(Jeff Griffith-USA TODAY Sports)

Without a doubt there will be free agent targets on defense for the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lighting ranked 26th in the NHL allowing 150 goals against. This number is made worse by the fact that they ranked 29th in the NHL in terms of strength of schedule.

While the Tampa Bay Lightning’s offensive exploits are well documented, 5th in the NHL with 148 goals for) the back end is clearly an area of weakness. Their defense had a total of a 15.2 point share in 2012-13. Therefore they contributed only 38% of Tampa’s total points. In order to be more successful this will need to be increased.

The Tampa Bay Lightning’s top defensive point share was Sami Salo with 1.9. He was followed by Matt Carle (1.8), Eric Brewer (1.7) and Victor Hedman (1.6) to round out the top four.

Who should the Lightning target in free agency to improve this area? The top two players I would look at, with an eye towards next season and beyond, are Mark Fistric and Ryan O’Byrne.

Others considered were Toni Lydman, Rob Scuderi, Michal Rozsival. However due to their advancing age (all 34 years old or more) and potential salary demands they may not fit into Tampa Bay’s plans.

Mark Fistric, Edmonton Oilers

A good player to target that will help in the short term and potentially be a long term solution is Mark Fistric. He spent the 2012-13 season with the Edmonton Oilers and his $1,475,000 contract is expiring at the end of the season. He is just entering the prime of his career as an NHL defenseman at the age of 26.

He has been a solid defender posting an average defensive point share of 1.8 through his six NHL seasons. He is also a tough defender to play against for the opposition. In 25 games this year he averaged 15 minutes and 20 seconds of ice time per game. In that time he contributed 88 hits and 53 blocked shots.

Over the course of 60 games played with the Dallas Stars in 2011-12 he contributed 235 hits and 105 blocked shots, with 16 minutes and 30 seconds of ice time per game.

In terms of blocked shots and hits Mark Fistric has been consistently among the league leaders. He is just coming into his prime at the age of 26 and could be a solid third pairing defender alongside Radko Gudas in the years to come.

Ryan O’Byrne, Toronto Maple Leafs

Ryan O’Byrne is another defenseman in the mold of Mark Fistric. He is in the prime of his career at the age of 28. His $1.8 million cap hit will expire this summer as well and he may find himself on the outside looking in with the numbers game on the Leafs back end.

He has averaged a defensive point share of 1.4 through his seven NHL seasons. He too has a knack for using his body to wear down opponents.

In 42 games this season between Colorado and Toronto O’Byrne averaged 18:31 in ice time per game. He also nailed down 104 hits and 69 blocked shots.

This is the norm for Ryan, last season he averaged 18:51 in ice time per game with 180 hits and 141 blocked shots over the course of 74 games played.

He would also make an excellent third pairing defender that would help improve the Tampa Bay Lightning defense.

Can Tampa Bay afford them under the cap?

For arguments sake let’s assume that you will have to pay the same salary as both Fistric and O’Byrne were paid last season. This is operating under the assumption that you will have to overpay in free agency to acquire talent.

That would leave the two of them at a combined cap hit of $3.275 million. I am assuming that Matthias Ohlund’s knees will prohibit him from playing again and he will be bought out of placed on injured reserve again.

In looking at Tampa’s current cap situation this would create $3,607,143 in cap space and would be plenty to acquire these two players. Granted you may end up very close to the cap (within $1 million) once you fill out the rest of the roster.

The question that then comes in to play is, do you buyout the last year of Sami Salo’s $3.75 million cap hit via compliance buyout?

How would the Lightning defense look next season with O’Byrne and Fistric? 

The way I see it you would have eight NHL ready defenseman including (cap hits in brackets): Matt Carle ($5.5 million), Victor Hedman ($4 million), Eric Brewer ($3.875 million), Mark Barberio ($605,000), Ryan O’Byrne ($1.8 million), Mark Fistric ($1.475 million),Keith Aulie ($635,250),  and Radko Gudas ($605,000).

Overall this would be a more physical defense. My belief is that Mark Barberio is ready for NHL duty and could replace the offense provided by Sami Salo. In this scenario your top four would be pairings of Carle/Hedman and Brewer/Barberio.

You could then rotate through O’Byrne, Fistric, Aulie and Gudas depending on whom was playing well at the time.

This would also afford more depth at the AHL level to call up with Andrej Sustr, Dmirty Korobov, Artem Sergeev, Brian Lee, Nikita Nesterov and Matt Taormina (possible resign) all fit for spot duty, to varying degrees, in the NHL.

