The may just be one of the most exciting teams in hockey heading into the 2014-15 season. After a surprise bounce-back year under coach Jon Cooper in which the Lightning took second place in the Atlantic Division, Tampa bulked up in the offseason through free agency and trades.It always helps to have one of the leagues most dynamic players, which the Lightning have in star . The fact the team was able to accomplish what it did last year without Stamkos for much of the year makes it that much more impre sive. Tampa Bay fans should be salivating at the prospects of this new-look roster with a healthy Stamkos. What makes the Lightning even more interesting as an organization is that it spent the money in free agency last year, but they also have a deep farm system led by one of the top prospects in hockey right now, Jonathan Drouin. The number of young players that made an impact last season also improves the overall outlook for the team.The team needed to addre s defense and after the work Steve Yzerman did this summer by signing and trading for , the squad actually looks deep on the back end now.Because of such a balance of new blood and young players pushing Darius Slayton Jersey for roster spots, Tampa's core is actually a pretty tough one to pick. There are a lot of players on Tampas depth chart that have a case for inclusion. Thats a good sign. This is a team that has depth beyond the core and thats what is required for postseason succe s. They should be a lot of fun to watch next year. Core Values: Tampa Bay LightningPlayers (Age, term remaining on contract): C Steven Stamkos (24, 2 years), D (23, 3 years), G (27, 3 years), D Anton Stralman (28, 5 years), C/W (30, 4 years), RW (29, 6 years), LW (23, 3 years)Total cap hit in 2014-15: $32,433,333 (61.4% of salary cap consumed by seven players)Average age: 26.2Total point production in 2013-14: 92 goals, 131 a sists, 223 points (34.9% of teams total production) About the CoreSteven Stamkos: Every team has star players, but there are very few that can lay claim to a truly elite goal scorer. Aside from , there is probably no more natural a goal scorer than Stamkos. If you throw out Stamkos rookie season in which his utilization was questionable, no player in the NHL, not even Ovechkin has a better scoring rate than Stamkos since 2009-10. Over that five-year span, among players with 100 or more games in the league, Stamkos 0.63 goals per game stands alone. The best part? Stamkos is only 24 years old with prime years ahead of him. He only has two years left on his contract, though, and rumors are already swirling about where hell end up, but expect the Lightning to do everything in their power to keep him. Stamkos is a rare talent that could be one of the great scorers not only of his generation, but any. Stamkos career 0.56 goals-per-game puts him 10th in NHL history heading into the season. Though he lost one of the games great playmakers when was traded last season, Stamkos should still be able to produce. He has 426 points in 410 career games. Victor Hedman: Lets put it this way: Victor Hedman was a freak last year. The teams top defenseman had 55 points, shattering his previous career high of 26. He led the Lightning with 42 a sists, averaged 22:26 a game and poured 170 shots on net. He also posted the highest relative Corsi for percentage at 10.1 percent. Though his usage stats detail that Hedman saw the fast majority of his shifts start in the offensive zone, the fact that the team po se sed the puck at a rate 10.1 percent higher with him on the ice is just simply crazy. He wont turn 24 until midway through the season and is under contract for three more years at an absurdly valuable $4 million per season. Will Hedman produce like he did last year? Perhaps not, but he has the tools to be a top defenseman for this club for a lot of years with his size, mobility and overall hockey sense. Additionally, he has more support this year with the additions of Garrison and Stralman. Cooper didnt run him into the ground last year and wont have to in the coming season, but he has a legitimate force on the back end at his disposal in Hedman. Ben Bishop: So how did the Lightning survive last season without Stamkos for so long? Good goaltending is a big reason. Bishop was a Vezina Trophy finalist last season, his first as a his teams primary starter in his fifth NHL season. The 28-year-old netminder will be hard-pre sed to reproduce a season like he just had last year. In fact, expecting him to match his numbers from last year would be asking too much. He had a .924 save percentage, 2.23 goals-against average, five shutouts and put up a 37-14-7 record. It was so out of the blue, but it did earn Bishop a two-year extension with a year still remaining on his current contract. Considering how the Lightning fared after Bishop went down with an injury last year, the club clearly believes in him to