play to that of Cory Murphy. With a similar skill set and eight years his junior, it was thought that Lashoff’s arrival and modest success might mean Murphy wouldn’t be in the Lightning’s long term plans. Murphy has indeed moved on (to the Devils) but now it looks like Lashoff will be in a serious fight for playing time once he re-signs.
Lundin is an interesting case. Having played in 81 NHL games as a rookie in 2007-08 serves as both a blessing and a curse. After 25 games with the big club as a sophomore, Lundin cleared waivers and spent the rest of the season in AHL Norfolk. Fearful of a re-entry claim, Tampa Bay never attempted to bring him back up despite the rash of injuries. Now in need of a new deal, Lundin’s place in the organization is rather unclear. He’s had valuable experience as a young player and looks to be someone who might really benefit from a change of scenery. Keep an eye out for that possibility.
Another trio of Lightning prospect defensemen were sent quickly down the organizational depth chart with this summer’s improvements. Vladimir Mihalik, Kevin Quick and Ty Wishart went from somewhere in the 6-9 range to 10 and beyond, depending on how you look at it. But the Lightning now have the luxury of taking their time with three blueline prospects in their early twenties, two of whom were first round picks at one time. While the players may be a bit disheartened by the slip, all three of them saw NHL action last season long before they were ready and will be better off in the long run with the extra tutelage another full season (or so) down on the farm will provide.
Aside from what appears to be a logical conclusion in eventually dealing Krajicek, it’s hard to tell how this will all end up. (In late July, we’re ignoring so many potentially complicating factors as well, don’t forget.)
But since I’m a bottom line kind of guy, and since the masses are always looking for some sort of forecast, I’ll give you this:
The Lightning will break camp with the aforementioned top-six, as well as Matts Lashoff and Smaby on the opening day roster. Injuries – hopefully nothing major – will necessitate a rotation throughout the year and, with the experience they gained last season, the two Matts will step in without missing a beat when called upon.
I could see the Lightning getting Hale through waivers and down to Norfolk for added depth but I don’t know that they’d want to bury Lundin at that level for a second consecutive year. Instead, perhaps he gets that change of scenery he may need.
All things considered, there isn’t much room to complain. This is suddenly a club that can almost dress two full sets of NHL defensemen.
That’s depth and that’s improvement.
And that’s definitely a good problem to have.
JJ
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