Are Fistric and O’Byrne enough to fix the defense?

Simply put no, however Victor Hedman continues to grow and mature as a player and he may finally be ready to break out next season.

As well, the addition of Mark Barberio to the NHL roster adds a very good puck moving, offensive defenseman. This will assist in moving the puck quicker the the Lightning’s potent attacking players and Tampa will in turn spend less time in their own zone.

Matt Carle’s $5.5 million contract through 2017-18 (he will be 33 years old) will prove to be good value in the long run. Expect him to return to the 35-45 point range (mostly assists) next season.

As well, the presumed improved goaltending situation with Anders Lindback and Ben Bishop competing for the starters position will help in this area.

Next season Bring the Thunder

When you look at the Tampa Bay Lightning’s new division next season (Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto) it is between Tampa Bay and Montreal in terms of who has the best offense.

With an improved defense and a full training camp under their new coach (whether it be John Cooper or someone else, perhaps Dave Tippett if he does not stay in Phoenix), I expect the Lightning will surprise next season and make the playoffs.

Special thanks to NHL.com, BoltProspect.com, CapGeek.com and Hockey-Reference.com.

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Mike Burse

Have been writing about Hockey since 2007 as a Columnist and Contributor to numerous Hockey websites over the years. Currently covering the Toronto Maple Leafs for The Hockey Writers. I bring a background in Refereeing and Insurance to my perspective on the game.

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This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

And, yet, as we enter the final weekend of the 2013 lockout-shortened season, St. Louis sits atop the NHL in scoring once again with 58 points.  Despite another disappointing season that will see the Lightning miss the playoffs for a second straight year, Marty will be the oldest player in league history to win a scoring title (Gordie Howe was 34) should he hold off the likes of Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane and teammate Steven Stamkos.  So, the question is, at this age, how has he done it?

The Stamkos Effect

This is not to suggest that Steven Stamkos is the sole reason for St. Louis’ production.  After all, Marty has basically been a point-per-game player for nearly a decade regardless of who he has skated with.  However, there is an unmistakable chemistry between the two that has allowed the duo to rise to the top of the league scoring list.  St. Louis’ elite play making is perfectly complimented by the sniper that is Steven Stamkos.  In fact, of Stamkos’ 29 goals this season, St. Louis has assisted on 18 of them, or 62%.  Those same 18 assists make up 43% of  Marty’s 42 helpers.  Without question, these two feed off of each other to create nightmares for opposing goaltenders.

This isn’t just a trend from this season, either.  In the five years that Stamkos has been in the league, he has scored 208 goals; St. Louis has set up 99 of them (48%).  Even more impressive than that, Marty has averaged 0.58 assists per game throughout his career but, since Stamkos joined the Lightning, that average has jumped to 0.74 per game.  So while St. Louis has always put up big numbers, Stamkos’ arrival has clearly elevated Marty’s offensive production.

Marty, the Opportunist

Martin St. Louis on Oct. vs. the Caps (Icon SMI)

St. Louis is perennially among the league’s leading scorers but an almost perfect storm has occurred this season to allow him to jump to the front of the pack.  The most obvious occurrence he has benefitted from came from the injury that likely ended Sidney Crosby’s regular season.  Not that St.Louis is celebrating the event but he has certainly taken advantage of the opportunity it has provided.  Before the injury, Crosby was running away with the scoring title.  His 56 points in 36 games provided him with a double-digit lead in the points race.  In fact, it took St. Louis three weeks to overtake Sid, though he did it in grand fashion with a hat trick (that his son asked him to produce) against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 24.  So while Marty is having an incredible season, he likely wouldn’t be bringing home any hardware without Crosby’s bad luck.

Another thing St. Louis could be taking advantage of this year is the fact that this season has been shortened by a lockout. Now, clearly there are two ways one could look at the labor dispute’s impact on an older player like Marty who, let’s face it, isn’t a spring chicken anymore.  One way would be to recognize that there is a compressed schedule which will make it more difficult for players such as St. Louis to properly rest and recover after each game so as to be at full speed for the next tilt — that obviously hasn’t occurred here.  The more likely scenario, at least in this case, is that the shortened season has allowed St. Louis to avoid the pitfalls of a gruelling 82 game season.  Just look back to last year for proof: it was the first campaign since 2005-’06 that Marty didn’t play in all 82 games and the least productive season he had in six seasons.  Now, could that have just have been an anomaly?  Could he still keep up his consistency and current pace throughout a normal season? We’re not here to say that he couldn’t but he has certainly taken advantage of the fact that he doesn’t have to.