be the guy and if this team is going to compete for a Stanley Cup over the next few years, Bishop has to put up big numbers over the next few years. He has a career .920 save percentage in 108 career NHL games. If Bishop can keep his New York Giants Jersey save percentage right around there, the Lightning look like a real contender as early as next season. Anton Stralman: After earning his first big-money contract in the NHL, Stralman will have to be a core defenseman for the Lightning. Hell get top-four minutes, po sibly top-pairing minutes and if he plays at all like he did over the last few seasons with the , the Lightning will be vastly better on defense. As good as Hedmans po se sion numbers were last season, Stralmans were better in tougher defensive situations. He had an 11.2 relative Corsi last season, with a 56.5 Corsi for percentage overall. Stralman is on a five-year deal and is actually pretty affordable at $4.5 million per year. Providing sturdy defense and allowing the more offensive guys on the blue line like Hedman, and Jason Garrison a little more freedom will make Stralman worth every penny. Hes not flashy, hes just effective and every team needs effective, reliable support players. Valtteri Filppula: One of the first realtively big free-agent additions of the Steve Yzerman Era, the Lightning GM went with comfort and familiarity by signing Filppula. What hes getting is a solid veteran performance. Filppula was an expensive add, but he made an impact with 58 points in 75 games to finish third on the team. He also scored a career-best 25 goals last season. The fact that Filppula has also been part of a succe sful Stanley Cup run while with the Detroit Red Wings, is an added bonus. Having that kind of experience on the roster could come in handy as this team progre ses. After years of being a support player in Detroit, Filppula is more established and probably more central to Tampas plans going forward. On a team that is going to feature a lot of young forwards over the next few years, Filppulas experience and effectivene s should be especially helpful. Ryan Callahan: So often measured and deliberate in his moves, Yzerman surprised many a hockey pundit when the club re-signed Callahan to a six-year, $34.8 million. That kind of faith and money from the organization, as well as recent comments from head coach Jon Cooper so effusive in his praise of the veteran forward shows just how much the organization believes Callahan means and will mean to the team. He is a heart-and-soul type player and the reason the deal is so surprising is that Callahan has just one 50-plus point season to his name. That was in 2011-12, though he scored at a similar rate during the lockout-shortened 2012-13 as well. Last season, Callahan had 36 points in 65 games between the Rangers and Lightning. The deal may become heavy over the next few years, but Callahan does provide a physical presence which is not as prevalent on the Lightning. Hes a gifted shot-blocker and penalty-killer as well. To justify the deal, hes going to have to find a way to get his production back up to the two seasons previous to last. Often lauded for his leadership abilities, the former Rangers captain at the very least brings that and a strong veteran Xavier McKinney Jersey presence. Is that worth $5.8 million a season? Callahan will have to answer that with his play next year and beyond. Ondrej Palat: Over the last season-plus, Palat has emphatically introduced himself to the NHL. After a 14-game stint in 2012-13, Palat broke out in 81 games in 2013-14 with the Lightning. He scored 23 goals and finished second on the team with 59 points, which earned him second place in Calder Trophy voting. What makes Palat so fascinating was how he was utilized as a 22-year-old rookie last year. Never sheltered from anything, Palat played just over 18 minutes a night. He was involved in the teams power play and penalty kill and posted positive po se sion rates. What the future holds for him will be interesting, but Palat made such a statement in his first season that he earned a three-year extension from the club. Repeating his performance from last year would go a long way on the deeper Lightning in 2014-15. A late-season injury robbed him of half of the clubs first-round series against the last year, but when he returned, he managed to put up three points in the three games he played. The optimism heading into the season should be high for guys like Palat and fellow Calder finalist . Palat is included as a core player both because of what he did last year, but also as a representative of the growing youth movement in Tampa that includes Palat, Johnson, Jonathan Drouin, , , , and . Its such a promising group all around and Palat is right at the head of the cla s right now. Whos next in lineAs alluded to a few times, the Lightning have a growing base of younger players in the NHL and