A quick stint in the NHL as an injury replacement turned into much, much more, as Nikita Nesterov displaced Mark Barberio on the Lightning depth chart and played his way into 17 playoff games last spring.
Of all the defense prospects in the Tampa Bay Lightning system heading into the 2014-15 season, Nikita Nesterov might have had the least buzz surrounding him.
He was coming off a ho-hum first North American campaign where he scored 16 points in 54 games and at times struggled in all three zones on the significantly smaller ice of the War Memorial, especially compared to what he'd been used to in his native Russia playing in the KHL for Chelyabinsk Traktor.