So, as yet another NHL season winds down this weekend, Martin St. Louis is preparing to achieve yet another milestone.  Not many people would have thought it possible last year or even this time last month but the 5’8″ undrafted, future hall of famer is used to overcoming obstacles.  What’s one more in this already illustrious career?

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Sean Griffin

Sean Griffin is a contributor for the Pittsburgh Penguins at The Hockey Writers. He can be contacted at psgrif27@gmail.com or you can follow him on twitter @psgrif27.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Martin St. Louis leads the NHL in points with one game remaining in Tampa Bay’s season. (Icon SMI)

From a playoff threat to a complete debacle, that pretty much sums up this season for the Tampa Bay Lightning.

For a team that started the season 6-1, the only way for the Lightning to fall apart in a shortened season was for things to go bad fast, and they certainly did. Following their hot start, Tampa Bay continued to drop their next six games, taking a turn for the worst and establishing themselves as a team that clearly had some holes in their game.

If you asked me after those first seven games if I thought the Lightning were a serious contender this season, I probably would’ve said yes. It certainly looked like the Lightning had finally figured it out, with what seemed to be a great mix of young talented players and veterans. I originally thought that they would be able to compete with the Penguins or the Bruins in an Eastern Conference Final, but boy was I wrong.

One thing that is consistent about the Lightning, however, is their goal scoring and offensive fire power. The aging Martin St. Louis and potentially the most dynamic offensive player in the league, Steven Stamkos, are set to finish first and second respectively in the league for points. Additionally, Stamkos sits in second in the league in goals with 29 and should have a good chance to reach 30, as the Lightning play the ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ of the Eastern Conference, otherwise known as the last-place Florida Panthers, in their last game of the season Saturday.

The Lightning have given up 145 goals this season, which is good for third most in the Eastern Conference. That is in large part to the inconsistent play of Tampa Bay’s defensive core and goaltender Anders Lindback for the majority of the season. Things haven’t been much better with Ben Bishop in net either. After the trade that sent Cory Conacher to Ottawa in exchange for Bishop, the Lightning still struggled to find the win column. As a result, the Lightning are just 2-6-2 in their last 10 games.

I don’t have an answer for why the Lightning have struggled so much this year, but one thing’s for sure, with the amount of talent they have, they shouldn’t have struggled at all.

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Matt Metcalf

Currently covering all things that is the Tampa Bay Lightning for The Hockey Writers. Follow him on Twitter: @Matt_Metcalf

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This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Not all blame can be placed upon goaltenders. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

It has been well noted that the Tampa Bay Lightning, while having elite offensive talent, have issues keeping the puck out of their own net. In my last article I examined the amount of quality starts the Lightning received from their goalies. That number being 48.9% of their games played.

But what quality of players are the Tampa Bay Lightning goalies playing behind? Surely you cannot fall into the trap of blaming the goalies solely for the holes in the Lightning’s game.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

Lightning Strikes

While Tampa Bay was fourth in the NHL with 3.06 goals per game, they also finished 26th with 3.02 goals against per game. Are they allowing too many shots per game?

They finished in the bottom half of the league they finished 20th overall with 30.2 shots allowed per game. To compare, the New Jersey Devils were first overall at 23.2 and the Buffalo Sabres were last overall at 33.5.

How well did they play at even strength (5 vs. 5)? They finished ninth overall scoring 1.09 goals for to every goal against.

How about their record in one goal games? They showed an inability to lock down defensively with a 0.238 winning percentage in one goal games. This equates to a record of 5 wins, 12 losses and 4 overtime/shootout losses. This record ranked them last (30th overall) in the NHL.

I believe this is a telling sign that this team as currently constructed is not defensively sound.

Quality of Defensive Players

It is clear when you look into the Corsi statistics that the Tampa Bay Lightning goalies were at a great disadvantage when it came to the quality of teammates playing in front of them.

Corsi HARD QOT (5 vs. 5) is a stat that measures the average quality of defensive teammates on the ice when the goaltender is playing.

Ben Bishop has been the luckiest of the bunch with a -8.5, Cedrick Desjardins saw -15.3 Mathieu Garon was treated to -16.6 and Anders Lindback was worked the hardest at -16.9 quality of defensive teammates.

Corsi HARD QOC (5 vs. 5) measures the average quality of the opponents offensive players while the goaltender is on the ice.

Once again Ben Bishop was the lucky one with 4.21, then Matheiu Garon with 5.25, Anders Lindback with 5.55 and Cedrick Desjardins was hung out to dry with 9.26.

A League-Wide Comparison

In terms of quality of teammates on the ice, Martin Brodeur and Johan Hedberg of the Devils led the league at 36.5 and 36.0 respectively.

At the other end of the scale the Toronto Maple Leafs tandem of James Reimer and Ben Scrivens were saddled with -57.9 and -58.7 respectively.

Where did the Lightning goalies fall (out of 71 goaltenders)? Ben Bishop was 46th in the NHL. While Cedrick Desjardins, Mathieu Garon and Anders Lindback ranked 56th, 57th and 58th in the NHL.

In terms of quality of offensive opponents Rick DiPietro was the highest at 13.04 while the lowest was Chad Johnson at -6.71. While James Reimer ranked 4th with 7.91 and Roberto Luongo ranked 70th with -6.55.

So where did the Lightning goalies end up? Cedrick Desjardins was 2nd, Anders Lindback 15th, Mathieu Garon 20th and Ben Bishop was 33rd.

Another telling stat is the percentage of where the faceoffs were located for the Tampa Bay Lightning. They had 28.7% (28th) in the offensive zone, 39.4% (3rd) in the neutral zone and 32% (14th) in the defensive zone.

Clearly the Lighting spent most of their time on their half of the ice. The Bolts goaltenders had much less time than most to take a breath and not be in the thick of things.

The Main Idea

In analyzing the numbers it is very telling that the Tampa Bay Lightning goalies faced more shots than most, had the play on their side of the ice more than most, and had lower quality of defensive players than most in front of them.

Essentially the goalies, while only providing 48.9% quality starts are clearly in need of more help from their teammates. This is an area general manager Steve Yzerman will be looking to improve via free agency or trade this offseason.

Author information

Mike Burse

Have been writing about Hockey since 2007 as a Columnist and Contributor to numerous Hockey websites over the years. Currently covering the Toronto Maple Leafs for The Hockey Writers. I bring a background in Refereeing and Insurance to my perspective on the game.

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This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Carolina Hurricane Brandon Sutter (16) airborne over Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Mathieu Garon (Andy Martin Jr)

A few years ago Hockey Prospectus introduced a stat similar to baseball’s quality starts statistic. Whereas in baseball a quality start is six or more innings pitched with three or fewer runs allowed, a quality start for a goaltender is defined as a start where their save percentage was higher than the league average. It is a great way to breakdown the quality of goaltending a team is receiving.

Through the first 45 games of the 2012-2013 NHL season the league average save percentage has been 0.911%. The Tampa Bay Lightning goaltending has, on most nights, been below this league average. This season the Bolts goaltending has provided 48.9% quality starts.

Breaking down quality starts for each Lightning goaltender

This season Anders Lindback has led the way for the Lightning off his offseason acquisition with 19 starts. Out of those 19 starts 52.6% were quality starts. On most nights Lindback as able to give the Lightning above league average goaltending.

Next in line was backup Mathieu Garon. He provided the Bolts with 16 starts through the first 45 games. However only 37.5% of those starts were quality starts. He provided his team with below league average goaltending for the most part. It is clear that with his impending free agency depature Tampa Bay should see some improvement between the pipes.

Acquired from the Ottawa Senators for promising scorer Cory Conacher, Ben Bishop has not disappointed for the Lightning thus far. He has started seven games for the Tampa Bay Lightning and 71.4% of thise starts were quality starts. Clearly this level of play is not likely to be maintained through the course of an 82 game schedule. However Bishop should and will be an improvement over Mathieu Garon next season.

Lastly Cedrick Desjardins saw three starts this season when Lindback was injured and Ben Bishop had not been acquired. He provided only 33.3% quality starts, essentially one of this three starts was a quality start.

Digging deeper into the numbers

What this means is that in only 22 of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 45 games they have received better than league average goaltending. If you consider that the NHL average is 29 shots against per game and the league average save percentage is 0.911, that equates to 26 saves and 2.6 goals against per game.

Tampa Bay’s goaltenders allowed less than 2.6 goals per game only 22 times this season. No matter how high octane your offense is you will be hard pressed to overcome this.

Looking closer the Lightning have scored 3.07 goals per game (third overall behind only the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks) in the first 45 games. That means approximately 23 times they were outscored. The integrity of this statistic is proven by the Lightning’s actual total losses being 24 (only a one loss deviation).

