After ranking the top 100 NHL prospects for 2015-16, and ranking each team by organizational depth, ESPN Insider Corey Pronman ranks the top 10 prospects for each NHL team. Here is his entry for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Extended write-ups on prospects ranked in the top 100 can be accessed here.
Following a surge of graduations the past few seasons, the depth in the Tampa system has thinned out; the Lightning are now below average relative to the rest of the league. However, the club still has a few prospects of very high quality left in the pipeline, giving its system value.
Slater Koekkoek developed as the season went along. When I saw him in the first half, he was struggling defensively versus pros, but by the second half, he was being used on penalty kills and winning more battles. His strength is on the rush and man advantage, due to his great speed and skill.
It's all about upside with Dennis Yan, as he's big, with a ton of offensive ability. When he has the puck, he's very creative, shifty, patient and sees the ice well. Yan also features an above-average wrist shot. His physical game, skating and off-puck reads could use some work.
At his best, Matt Spencer can be a very effective puck mover who is dangerous on the power play due to his skill and shot. He's very physical on his checks, with a well-developed frame for a young prospect. Spencer makes defensive stops, but his D-zone play isn't completely clean, as he'll get beat on his positional reads here and there.
Matthew Peca is a bit of a gut call for me, because I would have liked to see him be more dominant toward the end of his ECAC career -- and he's small. However, he is an extremely quick and darting skater with a high skill level, who impressed in his brief stint in the AHL. John MacLeod (11th) is also interesting as a big, mobile defenseman who plays the body and is smart defensively. His puck moving is just OK, but he has a booming shot from the point.
Noteworthy prospect
I was slightly critical last summer of the Dominik Masin pick at No. 35 overall. I'm not entirely convinced of his potential, but in my live viewings this past season, I was very impressed. He's big, mobile and strong, and moves the puck well. Masin's decisions aren't perfect, but he certainly shows potential as a quality two-way defenseman.
2015-16 impact
Andrei Vasilevskiy is already penciled into the NHL roster, and should battle Ben Bishop for starts all season. The Tampa roster is tough to crack as is, but if a defenseman goes down, you could see Koekkoek make a decent case to be a full-time player at the back end of the roster.