It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Looking for some prospects for the lightning season? And I'm not just talking about how good you think the lightning room do in 2024 and 2025. On this episode of Lockdown Lightning, we focus on some of the Tampa Bay Lightning players of the future. Your Lockdown Lightning, your daily podcast on the Tampa Bay Lightning, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to Lockdown Lightning, Josh Sperber here. I want to thank you for making Lockdown Lightning your first listen every day as we are a part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. If the lightning are your team every day, this is the place for you. Josh Sperber here, host of Lockdown Lightning, and we appreciate you joining us this early in the day. We've talked a little bit about some of the season preparations for the Tampa Bay Lightning. But prospects, young players, future members of their respective NHL teams are always a tough thing to talk about. You never really know what kind of level these new guys are going to be at. But with the Tampa Bay Lightning, especially that is going to be crucial for this season. Obviously, the big story of the off season was Stephen Stamkos, one of the great success stories of the lightning farm system departing for Nashville at the beginning of July, sending lightning into somewhat of a rebuilding year. And if you're going to rebuild properly, you need to have top level prospects. The lightning though, not ranked too highly on that list. They are at just number 30, right around there on most prospect lists, obviously a bunch of different teams, a bunch of different groups, websites, whatever you want to call it, have different rankings for the prospects. But consensus is the lightning or about 30 in the NHL prospect list. And a big reason because of that is just their lack of depth. It's something that Hadi, sorry, I need to pronounce this name correctly, it is something that two of our friends from locked on prospect NHL prospects, Hadi Calicash and Sebastian High, forgive me, are going to talk about in the next segment, but right now we're going to talk about some of the success stories of the lightning prospect group and some of the guys that could be able to make the jump to the show this season when it comes to lightning prospects. Now, a big problem is depth and that depth is really contrary to the lightning in terms of attacking. The attacking prospects for Tampa are very solid, but it's the defense and goalies that really haven't made as much noise as they started prospect training camp last week. The Tampa Bay Lightning had a couple of games against Nashville against Florida just to have some guys in the rookie showcase getting ready for this season. A couple of them will be on the training camp roster as well for the Tampa Bay Lightning that we talked about in yesterday's episode of the podcast, we went a little bit when it comes to training camp. You look at some of the prospects that are on that list, Nico Hootenin, Maxime Groshev, Dylan Duke, some of the guys that we'll be talking about later on in the segment, and then obviously plenty more Gabriel Stirk, Ethan Hay, two other guys that are young from Salves who's expected to start with the team this year, so plenty of guys, particularly from that forward position that are on the Lightning's training camp roster as they prepare for the 2024-2025 regular season. There are certainly a couple of guys that I think can make the jump to the Lightning's roster right now, and with that we're going to start with Gage Gonzales, who is expected by many, to be a prospect for the Lightning that makes his furrel season debut with Tampa Bay. He was the 62nd overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft by the Lightning, made his NHL debut with the Lightning in January and played two games with Tampa in 2023-2024. This offseason he was signed to a one-year two-way contract, really hoping that he can make an impact with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Obviously the forward depth taking a bit of a hit with Stamps Coast leaving, he's expected to be on that opening day roster. There are a majority of these Lightning prospects don't expect to come up to the show this year, obviously just a matter of age. Connor Giki is one of them that's been a very interesting name. We're going to talk about him later because he is one of the key prospects in terms of the Lightning this year, of course, coming over in the McHale-Surgachab trade that we've talked so much about since I joined the podcast at the beginning of the week. Ethan Gautier has been a guy who was really impressed with a couple of nice goals in the rookie camp. Maxine Groshev has been a big guy who has been on the lips of many Lightning higher ups, playing overseas for much of the past couple of seasons before getting brought up to SKA St. Petersburg, going from there to Syracuse where he played the entire AHL season with the crunch, finishing with 10 goals and 20 assists and a plus minus of plus eight. Maxine Groshev has had a couple of writers calling the prospect showcase, the Maxine Groshev showcase, because of his performance over the past couple of years. I mean, he's just been that good for Tampa Bay in that prospect showcase, trying to earn himself a trip over to the Tampa Bay Lightning full-time, and there are some obvious members of the Tampa Bay Lightning who have been success stories of that prospect group, and honestly, those two back-to-back Stanley Cup runs were really a showcase for Lightning prospects. I mean, obviously, Stephen Stamkos of the big performance, Victor Hedman, really coming into his zone and solidifying himself as one of the NHL's top defenseman during that Stanley Cup run. He of course was drafted by the Lightning as well and was absolutely crucial in their