Big Decisions For This Lightning Offseason

 

By Mark Pukalo

Where do the Tampa Bay Lightning go from here?

The narrative of four straight seasons losing in the first round of the playoffs is a bit overblown. They outplayed Toronto in 2023, but couldn't hold a few late leads. They lost to the eventual Cup champions Florida Panthers in 24 and 25. This time, the Bolts were beaten by two bad bounces in Game 7 versus Montreal.

The run caused several ridiculous comments on twitter after the season. Yes, going deep in the playoffs is a standard the franchise has built. Still, Lightning fans have become quite spoiled. There are 31 other teams in the league. Some of them do most things right like the Bolts.

Let's look at the overall numbers. It's nine straight trips to the playoffs with two Stanley Cups, three trips to the finals and four Eastern Conference finals. The 106 points total this season was their most since the last Cup run in 2021 and they were ravaged with injuries. Yes, Buffalo, Jon Cooper sure deserved the Jack Adams!

Many franchises would kill for that nine-year stretch. 

That all being said, this offseason could be different. In the past three, it was cap issues and tweaks for the most part. Sure, the Steven Stamkos decision was a big one. But Jake Guentzel for Stammer is - at the very worst - a wash. 

Does GM Julien Brisebois have something big up his sleeve or just a few smart additions to keep this group in the hunt? 

This is the first time the team probably needed a serious autopsy. There are some very big questions to answer for 2026-27.

Will Point Return to Form?

Brayden Point scored just 18 goals in 63 games during the regular season and one in the first round of the playoffs on 12 shots.

In the previous three seasons, the speedy center averaged 46.3 goals.

Brisebois will have to answer the question of whether Point can rebound from an off season. Was this an aberration or is it injury related? Point certainly looked like he was skating alright near the end of the season and in the playoffs. He just wasn't producing anywhere near the same level.

The Lightning brass may just have to see next season with four years at $9.5 million left on a contract that would be hard to move at this stage. I'm sure Brisebois will listen if someone blows him away with an offer, though.

Can Hedman Be a Factor Again?

We found out after the season that captain Victor Hedman was dealing with mental health issues the last few months. 

Victor is one of the best professional athletes I have dealt with in 40+ years of journalism. It took a lot of courage to do what he did. While they make a lot of money, athletes are people, too. I am confident he will be back at 100 percent next September.

Hedman is 35 and Ryan McDonagh is 36. They are winners. They are leaders. I expect them to return close to their 2024-25 form when Hedman had 66 points and McDonagh was +43. Heck, Ryan was good in 48 games this last season.

I'm predicting Heddy would win Comeback Player of the Year. ... if there was one. Maybe the Masterson instead?

Who Plays The Right Side On D?

Darren Raddysh is gone and that was predictable. Raddy had a great season, but it was just one and that does not make him worth $68 million the next eight years.

That leaves Eric Cernak and Max Crozier as the only right-handed defensemen on the NHL roster. Lefties JJ Moser and Emil Lilleberg have played the right side and did the job, but you wonder if JB goes big or just adds depth.

Veteran righty John Carlson has been prominently mentioned and it sounds like a decent idea with Raddy's power-play ability in Toronto. I'm not against bringing him in, but not at the numbers being reported. I'm a fan of Crozier, and Chucky D'Astous can team with Victor Hedman on the power play. 

The feeling is Brisebois is going to do something, though. If anyone is traded, it would probably be Lilleberg to loosen up the crowded left side of the defense corps.

Who Are the Centers Of Attention?

Like the glut of lefty defensemen, the Lightning have many players whose best forward position is center.

You have Point, Anthony Cirelli, Dominic James, Yanni Gourde, Nick Paul and maybe Conor Geekie. Then, you add rookie Sam O'Reilly to the mix. O'Reilly, who was acquired from Edmonton for Isaac Howard, is expected to push for a spot in training camp.

No doubt, some of them can play the wing. But you may need to deal a center to get another scoring winger. While Gage Goncalves emerged in the second half of the year, ancient Corey Perry was playing in the top six during the Montreal series. Oliver Bjorkstrand won't likely be back. Another scoring winger would help.

You need to improve your faceoff percentage as well. Those guys don't grow on trees, though. O'Reilly has been good on the dot in juniors, but he is 20. 

I might consider moving Geekie or Paul, but the return must be worthy. 

Would love to get Robert Thomas from St. Louis somehow, but that might be too expensive. Not really interested in Dylan Larkin. We'll see what happens.

In Conclusion, What Do You Do?

It's hard to tell. I just wouldn't make panic moves and I'm confident Brisebois won't do that.

There have been some interesting off seasons in the past, but this may be the most important for the future. You wonder what prospects can emerge? Is Dylan Duke ready for full-time duty in the bottom six or can he be used in a deal? 

Four straight first-round losses? I don't want to hear about it anymore. I will try to block out the national hockey media.

Here's three things that won't happen. Jon Cooper, Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy are going nowhere. I don't expect Hedman and Cirelli will be traded. Brandon Hagel and Jake Guentzel will end their careers here.

Have faith Lightning fans. I think a 10th straight trip to the playoffs is less than 12 months away. After that, as always, anything can happen.

What Is A Progressive Democrat These Days?

 

By Mark Pukalo

The Democratic Party is in trouble.

It's not because of Trump, the Republicans' gerrymandering project, messaging or our terrible, milquetoast leadership group of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. 

