Tonight the Tampa Bay Lightning will kick off their quest for the 2017-18 Stanley Cup championship. General Manager Steve Yzerman has used every asset at his disposal, squeezed every dime out of the payroll and glared at every player’s agent in order to assemble a team that he hopes will navigate the twists and turns, the unforeseen injuries, the possible suspensions (here’s looking at you Dotchin), and inexplicable losses of production to be the one team left standing at the end of the season.
How did Yzerman do it? By identifying and signing to long-term contracts a small core of talented players and then filling in the gaps with free agent signings and trades.