last two Stanley Cup seasons and was the cons smythe trophy winner in 2020. The Lightning typically choose captains from people that have been in their system, and Victor Hedman, Stephen Stamkos, two of the highest drafted players ever by Tampa Bay at the first and second. Second and first, I should say, overall picks, and Hedman has became the first defenseman to play a thousand games in the NHL for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Stephen Stamkos and Vincent LeCavalier, the other two, and both of all three of those guys have shown how successful this farm system has been. People were the Tampa Bay Lightning, and there have been a couple other big names that have come out of that Lightning system. Braden Point, an absolute steal in the third round of 2014, quickly coming up into the NHL. He was an all-star in 2018 in the NHL and scored some key goals in those playoff runs in 2020 and 2019, beginning in 2017 and 2018 in his first year with the Tampa Bay Lightning and has just been massive. He's a guy who I expect to be on the Lightning's first line this season with Nikita Kucharov and potentially Jake Genssel as well. Anthony Sirelli is another guy who has shown the success of the Lightning system. He hasn't really emerged into almost star status like Point has, and of course, elite status. There's just too high a level for what Stamkos and Hedman have achieved, but Anthony Sirelli is another guy who has been a success story of the Lightning season. He's had double-digit goals and assists in all but two of his seven NHL seasons so far, and in the two seasons, he played a combined 68 games in 2017 and 2020, ending in 2021 and 2018, of course. Five goals, six assists in his first year, and since then, it's really just been steadily increasing with career bests of 20 and his second career high, 20 goals in his career most, career most 20 goals, career second most or third most actually, 25 assists from Anthony Sirelli. He'll be a second or third liner this year, but certainly a crucial player helped them in their Stanley Cup runs in those back-to-back as well. And this did Mitchell Shaffey, not really one of the Stanley Cup guys, but he played, he's had a cup of coffee with Minnesota in 2021 and 2022, the Lightning brought him in. He was signed in 2023 and played most of the season in the NHL playing 30 games with Lightning after a couple of solid minor league games with Tampa, but of course, he was a mostly developed prospect, this of course, for the Lightning though, they have shown that they can bring up guys in their system, but if you take a look at the positions of most of the guys that we have talked about, they're all attackers, so a key place the Lightning really need to look when it comes to developing their prospects is on defects, a lot of the prospects that people were writing about during the rookie showcase were forwards, a couple gold tenders got mentioned, Ryan Fante and Harrison Menigan, the two goalies primarily used in that rookie showcase with Harrison Menigan doing some of the best work, saving 25 to 28 shots in an overtime loss to Nashville last week, and he looked pretty good despite allowing four goals in a game and a half, they also have a goalie named Cooper Black who is six foot ten, so someone to watch out for, but I think for the Lightning, the big road to the show, the big key for the Lightning system over the next couple of years is start stocking up on some defenders and goalkeepers, particularly the defenders, because it really does not seem like the Lightning have a lot of up and coming kind of impact prospects when it comes to some of the defenders in their system, the goalies might be starting to come up, but the crux of the Lightning's farm system is predicated on the strength of their forwards, so I think the Lightning really needs to start making some moves on defense, getting some defenders and net minders to beef up their farm system, we are going to take a quick break and have a word from our friends at FanDuel, but before and after the break, we will take a visit from our friends at locked on NHL prospects, Hadi, KalaKesh and Sebastian Hye breaking down the Lightning's prospect class as the NHL prospect rankings for the team system were dropped earlier this week. So we are going to take a quick break before we send it to Hadi and Sebastian. You've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel, America's number one sports book. Well, we have something a little bit different for you. Now through September 2nd, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a free or get a three-week trial, a three-week trial for free on NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with a YouTube TV based plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment, and you can cancel anytime. Just visit FanDuel.com and download America's number one sports book, and soon we'll have odds on Lightning Games when it comes to the preseason and the NHL season from FanDuel as well. So you can get a head start to your betting with FanDuel and locked on Lightning. Now we're finished up with our break now and going to toss it to our friends on locked on prospects. Take it away Hadi and Sebastian. All righty. So let's close things off here in our final segment by talking about the Tampa Bay Lightning at 30th overall in our final in our prospect pool rankings for the off season here. And the Lightning were at 31st last season, so not much of a change. He bumped up one spot due to a very key acquisition in terms of a prospect and their pool there. But I think the issue is still the same with the Lightning, it's just a lack of depth. There's an issue once you get to a certain amount, but yeah, we'll talk about that in detail. We'll start off with that key acquisition. Senator Giki was acquired by the from Utah in exchange for Mikael