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
To be heading into only your fifth season in the National Hockey League and already be one of the top-four scorers in your franchise's history is an incredible accomplishment, even if the team is only going into its 25th year of existence.
What Nikita Kucherov has been able to accomplish with the Tampa Bay Lightning since being selected in the second round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft is absolutely astounding. The 24-year-old native of Russia has shown progression as a scorer and overall player going from nine goals his first season to 29 in 2014-15, 30 in 2015-16, and 40 this past season.
In 285 games over four years with the Bolts, Kucherov has been able to find the back of the net on 108 separate occasions. He has proved to be a valuable member of the power play, scoring 31 goals with at least a one man advantage. In addition, Kucherov has shown he can answer the call in high-pressure situations with 16 game-winners.
Cracking the top three when it comes to the greatest Lightning scorers will not be an easy task to accomplish. However, if Kucherov can keep up this level of dominance, he will for sure be able to do so. It will be exciting how much he can excel as one of the game's elite over the next few years.