Must be at least 5 years ago that I was looking at the Tampa Bay roster as it was constructed that I felt with a few good trades to bolster the lineup the Lightning would position themselves to not only take a run at the cup the following season but for the foreseeable future. We then proceeded to make a huge deal with the Dallas Stars to acquire star players Patrice Bergeron and Kevin Shattenkirk for our next two 1st round picks along 2 young prospects (Olli Mattaa and Valentin Zykov) as well as dumping Erik Cole's contract for cap space.

We fell short of the playoffs that season and one of those 1st round picks became a lottery pick for the stars. I always knew it was a possibility as the team was still one season away from real contention but I wanted to make sure the second 1st rounder was going to be outside of the lotery. That's when I decided to make an offersheet on star power forward Max Pacioretty. He was that raw sniper that the team was lacking and I was sure that would put us over the edge for the upcoming season and beyond. Unfortunately, the cost of the offer sheet wasn't only money and cap space but came at the cost of my next for 1st round picks so I better be damn sure this team was going to be competing for the cup year in and year out. 

I had such high hopes for the following season, we had a deep well balanced lineup with star power but unfortunately my team just couldn't get things going and finished 9th in the east and 10 points out of a playoff spot. Great, the first two 1st rounders became lotery picks, not what I was expecting. The worst part, I now had my next 4 1st round picks owned by the blues and the guy I gave them up for had a terrible first season only registering 57 points in 80 games. 

*to be continued