They Aren’t the Flyers

My reason why Tampa won't make the playoffs goes with their defense core:

Matt Carle - Filip Kuba
Shane O'Brien - Paul Ranger
Alexandre Picard - Mike Lundin
Matt Smaby - Andrew Hutchinson

In that group, only Kuba is in his 30's. I think that they should have signed or traded for one or two experienced defensemen instead of signing too many forwards.

I actually like that group of defensemen a lot better than I like some other teams' groups.

Sure, it's not a very star-studded group, but Kuba can provide leadership while O'Brien and Lundin are both up-and-coming, defensively-solid defensemen - and Smaby is on his way there, too. Ranger is going to be the team's "do-it-all" guy, logging some big minutes this year. Picard and Carle are a nice tandem to run the PP and spark some offense. Hutchinson is by no means going to be a regular, but will provide some experience into this young group and hopefully can teach these guys some of the little things as they go.

I like this crazy looking TB squad, and I'm not ready to write them off yet.

I agree that the Bolts defensive group is upcoming and interesting with both defensive (O'Brien, Lundin) and offensive (Carle, Picard) defensemen.

However, not this year for playoffs.

fergie26 wrote:
My reason why Tampa won't make the playoffs goes with their defense core:

Matt Carle - Filip Kuba
Shane O'Brien - Paul Ranger
Alexandre Picard - Mike Lundin
Matt Smaby - Andrew Hutchinson

In that group, only Kuba is in his 30's. I think that they should have signed or traded for one or two experienced defensemen instead of signing too many forwards.

I agree - but also the chemistry issue that was my main point. One thing to keep in mind too about their defense is that Janne Niskala is on a one-way deal, while Smaby is not.

So Niskala will replace Smaby in your lineup. Meaning one more offensive gun on the back end, and one less defensive stud (and Smaby is huge).

So inserting him, you have six D that probably prefer offense over defense, plus O'Brien who is more of a tough guy with some offense, plus Lundin your only truly defensive rearguard. Reminds me of Toronto....

Regarding Tampa Bay - I'm not sold on the moves Tampa has made to "improve" themselves. Other than Prospal, and he was on board for most of last year, I'm not certain they have signed anyone with any impact. Vrbata has promise, but it's a new situation so what will the results be? A year from now he could be coming off a 70 point season having meshed with Lecavalier, but I doubt it. I like the leadership that Gary Roberts brings and think this is an astute signing. Many other young teams should have been persistent in their chasing of Roberts, not so much for what he does on the ice as off. The Tampa Blue line, is primarly 4-5-6-7-8 types. A few pieces that may be of interest in the fantasy world (Carle, Kuba, Ranger), but nothing to mortgage your future against. Kuba has had the opportunity many times before. Ranger did reasonably well with the opportunity of special teams play last year, but not well enough that he can't be replaced. Carle is coming off a dreadfully disappointing season. I'm not interested in the others for my fantasy team. O'Brien may have some value in a few of the pools. Other than Carle's potential, it seems to me that we're looking at fantasy 4th, 5th, 6th guys. People that if you have them on your roster, you're stuck with them as no one else would take them in trade.

Dobber wrote:
Reminds me of Toronto.... There it is!!!

I'm thinking if your brand new management team is already starting to draw these comparisons, ...it's probably a good time to re-evaluate your organizational decision making processes.

Real good points were made above about how this group of defensemen while not lacking talent as individuals, ...taken as group, appear to be severely unbalanced.

In short this looks to be a collection of individual players gathered one at a time with absolutely no thought to the players already on the roster, and how they will fit together.

It's a description that applies just as appropriately to the group of forwards they've assembled as well.

There seems to be no "plan". I'm assuming they've talked with Melrose, and want to try some type of exciting up tempo "run and gun" kind of system to try to fill some seats, ....but even that doesnt explain some of these moves.