Sergachev and a couple of other pieces. Very interesting exchange of players there, which I think benefits the Lightning's pool. Doesn't benefit their immediate ability to be contentious, but they needed a decent replacement I think for Sergachev as well. He's good. He's decent. But Sergachev is Sergachev. He's a very interesting player. But overall, Connor Giki, let's get into the details. Big center, decent mobility on him surprisingly as well. He's improved his ability to, he's still heavy-footed, but he's still able to slow down, speed up, use his long strides to get past one check and kind of move into another. So I like that combination with him with Giki, but really what's the bread and breader of his game is the handling skill and the shooting abilities. He's very, very skillful, very creative for a big guy. And you can really see it when he's on the IC. He's really good at manipulating defenses, getting past checks with his hands. But I think that hands aren't enough in the NHL. You need to be able to, like I said, manipulate pace, speed up, slow down. Giki's shown some ability to do that, and I think that's been the key progression. I wasn't a big fan of Connor Giki and his draft here, but his progress pretty well, right? He really has, and I also want to add that there's a lot of other elements in his game that I think really help his projection. One element of that, physicality. This is a very strong player who's never afraid of using that to create space and time for himself, either on-pack or even defensively as well to disrupt opponent's cycle play. And he's also, he's 6'3", 196 pounds, like the frame helps a lot, but there's a willingness to use that with this player as well. He's also very intelligent. So while yes, the handling skill shines incredibly bright and the creativity behind it, the shooting ability is really good, but the combination of passing skill, as well as the intelligence, the hockey sense, the pace of processing, I think really help him be very adaptable in any given situation, and he's also gotten a lot better in having a positive impact in transition. He's not the best rock puck carrier up the ice, like you're not going to see him go end to end all that much in his NHL career, because again, the skating ability has some mechanical flaws to it. But definitely a player who can link up with his teammates very nicely and provide a lot of different things to the equation that a lot of teams are constantly looking to acquire. So I think he's a really good piece to acquire for the Tampa Bay Lightning. I definitely think he has a future on their second line, likely at center as well. So a really important piece that they went out and got here and definitely the gem among that prospect pool. Absolutely, but let's talk about the next two prospects as well. They're pretty interesting. Ethan Goce at second and Isaac Howard third, and fundamentally different prospects. Even Goce is about energy, about doing the right things at the right moment, really using his brain to open up lanes. He played with the Sherbrooke Phoenix in his draft year last season, which was drafted in the second round in 2023, looked really, really good. It was really more of a playmaker, more of a distributor, but this year has really leaned into his goal scoring abilities with Carmen Ville after getting traded there in the queue. Really interesting kind of between the line skater, kind of really good at finding small spaces in between the forward core and the defense and kind of exploiting those spaces, making defenses back up with timely net drives, using a stick in transition to lift the defender stick on his way to the net, kind of open up by passing a lane for his teammates carrying the puck, really intelligent off puck mover. I think that's really the gist of his game, is how good he is off puck offensively, whereas Isaac Howard is all about on puck skills. It's the manipulation, it's the handling skill, it's the net drives, the intensity and intention with which he carries the puck, he's also a decent goal score and playmaker, but Isaac Howard isn't as intelligent off puck, he isn't as reliable defensively, and he's the type of player who really excels with better teammates. We see a drastic difference between Isaac Howard with the NTDP, with Team USA at international tournaments, for example the world juniors, and the Isaac Howard we see, for example, at Michigan State. With Michigan State, he's kind of the key offensive driver and he's not really made for that. He's a complimentary skill guy, that's why we have Ethan Gocce above, just because Ethan Gocce is more projectable, more safe, but also has a similar level of upside to Isaac Howard there. Bless closings off here with number four, number five in these prospect pools off if you're Dylan Duke and Gabriel Stirk. Yeah, Dylan Duke is a player that I really appreciated going back to his draft year, where he's playing with the NTDP in the 2021 draft class, and he's a player that really made his mark on that team by being elite at one thing specifically being played in that front role, which is especially interesting considering that he's 5'10", 176 pounds, not the biggest guy in the world, and they're really not very pretty skater on the ice, but the level of intelligence and hand-eye coordination and physical leverage tools that he had in his toolkit already at that point really made him stand out among the rest of the players, and since then, I mean, having three full seasons at the University of Michigan to develop has done wonders for him. His skating's definitely gone from awful to not great, which has been a really big improvement for Dylan Duke and his NHL projection, and on top of that, his existing strengths of scoring goals really tight around the net front, getting first to rebounds, never relenting. He has that dog in him