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Acquiring and developing young talent is one of the best ways to win in the National Hockey League. According to ESPN’s Corey Pronman, the Tampa Bay Lightning have done a pretty good job of that over the last few years. In Pronman’s …Top 25 Under 25… rankings, the Bolts are represented well; both Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman made the cut.
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Stamkos sits at the top of Pronman’s rankings. With Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Evgeni Malkin all older than 25, Stamkos is the only logical choice for top honors. At 24 years old, Stamkos has established himself as one of the NHL’s premier snipers. Moreover, he has truly rounded into a great player in all situations. He’s a guy Jon Cooper and the Lightning count on at both ends of the rink, and in the dressing room.
In Pronman’s own words:
Stamkos is one of the, if not the greatest goal scorer of this generation. He's a special talent who may not be a huge standout in some of the modern advanced analytics focused on shot ratios, but is a very skilled player and has one of the best pure shots I've ever seen.
Building around a superstar centerman like Stamkos is always smart. Acquiring a superstar centerman like Stamkos requires a steady dose of losses. The same is true with regards to a number one defenseman like Victor Hedman, who sits 12th on Pronman’s list.
While Hedman has been a solid presence on Tampa’s blue line for the better part of a few years now, fans and media outside Bolts Nation didn’t really take note of his play until this past season. That’s not much of a surprise. Smart defense doesn’t often get noticed. Points do. Hedman tallied 13 goals and 55 points in 75 games during a 2013-14 season that many have described as Norris-quality. The fact that he’s only 23 years old tells this blogger that the best is yet to come.
As Pronman notes:
When you have a defenseman who is that big and can skate, move the puck and think the game like Hedman does, you can see a big reason why Tampa Bay was a top team in 2013-14, and will be in the coming seasons.
The "Top 25 Under 25… piece is only available to ESPN Insiders. If you’re interested in high-quality content, I strongly recommend taking out a subscription. There’s a few more sentences in the “Top 25 Under 25… on both Stamkos and Hedman, in addition to blurbs on 23 more young NHL players. It's worth the read.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter.