Tampa Bay Lightning fantasy preview 2026-27.
11 skaters and 3 goaltenders clear the pool line. Nikita Kucherov leads at 3.05 blended ESPN points per game. The club ranks 10th in the league in assists and 30th in hits. Every figure below is a completed season or a published calendar.
Every Tampa Bay name in the 2026-27 pool
Sorted by desk rank in the format selected above. Any header re-sorts. Counting columns are 2025-26 season totals. The value chip is consensus rank minus desk rank: mint means the desk is higher on him than the four published boards, coral means the room makes you pay.
| Pos | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2of 400 | Nikita Kucherov | RW | 33 | 3.08 | 2.90 | 3.05 | +0.34 | 44-86-130 in 76 | 37 | 231 | 36 | 29 | 79% | 3 | +1 | |
| 24of 400 | Jake Guentzel | C | 31 | 2.31 | 2.32 | 2.32 | +0.02 | 38-50-88 in 81 | 30 | 220 | 39 | 41 | 69% | 29 | +5 | |
| 40of 400 | Brandon Hagel | LW | 28 | 2.26 | 2.31 | 2.23 | +0.03 | 36-38-74 in 71 | 12 | 214 | 42 | 38 | 58% | 49 | +9 | |
| 58of 400 | John CarlsonNEW · WSH | D | 36 | 2.14 | 1.90 | 2.09 | +0.11 | 14-46-60 in 71 | 14 | 153 | 26 | 106 | 55% | 82 | +24 | |
| 96of 400 | Brayden Point | C | 30 | 1.57 | 2.38 | 1.90 | -0.06 | 18-32-50 in 63 | 11 | 129 | 8 | 23 | 57% | 62 | -34 | |
| 112of 400 | Victor Hedman | D | 35 | 1.51 | 2.31 | 1.83 | -0.68 | 1-16-17 in 33 | 6 | 50 | 19 | 44 | — | 130 | +18 | |
| 149of 400 | Anthony Cirelli | C | 29 | 1.66 | 1.79 | 1.69 | +0.22 | 23-29-52 in 71 | 4 | 125 | 50 | 47 | 45% | 201 | +52 | |
| 218of 400 | Ryan McDonagh | D | 37 | 1.48 | 1.48 | 1.49 | -0.21 | 6-15-21 in 48 | 0 | 39 | 19 | 76 | 40% | — | n/r | |
| 304of 400 | Erik Cernak | D | 29 | 1.31 | 1.26 | 1.30 | -0.29 | 3-8-11 in 61 | 0 | 53 | 112 | 99 | — | — | n/r | |
| 311of 400 | Charle-Edouard D'Astous | D | 28 | 1.29 | — | 1.29 | — | +0.03 | 6-23-29 in 70 | 2 | 80 | 96 | 74 | — | — | n/r |
| 356of 400 | J.J. Moser | D | 26 | 1.26 | 1.11 | 1.22 | -0.15 | 7-22-29 in 79 | 1 | 111 | 61 | 91 | — | — | n/r |
- 2 Nikita Kucherov RW · age 33 · mkt 3 3.05blend 3.0825-26 2.9024-25 +0.34H2−H1 37PPP 231SOG 36HIT 29BLK 79%PG% 44-86-130 in 76+1
- 24 Jake Guentzel C · age 31 · mkt 29 2.32blend 2.3125-26 2.3224-25 +0.02H2−H1 30PPP 220SOG 39HIT 41BLK 69%PG% 38-50-88 in 81+5
- 40 Brandon Hagel LW · age 28 · mkt 49 2.23blend 2.2625-26 2.3124-25 +0.03H2−H1 12PPP 214SOG 42HIT 38BLK 58%PG% 36-38-74 in 71+9
- 58 John Carlson D · age 36 · mkt 82 2.09blend 2.1425-26 1.9024-25 +0.11H2−H1 14PPP 153SOG 26HIT 106BLK 55%PG% 14-46-60 in 71+24
- 96 Brayden Point C · age 30 · mkt 62 1.90blend 1.5725-26 2.3824-25 -0.06H2−H1 11PPP 129SOG 8HIT 23BLK 57%PG% 18-32-50 in 63-34
- 112 Victor Hedman D · age 35 · mkt 130 1.83blend 1.5125-26 2.3124-25 -0.68H2−H1 6PPP 50SOG 19HIT 44BLK —PG% 1-16-17 in 33+18
- 149 Anthony Cirelli C · age 29 · mkt 201 1.69blend 1.6625-26 1.7924-25 +0.22H2−H1 4PPP 125SOG 50HIT 47BLK 45%PG% 23-29-52 in 71+52