The problem is the internal struggle between those democrats who call themselves progressives. The practical progressives like me thought we were the real left wing for many years. Now we are characterized as moderates when we oppose a candidate we don't think can win or isn't to the standards Dems should strive for.

The "Bernie Bros or Pod Bros" - basically a group which is slightly to the left of Bernie Sanders - will argue most of them voted for Kamala Harris. We will never know the statistics on that. Regardless, they hurt her in several ways with often unfair or at least mistimed criticism.

Many Bros or their podcast followers didn't vote or went third party. Most blamed the Biden-Harris administration for failing to stop Netanyahu's genocide in Gaza. Congress, including both Republicans and Democrats, would not allow conditions on weapons support for Israel. Biden probably could have done a little more no doubt, but his hands were often tied. 

Harris could not come out against her President on the issue, but you got the impression she would have adjusted the policy by changing some members of the cabinet. The Bros didn't get that, or they didn't care. They just wanted to complain.

And, anyways .... Like Trump was gonna be better?

Because the election was so close, I blame this "farther" left group on the margins in the swing states. I am sick of their self-righteous attitudes. It's easy to blame Dem leadership. I do. But if you distort what the party stands for like the Bros often do, it hurts the brand and feeds right into Republican narratives.

In a lot of ways, the Bros are just like MAGA. They have been knocking AOC lately for being too practical. They have hammered a good Senate candidate named Mallory McMorrow in Michigan. There are several others they will damage.

I want Netanyahu to be arrested and thrown in the Hague. I want everyone in the Israeli army who physically abused or killed innocent civilians to spend the rest of their lives in prison. It is currently a fascist regime.

But, yet, we have always supported the Israeli people. It seems anyone who dares to go against the Bros and tries to straddle the line on the issue is cancelled.

I have spent way too much time on twitter (I won't call it the other name) fighting the Bros on Abdul El-Sayed and Graham Platner among others lately.

El-Sayed is a good candidate - for the House. I don't really have a problem with a lot of his views and he's a smart guy, but I don't think he can win statewide with his background. If so, you are giving up a Dem Senate seat just to win a primary.

Platner is totally different. We should have known there was a bigger problem with him from the start, much like John "Trojan Horse" Fetterman. You can discount the NYT story all you want. But what about his Nazi tattoo, his quotes on women taking some blame for rape, the Kik account (whatever that is), his constant lies and his opposition to an assault weapons ban? That's just some of them.

He's a bad candidate, but yet the Bros tell progressives like me we are Republican-Lite for having that take. 

We should not lower ourselves to nominate candidates like Republicans do! While Platner is not Ken Paxton, he is bringing the party down. What other shoe will drop to help Susan "I have concerns" Collins win again?

I always thought progressives were simply fighting for affordable health care, taxing the rich/economic equality, protecting civil rights, environmental protection, peaceful foreign policy, getting corporate money out of government and social welfare - looking ahead, not looking behind, evolving with the times.

Hey MAGA? That's not communism or socialism. That's Christian. Those are Jesus' teachings.

The party's failure to use this fact more in ads and campaigns drives me nuts. Hopefully, James Talarico can change that in Texas. He has talked about bringing the Democratic Party back to its roots, which is fighting for the little guy and the marginalized. I think the party still does that to an extent, but its agenda has gotten too bloated.

Meanwhile, the Bros prefer dismantling government institutions and controlling instead of reforming them - much like MAGA - while being anti-capitalism, using purity tests and pushing for issues that are impractical in a democracy. The Bros can be racist and misogynistic at times as well.

It does not seem like a big difference in some ways. But the whole issue is the Bros are never wrong in their own minds. You can find a lot of them on twitter defending Platner. People like Hasan Piker, David Sirota and others have no conscience. 

It does not mean that every Democratic candidate must be perfect. I honestly thought we were too rough on Al Franken. The things that forced him to resign pale in comparison to Platner.

I felt I had a clear objective with this blog. But, ultimately, this is a difficult issue to explain. I am all over the place. But everything is a fight ever since the orange-haired fool came down the escalator in 2016 and your head spins every day in the news cycle.

It would be nice to just sit back and enjoy life. But, it is what it is. The election 10 years ago changed everything. If Biden had been the candidate instead of Hillary in 2016, we may have avoided this.

The Republicans used to have a lot of factions. They really don't anymore. It's MAGA and a few reasonable conservatives on the other side hanging on for the ride.

With Dems, now we have three and perhaps four if you split the moderates. You have the establishment, the real progressives like me and the Bros. 

Because it is hard to imagine how we could lose to Trump twice, everyone has an opinion. The Bros think we are not going far enough left and the public secretly wants that (they don't). The moderates have no clue what to do as they try to please everyone. My group in the middle would like to reclaim the "progressive" name and convince more of the public our views are not radical, and more Christian than the GOP's.

A good result in November could ease some of the pain, but there is a lot of work to be done.

I just want good, solid candidates that I can support. It seems impossible to find the safe spot in a Democratic primary these days. McMorrow has that problem and is making mistakes. Conor Lamb probably lost a primary to Fetterman because of that issue. 

I just want there to be a distinction between what a progressive is and isn't. The Bros are not progressives. I don't want to be lumped in with them. 

I don't want to be told I am in favor of genocide when I criticize Platner or Piker. I don't want to be told I am antisemitic by AIPAC Democrats when I criticize Israel's government either.

Our country is a mess. It is up to the Democratic Party to save it. We have to get it together.