If they had received 58% quality starts from their goaltenders they would have approximately 26 wins and 52 points through 45 games. This would sit them two points back of Southeast Division leader Washington with three games to go. This is only four more wins than they had after 45 games played.

What does this mean for the future of the Lightning?

Simply, the offense is there to be an elite team in the NHL. If the goaltending can make marked improvements, specifically Lindback and Bishop, over the next couple seasons you can bet that the Lightning will again be looked upon as a Stanley Cup Contender.

General Manager Steve Yzerman has, to this point, practiced patience in building up the organization. Expect this slow build to continue. However with improved goaltending next season expect the Tampa Bay Lightning to be much closer to the playoff picture.

I could see them finishing anywhere from 7th to 10th in the newly formed Eastern Conference. They will be hard pressed to secure a playoff spot within their new Division including Toronto, Buffalo, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, Detroit and Florida.

Boston is an elite team and will likely take the division, while all three of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal appear to be on the rise. Detroit will not be a top team but expect them to make an improvement over this year. While Florida should remain one of the bottom feeders for at least another couple seasons.

The acquisitions of Anders Lindback and Ben Bishop has put the Lightning in good stead to become a perennial playoff team once again. Once again Steve Yzerman has identified a need with his team and worked to fix it.

Author information

Mike Burse

Have been writing about Hockey since 2007 as a Columnist and Contributor to numerous Hockey websites over the years. Currently covering the Toronto Maple Leafs for The Hockey Writers. I bring a background in Refereeing and Insurance to my perspective on the game.

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This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

The Lightning in 2011-12…(Tampa Bay Lightning/Scott Audette)

A question of great weight and significance to the Tampa Bay Lightning organization must be considered by General Manager Steve Yzerman. Should he use an amnesty buyout on Captain and long time Bolt, Vincent Lecavalier?

The now 33 year old center carries an annual cap hit of $7,727,273, with a no movement clause, until the 2019-20 season. That is an additional seven years that will see him play until the age of 40.

How much would the buyout cost?

The actual salary remains $10 million per season until the end of 2015-16 (three more years) and then it drops to $8.5 million in 2016-17, $4 million in 2017-18, $1.5 million in 2018-19, and finally $1 million in 2019-20.

Assuming he will play until he is at least 37 years old the remaining actual dollars on his contract would be $6.5 million. At that point it may be reasonable to buy him out if necessary depending on the CBA and cap situation at that time.

If the Lightning were to buy out Vincent Lecavalier this summer, they would save the $7 million plus on the cap but would owe him $30 million over the next 14 years. Is this really a number that Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinnik could swallow?

What about the  Cap?

In 2013-14 the salary cap is reducing to $64.3 million and the Lightning have $61.8 million committed to 18 players. In 2014-15 Tampa Bay has $53 million in cap hits for 12 players and then it drops to $34.4 million in 2015-16 for 7 players.

They will also have the cap hits of Martin St. Louis ($5.625), Ryan Malone ($4.5) and Eric Brewer ($3.875) expiring after the 2014-15 season. I would assume that none of them would be resigned as St. Louis will be 40, Malone will be 36 and Brewer will be 37.

As well Sami Salo’s $3.75 million cap hit expires after next season. He will turn 39 next year so he likely does not have much left in the tank.

Under the assumption that the cap should increase from the $64.3 million mark with growing revenues, that is $17.75 million in free cap space by the free agent season beginning July 1, 2015.

Won’t the $7 million Cap Hit for Vincent Lecavalier make it difficult to improve the team?

Steve Yzerman joined the Tampa Bay Lightning as Vice-President and General Manager in May 2010. At that time he inherited a franchise in turmoil, they had missed the playoffs in each of 2007-08 (71 points), 2008-09 (66 points) and 2009-10 (80 points).

June 18, 2008 was a day that will live in infamy in Tampa Bay Lighting history. Oren Koules and business partner Len Barrie purchased the Tampa Bay Lightning for $200 million US. The partners would create turmoil in the organization through their differences in direction. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had to deal with this situation and found a buyer dedicated to bringing a winning franchise back to Tampa Bay, Jeff Vinnik.

Once Yzerman was hired by Vinnik is May 2010 work began on rebuilding this franchise. Not into one that would compete one year and flame out the next, but into a solidly built team that could compete year in and year out for the playoffs and the Stanley Cup.

Now in his third season Yzerman has started to lay the groundwork for a winning team.

However if you compare the Lightning to the Toronto Maple Leafs “rebuild”. It took the Leafs nearly five years of Brian Burke rebuilding their prospect and American Hockey League depth to make it back to the playoffs. Only in the past couple years has their AHL affiliate, the Marlies, began to compete for the Calder Cup.