- 218 Ryan McDonagh D · age 37 · mkt n/r 1.49blend 1.4825-26 1.4824-25 -0.21H2−H1 0PPP 39SOG 19HIT 76BLK 40%PG% 6-15-21 in 48n/r
- 304 Erik Cernak D · age 29 · mkt n/r 1.30blend 1.3125-26 1.2624-25 -0.29H2−H1 0PPP 53SOG 112HIT 99BLK —PG% 3-8-11 in 61n/r
- 311 Charle-Edouard D'Astous D · age 28 · mkt n/r 1.29blend 1.2925-26 —24-25 +0.03H2−H1 2PPP 80SOG 96HIT 74BLK —PG% 6-23-29 in 70n/r
- 356 J.J. Moser D · age 26 · mkt n/r 1.22blend 1.2625-26 1.1124-25 -0.15H2−H1 1PPP 111SOG 61HIT 91BLK —PG% 7-22-29 in 79n/r
Tampa Bay are 10th in assists
Six categories, summed across every Tampa Bay skater in the pool for 2025-26, each drawn against the league average of the same sum. The tick on every track is that average. A middle club in both halves of a category league; the edge here is player-by-player, not roster-wide.
- G 196 lg avg 194 16th
- A 365 lg avg 329 10th
- PPP 117 lg avg 130 20th
- SOG 1405 lg avg 1644 26th
- HIT 508 lg avg 909 30th
- BLK 668 lg avg 789 27th
Where the blended points sit
Share of the club's total blended points per game contributed by forwards, defencemen and goaltenders in the pool. A club heavy in the D band is a club whose value survives a league that starts four defencemen.
Deep at defence, barren at left wing
Ordered by blend inside each column, tinted by the same number on a fixed league-wide scale. Darker is better, and an empty column is the club telling you where you will have to shop elsewhere. Every tile links to the player.
Defence 6
6 deep · 2nd of 32
Carlson2.09 +24 Hedman1.83 +18 McDonagh1.49 Cernak1.30 D'Astous1.29 Moser1.22Crease 3
Tampa Bay against the other 31
Draftable stock
5 Tampa Bay skaters inside the desk's top 100 — 4th of 32
Every club, sorted. DAL lead with 5; the thinnest club has 0. A tall bar is a roster you will keep bumping into in the first eight rounds.
Power-play concentration
69.2% held by the top three — 1st-most concentrated
Above the league median of 55.2%. The names outside the top three are even-strength assets.
Vasilevskiy is a workhorse
Last season's starts, split between the goaltenders the pool ranks here. The calendar puts 13 back-to-backs in front of them, and those are the nights the starter does not get.
The tick is the league median busiest-goaltender share, 64.7% across the 32 clubs with a pool-ranked crease. Vasilevskiy sits at 61.1%.
| Goaltender | GS | W | SO | GAA | SV% | Blend | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrei Vasilevskiyage 32 · mkt 20 | 58 | 39 | 2 | 2.31 | 0.911 | 3.01 | Starter |
| Jonas Johanssonage 31 · mkt n/r | 23 | 11 | 0 | 3.29 | 0.884 | 0.71 | Depth |
| Dennis Hildebyage 25 · mkt n/r | 14 | 5 | 1 | 2.86 | 0.912 | 1.55 | Depth |
Power-play points are concentrated in Tampa Bay
- 1 Nikita Kucherov RW 37 PPP · 31.6% · 28.5% of his own points
- 2 Jake Guentzel C 30 PPP · 25.6% · 34.1% of his own points
- 3 John Carlson D 14 PPP · 12.0% · 23.3% of his own points
A top three holding 69.2% is a closed first unit. The fourth name was not on it last season.
1 in, 1 out
Only moves that changed a ranked player's club are tracked. Every blend on this page is computed from the player's own history, so a summer arrival brings his numbers with him.
Arrivals
- John Carlson TB PP upside per ESPN offseason piece; ESPN ranks list showed CAR vs NHL.com/CBS/DFO TBL - VERIFY
Departures
- Darren Raddysh career-high 70 pts on TB PP1; must claim PP1 in TOR
The Tampa Bay schedule edge
The only input on this page that is already known. It does nothing to a first-round pick and a great deal to your last two bench spots.
Season opens 2026-10-01. Mint tiles help you; coral tiles cost you.
What this roster already did
Nikita Kucherov put up 2-4-6 with 3 shots on 2023-11-24 for TBL, worth 10.3 ESPN points. It is the 9th-biggest single game in the desk's ten-season file.
Nikita Kucherov owns the 1st-best RW season in the ten-year file: 2023-24, 81 games, 44-100-144, 3.30 ESPN points per game.
No ranked Tampa Bay prospect on the 2027 board
The prospect layer carries no Tampa Bay Lightning name for 2026-27. The youngest names already on the fantasy board are J.J. Moser (26), Brandon Hagel (28), Charle-Edouard D'Astous (28).
Reading the Tampa Bay board
11 Tampa Bay skaters clear the pool line, plus 3 goaltenders. Nikita Kucherov sets the ceiling: 3.05 a night, 2nd in the pool. The drop to Jake Guentzel (2.32) is 0.73. One draft-defining name, then a queue.
Shape: 10th in assists, 30th in hits. A middle club in both halves of a category league; the edge here is player-by-player, not roster-wide.
Anthony Cirelli is the widest gap: desk 149, market 201. 52 slots in your favour. Brayden Point runs the other way, 96 here against 62. You pay 34 slots over. 2 names carry a 20-slot edge.
Three players hold 69.2% of the club's 117 power-play points. That is a closed first unit. Everyone below it is an even-strength asset until deployment says otherwise.
23 off-nights of 84, 31st in the league. 13 back-to-backs, 20th-fewest. Hold the last bench spot for somebody else.
Andrei Vasilevskiy started 58 at 2.31 and 0.911. Workhorse volume, and volume is most of what a fantasy goalie is.
1 in, 1 out on the tracked ledger, headlined by John Carlson. Average pool age 31.1. 1 trending up, 4 down.
What this page does not know
Caveats, printed as the builder wrote them
- There is no projection here. Every rate is a weighted blend of what already happened, 0.6 on 2025-26, 0.3 on 2024-25, 0.1 on 2023-24, so a player whose role is about to change will be mispriced by exactly the amount his role changes.
- The DNA bars are club sums, not rates. A club with more pool-ranked skaters sums higher, which is the point: it measures the fantasy roster you can draft, not the average player on it.
- Power-play share is a proxy for first-unit time, not a measurement of it. It reads last season's points, so a club that rebuilt its top unit in the summer will read wrong until the season corrects it.
- The depth chart uses the pool's listed position. It is not a line-combination projection and no club has confirmed any of it.
- PG% is joined from a 250-player game-level build. Where a skater is missing from that build the column is blank rather than estimated.
- Roster membership follows the live NHL roster feed as of 2026-08-31. Training-camp cuts, waiver claims and September trades are not in it.
- Goaltender start counts are last season's, from whatever club the goaltender played for. They are workload evidence, not a depth-chart declaration.