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
Hall of Famer, Dave Andreychuk, was drafted 16th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. He began his NHL career the following season and remain a member of the Sabres for 12 years.
In February of 1993, Andreychuk would be traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with Daren Puppa and a first round pick, in exchange for Grant Fuhr and a fifth round pick in 1995. In addition to Toronto, Andreychuk would also spend some time playing for the Devils, Bruins, and Avalanche.
Finally, in the summer of 2001, the 38-year-old signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Andreychuk would finish his career with the Bolts, playing four seasons and helping Tampa win its first and only Stanley Cup.
In 278 games with the Lightning, Andreychuk scored 68 goals. Impressivelingly enough, 38 of those goals were scored on the power play. In his 1,639 NHL games, Andreychuk scored 640 goals and added 698 assists.