The Lightning’s AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch and prior the Norfolk Admirals, have seen tremendous improvement in the past couple seasons. However it does appear that the NHL level is still two to three seasons away from being a true playoff team.

What does that mean for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, more losing?

Patience will need to be had for the next few seasons. The Lightning currently appear to be in what I call “bridge mode”. They are trying to bridge the gap between now and when their prospects will start graduating to the NHL level.

Players like Andrey Vasilevskiy (projected: #1 goaltender), Tyler Johnson (2nd/3rd line center), Alex Killorn (2nd line center), J.T. Brown (top six winger), Slater Koekkoek (top four defender), Richard Panik (top six winger), Mark Barbeiro (2nd/3rd pairing puck moving defender), Nikita Kucherov (top six winger), Vladislav Namestnikov (2nd/3rd line center), and the list goes on.

Even if only three or four of those nine prospects make it to their potential the Lightning will be able to fill the holes left by future departures of St. Louis, Malone, Brewer, Salo and a drop in production from Vincent Lecavalier. While they can continue to improve the rest of the team via free agency, trades and future draft picks.

Is Vincent Lecavalier still a valuable member of the Tampa Bay Lightning? 

The short answer is yes, he still provides enough value to be on the roster in a top six role.

This season he has contributed 29 points (10 goals, 19 assists) in 35 games with average ice time of 18:06 per game. Out of his 10 goals six have come when tied or trailing by one goal. Overall that shows he is still a clutch scorer when the situation arises.

Although it is clear that this shortened schedule is beginning to wear on him. In April he has played nine games providing seven points and a minus four rating with 15:16 in ice time per game. Compare that to January when he had eight points in six games with a plus three rating and 17:36 in ice time per game.

He is still a physical presence dropping 69 hits in 35 games and is never afraid to drop the gloves and defend a teammate. He is also efficient with the puck with seven giveaways to 11 takeaways.

Vincent Lecavalier also takes the second most faceoffs (672) on the team behind Steven Stamkos (763) and is respectable winning 54% of those draws.

He has contributed a 2.8 point share to the Lightning this season, so he is making a difference for them in the standings. On average over an 82 game schedule since 2008-09 he has contributed a 6.4 point share. He also has an average of 0.83 points per game since 2008-09 (68 points per 82 game season).

Lightning’s top two centers compared to other teams

When you consider the Lightning’s first line center, Steven Stamkos, has averaged an 11.1 point share and 1.1 points per game (90 points per 82 game season) that is a very good one two punch in the NHL.

It might seem pricey at $15,227,273 (1.9 points per game and 17.5 point share per season) for your top two centers, but when you look around the league it is comparable to some of the top teams (points per game from 2008-09 to 2012-13 and point shares from 2008-09 to 2011-12):

Chicago Blackhawks ($12.2 million for 1.8 points per game and 16.5 point share per season)- Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp

Pittsburgh Penguins ($17.4 million for 2.7 points per game and 20.6 point share per season)- Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin

Boston Bruins ($10.25 million for 1.5 points per game and 12.8 point share per season)- David Krecji and Patrice Bergeron

Los Angeles Kings ($ 12.55 million for 1.7 points per game and 16.1 point share per season)- Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards

Vancouver Canucks ($11.1 million for 1.9 points per game and 17.9 point share per season)- Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler

In terms of points per game the Lightning are only below the Penguins, while they are below both Pittsburgh and Vancouver when it comes to point share per 82 game season.

Should Tampa Bay amnesty buyout Vincent Lecavalier?

Based on the information above and in my opinion I would not buyout Vincent Lecavalier. He is a solid second line center to play behind a superstar in Steven Stamkos. He is also the captain and leader of this team with the great character and experience that he possess.

In just three short years Lecavalier and Stamkos will be the leaders on this team with Martin St. Louis likely retired. The Lightning will need a player like Lecavalier around to lead what will be a young team into the playoffs. The scoresheet will be Stamkos’ responsibility while the locker room will be Lecavalier’s.

Special thanks for Capgeek.com, Hockey-Reference.com, BoltProspects.com, and NHL.com.

Author information

Mike Burse

Have been writing about Hockey since 2007 as a Columnist and Contributor to numerous Hockey websites over the years. Currently covering the Toronto Maple Leafs for The Hockey Writers. I bring a background in Refereeing and Insurance to my perspective on the game.

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This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.