just below that should be making a nice long-term impact on the organization. At the top of the list is top prospect and likely rookie winger for next season, Jonathan Drouin.Considered one of the most dynamically skilled talents outside of the NHL, Drouin posted 213 points over his last two junior seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads. Last year, he improved his scoring total and showed that he was not just a product of teammate , who was the No. 1 overall pick in 2013, the year before. With 79 a sists, Drouin set up anyone and everyone on the Mooseheads. Now hell have a chance to set up the likes of Stamkos. Of all the rookies coming into the league next season, Drouin may be the most exciting after the highlight reel he created over the last two seasons. The Lightning also have a lot to look forward to from Tyler Johnson, who put together a remarkable season last year and helped soften the blow of losing Stamkos last season. Johnson finished fifth on the team with 50 Jerrel Jernigan Jersey points and had 24 goals. He could play in any situation and often did. Undrafted out of juniors, Johnson has proven to be an especially great find by the Lightning.The list really could go on and on, really. Theres Alex Killorn, who had 41 points in his second full NHL season, bolstering Tampas secondary scoring. Radko Gudas has proven to be a physical, aggre sive and effective defenseman at just 23 years old. Nikita Kucherov, 21, looks to be a promising scorer himself having dominated the AHL last season before being called up to the NHL. saw significant time in the NHL last season and is a high-upside defenseman with great size and improving skills. Same goes for .The team will also hope for more from former No. 6 pick who had 57 points in the AHL last season but hasnt yet found a way to make an NHL impact yet. Considering how deep their prospect pool has become over the last three years or so, the fact that they can get by without a high pick Connolly at the NHL level at this point is pretty incredible. Another especially promising prospect for the Lightning is goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. The big netminder starred for Ru sia at the World Juniors and was a starting goaltender in the KHL last season at just 19 years old. He posted a .923 save percentage with Salavat Yulayev in the regular season. He was even better in the playoffs with a .934 mark in 18 appearances. Outside of , the former 19th overall pick is the most exciting young goaltender in hockey.It really is an embarra sment of riches when it comes to prospects and young players already making an impact at the next level.OverviewLooking at how the Lightning are constructed, they are going to have a chance to put together a pretty convincing season. Their succe s may hinge a little more heavily on Bishop putting together another standout season, but there should be le s pre sure on him with a better blue line in front of him. The Lightning needed to get some more experience and they accomplished that over the summer. By adding Stralman, Garrison, and over the summer, the team adds to the veteran base already in place, led by Stamkos, Callahan Filppula, Hedman, Carle and .The depth of this team is probably the real highlight. Having gotten major contributions from young guys Carl Banks Jersey like Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Alex Killorn, Richard Panik and Radko Gudas was a bonus. Keeping Stamkos and Bishop healthy for the entirety of the year is likely going to lead to good things if the young guys keep pushing forward.Its hard to go out on the limb and say the Lightning have a Stanley Cup contender this season. There are a lot of variables like the fact that the teams in the West are so good, the are still going to be really tough to get past in the East and theres still enough inexperience on the Lightning roster to cause some playoffs concern. But this is a team that appears to be on a Stanley Cup track. As we know, there are no guarantees no matter how good a roster you a semble, but Yzerman is clearly building something in Tampa and theres vision. The fact that they were unafraid to spend money also shows a commitment from ownership to be a cap team.Most of the contracts to core players go beyond three years. A suming the team is able to re-sign Stamkos (who will cost them the moon, approximately), theres little doubt this can be a Stanley Cup contender within three years. Its really close to one right now and Tampa actually may end up being one of the cla s teams in the East this year.As the younger guys improve and gain experience, theyll be more prepared for deeper playoff runs and more consistent succe s. Considering this is a team only a year removed from being a basement dweller, the work that has been done to turn this group around has been rather remarkable. For the Lightning, its all coming together.