very much, so he's going to be a bottom-six presence for Tampa Bay for a very long time, I'm pretty confident of that, and again, that combination of intensity intelligence and physical tools that compensate for a lack of massive frame, I think, are really central to his projection. A decent shot, decent playmaker, but again, he gets to the dangerous areas, and that's where he does his damage, it's not about having a better shot than the rest of his competition in terms of scoring goals, it's about getting to the dangerous areas and just whacking away at POCs thinking more along the lines of a Brendan Gallagher than an Alex Ovechkin in terms of overall skill comparison. For sure, Gabriel Stirk is a really interesting player as well, he's all intensity, all effort, these are really, really, the combination of smarts and motor is really good with Stirk. Outside of that, the POC skills themselves aren't really a standout-ish, but he's got decent enough abilities on that side, more of a playmaker, distributor, he worked really well with Teja Gilna there in Kelowna for a while, that was a key combination of skills there, both are really intense forecheckers, again, there's a bit more of a goal scorer, a player who's going to go to the net, bank pucks and rebounds, that kind of stuff, and Stirk's just really well at firing, really good at firing pucks into the slot, timing his passes with Gilna's off-puck rotations, I think Stirk, you know, drafted as an over-age of his past years, because there's a really interesting prospect, he's got some decent tools on that side, so he made this cut, and a couple honorable mentions that show a bit more of kind of the quote-unquote "depth" in Tampa, I really like Eamon Powell, who's a 5'11" right handed D, he was a captain of Boston College, a stacked team, and almost went up a point of game with them, I really like his intelligence, his ability to skate the puck up the ice, but not do it just kind of blindly, he doesn't skate up the ice with no purpose, he's able to slow down speed up, he knows when to just drive and when to just sit back and play develop, his intelligence is really polished, his skating is really polished and he's got decent physical tools, so I like him a lot, and lastly, Jack Harvey, who I think goes unsung for a decent amount there, Jack Harvey is undersized, 5'10", 176 pounds, looks smaller than that on the ice as well, he played for Boston University and quickly earned his way into the top six for them, showing him some great abilities, scored 17 points in 25 games, I want to say, and look really good in the process, he was a very intelligent, very purposeful player with a decent motor, great puck skills, a heavy shot, surprisingly for his size, there's some decent tools to work with there, and I think Tapa got a gem there in the final, in the seventh round, late in the seventh round too. Thanks to Hattie and Sebastian for their insight, you can catch their show, locked on NHL prospects on YouTube, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, but we're going back to locked on lightning, and when we come back, we'll talk about some of the other lightning prospects that Hattie and Sebastian did not discuss, and who will be the most crucial prospect to the upcoming 2024 lightning season. Josh Berber back here with locked on lightning as we get ready to talk more about some of the prospects, and I think that for the top five, maybe, I mean, it seems like a good, it seems like a good list for the top prospect provided by our friends over at locked on NHL, but there are a couple more that I don't think we're discussed, and I think should be discussed here on locked on lightning, the first of which is Emilie Leilberg. In the first segment, we talked about the fact that the lightning prospects is very offensive central. It is, there are a lot of talented wingers and centers on there, some great forwards in the lightning prospects, but the defense, the goalies, are lacking a little bit more, one defensive prospects that does provide a little bit of boost to that defensive depth, and could do so from the get go in the lightning season is Emil Leilberg. Emil Leilberg was signed to a two-year contract by the lightning after playing a handful of games in the regular season this year. Didn't score any goals, didn't provide any assist, but Leilberg is a big guy. He provided some powerful, powerful hit, six, three, 208 pounds, and in Norwegian, international is ready to make an impact in what would be his first full professional season. He was initially drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2021. It did not make it to the NHL with Arizona before he debuted in 37 games with the lightning last year. Didn't provide any goals, only five assists, and a minus 15 in his first 37 games, and he averaged a little less than a penalty minute per game. So not too much time in the penalty box for Emil, and he also played five games in the postseason, so he is someone that lightning brought along quickly and can make an impact this season. Obviously he's had more ice time than pretty much any of the other Tampa Bay Lightning prospects, so might have been a reason why he wasn't talked about unlocked on NHL prospects, but this guy is just a big strong defender. He's not afraid to get physical, and that physicality on defense could be something big for this young team. A lot of young teams can really fall forward due to momentum, and no matter what the sport, I believe that momentum is a massive tipping point in any game. Baseball, hockey, soccer, it doesn't matter. If your team has momentum, if there is some big game event that drives your team forward, that is something that can change the scope of a game in an instant, and a guy who hits as hard as Emil Leleberg does has that kind of power. He could send someone flying into the board, send