NHL tampa bay Lightning

Just mere minutes after the NHL free agency period started Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning jumped in the pool.

Looking for a veteran defenseman to help tutor rookie Victor Hedman, the second overall pick in the NHL Draft last weekend, the Lightning apparently found their target quite quickly. They had to head all the way to Vancouver to do it, but they have signed Mattias Ohlund away from the Canucks, according to multiple reports.

For many months, the first three picks of the NHL Entry Draft were expected to go this way. The only question was the order.

Center John Tavares and defenseman Victor Hedman were the top two players in this draft, no matter how you try to rate players. OHL star Matt Duchene joined them as the consensus third pick in the months before the draft. Right off the start Friday night, things played out as expected, as the New York Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Colorado Avalanche stayed put and made the first three selections.

It's officially the offseason, meaning the time is right to look into the future. We continue our division-by-division preview of the potential wheeling and dealing with the Southeast Division.

The Southeast is probably going to be the most boring division in hockey this offseason. Three of the teams don't have the financial capability to make the sort of splash they need, and the other two were good enough to mostly maintain the status quo.

Still, we've got two top-5 draft picks to look forward to, as well as the ongoing sagas surrounding the stars for both Florida franchises.

Somewhere Barry Melrose is smiling, perhaps even laughing maniacally, at the news that Tampa Bay Lightning co-owners Oren Koules (pictured right) and Len Barrie are meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Tuesday to determine which individual has the authority to make decisions for the team.

Quick refresher course: The Lightning were, by far, the busiest team last offseason (and during the season itself) acquiring every player they could get their hands on, and, in some cases, badly overpaying them. A season that started with playoff predictions from ownership ended with the second-worst record in the league, and Melrose, hired on June 27, was ultimately fired after just 16 regular season games, sparking a public feud between he and the two owners. While Melrose didn't exactly get his wish of Tampa Bay not winning another game the rest of the season, he was relatively close.

Over the next week, FanHouse will preview the top players and teams in next Friday's NHL Draft. This is the second post in a six part series.

Last spring, the lottery balls bounced Tampa Bay's way and they were awarded the first overall pick. Former GM Jay Feaster selected Steven Stamkos with that pick, but has since resigned. His successor, Brian Lawton, has already made his mark on the organization with numerous trades during his first year and will have the chance to further shape the roster with the second overall pick next week.

Some of the biggest stories around the NHL these days that don't involve the words "Stanley" or "Cup" center around the NHL draft, which takes place later this month. The Islanders won the right to the first overall pick at the lottery in April and are now faced with a tough choice. They can take a young stud like John Tavares, Victor Hedman or Matt Duchene, or they can trade the pick. Tavares is predicted to be the best player available and today cleared the air about where he would like to start his NHL career.

Pavel Datsyuk has owned the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy the past three seasons, and he's going to have an opportunity to claim another one as the Red Wings' star is, once again, one of the top vote-getters in 2009. Joining Datsyuk in the top three are New Jersey's Zach Parise and Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis.

The 30-year-old center matched a career-high with 97 points this season, fourth best in the NHL, while also setting a new personal-best with 32 goals. One of the best -- and most underrated -- players in the NHL, Datsyuk is the total package as a player, and is also one of the all-time great draft day steals, going in the sixth-round of the 1998 draft, 187th overall.

Thanks to the lottery on Tuesday night, we now know the order of selection for the draft. The Islanders will lead off from the pole position and, as I discussed earlier in the week, they've got an awful lot on their plate. But what about the other teams that sent representatives to TSN studios on Tuesday night?

Well, today we have an inside look at the war room of the Tampa Bay Lightning*. Since Oren Koules and Len Barrie took over the franchise last year, the Lightning have made some interesting personnel decisions. They hired and fired Barry Melrose as coach, shipped out Dan Boyle and Matt Carle, leaving the team almost devoid of defense, and had Lecavalier trade rumors swirl around them faster than a tornado. After the jump, I'll give you a little more insight into what is going on behind the scenes.

* - May not actually be the what the Lightning are planning.

The NHL Lottery is a serious exercise in television programming. It takes an event that could be completed in less than five minutes and stretches it out into a 30 minute program that makes the jitters that much worse for the fanbases and teams involved.

That doesn't mean the Draft Lottery live on TSN Tuesday night was a bad thing, though. TSN did a nice job filling the other 25 minutes with interviews, prospect analysis and John Tavares vs. Victor Hedman hype tonight. But, at the end of the day, all we came to find out is the answer to the question "who will pick No. 1?"

When the NHL hosts its draft lottery on Tuesday night, the highest the Maple Leafs can land is the third overall pick. That's two picks too late to select John Tavares, the consensus No. 1 pick who will go to either the Islanders or Lightning.

But you can get anything you want if you want it bad enough, and Toronto GM Brian Burke wants Tavares. Badly.

That's why Burke is making no qualms about his plans: when the ordering of picks sorts itself out through the lottery, and he knows where his team picks and who has the first-overall selection, he will do whatever he can to try to land that pick and, by proxy, Tavares.