someone over their bench, make a big hit, make a great stop on defense with his body, and quickly the lightning can speed right up the ice and get themselves in the way to a goal. Right now, that is Emil Leleberg's best trait. He should start on the Lightning's roster on opening day, so he should be able to make that impact from the Getkel. I don't see a lot of high-line time. He'll be kind of a lower-level defensive line, blue line guy, for the Tampa Bay Lightning this season, I think, but I think Leleberg is someone who was poised to make an impact in his first year with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now, another guy that was not brought up by our friends that locked on NHL prospects was Max Groshev. He got some time in the preseason last year, and he had an outstanding rookie showcase. For the second consecutive season, he had two goals and three assists staying consistent in the NHL rookie showcase, and an even provoked Thompson brand is of Tampa Bay Lightning.com to half-jokingly call the Volts NHL rookie showcase, the Max Groshev showcase. He has that kind of skill with the puck, good passer, solid defender for a forward, and Groshev, just over 20 years old, and he might not make the team this season with the Lightning's just plethora of forwards, but he is certainly somebody that could make a big impact. We keep looking on defense again, because as I mentioned, not a whole lot of defenders and goalies in the pipeline. The one that was really showcased was Harrison Menigan getting most of the time in goal for the Lightning in the prospects showcase. He played the entire game in Lightning's loss to Nashville three to two in overtime, not against Stephen Samcoast, guys. Don't worry, you don't need to get too upset, but he allowed three goals and saved 25 on 28 shots, earned the win in the next game against the Panthers, so he allowed four goals in his last two games of the NHL showcase. Connor Giki, with someone who also played in that NHL showcase, who, in my opinion, is going to be the biggest impact prospect. It seems like a pretty easy case. He was virtually the centerpiece of that McHale Sergachev trade. JJ Moser is not going to be on this prospect, because he has two seasons of NHL service time behind him. He's a guy who's expected to get on no lower than the third line defensively. Moser, someone that is also young, could make an instant impact, but Connor Giki, young center former top 15 pick 11th rounder by the Arizona Coyotes in 2022. And he's pretty big. I talked about the size of Emilie Leleberg, 63, 207. Connor Giki, a center is six foot four, 208 pounds. So a center even bigger than a fender is not something to take lightly. He's got a rocket of a slap shot. Really good hands on the puck and can move on the ice exceptionally well for a guy his size. I don't expect him to get into the high lines. Maybe he'll start on the third or the fourth line for Tampa Bay, but I'd be surprised if Connor Giki did not make the Tampa Bay lightnings opening night roster following that McHale Sergachev trade. He is a very exciting young prospect, and someone that lightning fans could be enjoying for years to come. One more guy to talk about is Gage Gonzalez had two games for the Tampa Bay lighting after leading the Syracuse crunch in the AHL with 58 points on this season. He is another guy who is expected to start on the lightning's opening day roster. He does have a jersey number on Tampa Bay's website. He is someone that could add a little bit more forward depth. I imagine he'll be a low line guy, but the lightning continuing to work in their prospects to the NHL. And that is going to be crucial for Tampa this season. We've talked about how the lightning are essentially starting a bit of a rebuilding process with a departure of Stephen Stamppos. And any rebuilding prospect is crucial to have prospects who can carry the load for you. Connor Giki might be a guy who takes a big portion of that prospect's hype, whatever you want to call it for this Tampa Bay system. He is really the leader of their prospect groups. They've got a couple other stashes. Nico Hooten is supposed to come up at some point this year. He'll start on Syracuse, a guy with a really hard shot and a lot of power on his stick that is expected to make way for the lightning forward. But this season, Connor Giki is likely to be the top lightning prospect. And he should make an impact for Tampa if they want to have a chance at getting back into the playoffs following the departure of two of their first line players. That is going to conclude our show for today. Big thanks again to our friends on locked on NHL, Sebastian High and Kadi and Hadi Kalakash, the two hosts of locked on NHL. Like this podcast, you can find them on YouTube and all of your other podcast platforms. And of course, I want to give you all a big thanks for tuning in to locked on lightning and making locked on lightning. Your first listen today, the Tampa Bay lightning and locked on lightning your team every day. For your second listen, you can go check out locked on NHL where local experts will keep you updated daily on all the biggest story lines ahead of the upcoming NHL season. We're not too far from the NHL season. So find locked on NHL on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast. Please do the same with locked on lightning. Like, subscribe, follow, share, all of that. We just want to spread this locked on lightning around the world because the Tampa Bay lightning have one of the best fan bases in hockey. And I would like to provide some information to you guys. I am Josh Sprober. Thank you all for tuning in. Please remember to like and subscribe. And we'll see you tomorrow. Enjoy your Wednesday afternoon. A Prime members, you can listen to this locked on podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.
